Excel 2019 Not Responding

Have Excel 2019 Home & Student on fully updated Windows 11 system. In past week or so, I have been getting a message that Excel is not responding. I have to close and re-start excel. Have been losing data so often, I've begun saving my work every minute or so. Do not see any particular pattern. Went to Control Panel / Program and Features/ Office 2019 and did the "Repair" routine. Didn't help.

Anyone else having this problem? Wife has begun having same problem on her Intel Desktop (Intel NUC i7).

Use Word more often, have not noticed. Check for updates through program itself ?
do this right in Excel, Word or other office programs in suite in options or settings i forget.

jds63 said:

Use Word more often, have not noticed. Check for updates through program itself ?
do this right in Excel, Word or other office programs in suite in options or settings i forget.

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Realized now looking at mine which i have the same 2019 office product as you Excel works fine, to update open one of programs and click Account>Office updates. Should already checked for updates automatically if set right. My PC is up to date on Windows updates also + Version 22H2. Since problem exists on two different systems make sure all updates are done, both Windows and Microsoft Office.

You said a repair did not work but have you tried reinstalling Office 2019?

Thanks for the suggestions. I have Windows update set to also update other Microsoft products. However, just in case, I did go to Excel / Accounts and did an update check -- it was up to date. Haven't reinstalled Office yet. Will try that next.

An strange occurrence. I've been getting the "not responding" error message pretty frequently the last couple of weeks and a lot yesterday morning. However, since the time I posted this question at about 1 PM yesterday, no error messages -- and I used Excel all afternoon. And I was working on exactly the same project all day. I have no idea why the problem occurred in the morning but not the afternoon and evening. Did Microsoft read this post and push a fix? Just kidding, but still strange. If it starts happening again, I'll do a reinstall.

Tomel said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I have Windows update set to also update other Microsoft products. However, just in case, I did go to Excel / Accounts and did an update check -- it was up to date. Haven't reinstalled Office yet. Will try that next.

A strange occurrence. I've been getting the "not responding" error message pretty frequently the last couple of weeks and a lot yesterday morning. However, since the time I posted this question at about 1 PM yesterday, no error messages -- and I used Excel all afternoon. And I was working on exactly the same project all day. I have no idea why the problem occurred in the morning but not the afternoon and evening. Did Microsoft read this post and push a fix? Just kidding, but still strange. If it starts happening again, I'll do a reinstall.

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You’re welcome, glad to know it’s working again. Just that you said originally happening on two different systems made me think if update would be a cure for the cause. If only one system with issue could be more then just the software. Program hanging (not responding) not always just the software.

Let’s see how it goes, try doing routine maintenance on PC cleaning history, trimming or defragging drives, lessen the amount of running programs and or startups and making sure drivers are up to date for system hardware.

Still having problems with Windows 11 / Excel after all. Here are some of the problems on both my wife's desktop and mine. We are both on Win 11 and with Office 2019 Home and Student. These problems happen unpredictably, but they happen off and on every day. In no particular order of frequency.
o Slow Excel Startup . . . but not always. Size or complexity of spreadsheet is not a factor.
o Excel Not Responding message / Can usually be bypassed by hitting ESC. Sometimes just have to wait it out (sometimes minutes, not seconds)
o Excel extremely slow to respond when attempting to make a cell bold (first time only, setting other cells to bold during the same session occurs right away).

If I there was a pattern . . . and I can usually discern a pattern when problems occur . . . it's not apparent (other than the slow bold on the first attempt). At least we haven't had to do a hard reset like we had to do early on when the problems first became apparent and the freeze didn't clear on its own.

I see where others have reported problems. See link below:


Hopefully, Microsoft is working on this problem. I've tried every remedy suggested, some of which worked for some users and not for others.

See this with Add ons
Excel not responding, hangs, freezes or stops working - Microsoft Support

Top 7 Ways to Fix Microsoft Excel Not Responding on Windows 11

Thanks jds63 . . .

Had already seen the links you provided and tried the recommendations listed. I read through the items again on both sites just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I even tried a few things suggested that I didn't remember trying. Still no change.

Very frustrating. However, at least Excel is usable and not requiring a hard reset like was needed when the freezing problem first started. Best I can tell, the problems began with (or about the same time as) the update to Win 11 Version 22H2. Strangest thing is not the temporary not responding message (now fixable with an ESC), but when first trying to make a cell bold is extremely slow to respond, but future bolding of cells in the same session and same worksheet is instantaneous. As an early adopter since the beginning of personal computing and as an amateur computer nerd, the "bolding" problem doesn't make sense - there must be some loop in the updated code that eventually times out (if that makes sense - I have done a little coding just for fun in machine language, Basic, VB, C++, Pascal, etc. - but certainly no expert).

Thanks again for your suggestions. If you think of anything else, I'm open . . .

Are you saving documents in OneDrive?

No. Saving locally only on both computers.

What happens if you cut off your internet connection and then try to load Excel?

Tomel said:

Thanks jds63 . . .

Had already seen the links you provided and tried the recommendations listed. I read through the items again on both sites just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I even tried a few things suggested that I didn't remember trying. Still no change.

Very frustrating. However, at least Excel is usable and not requiring a hard reset like was needed when the freezing problem first started. Best I can tell, the problems began with (or about the same time as) the update to Win 11 Version 22H2. Strangest thing is not the temporary not responding message (now fixable with an ESC), but when first trying to make a cell bold is extremely slow to respond, but future bolding of cells in the same session and same worksheet is instantaneous. As an early adopter since the beginning of personal computing and as an amateur computer nerd, the "bolding" problem doesn't make sense - there must be some loop in the updated code that eventually times out (if that makes sense - I have done a little coding just for fun in machine language, Basic, VB, C++, Pascal, etc. - but certainly no expert).

Thanks again for your suggestions. If you think of anything else, I'm open . . .

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Welcome, some of the reasons i tried to help on your thread is i also have same 2019 version of office you do, but do not see the issues you have.
Any other of your programs doing similar, unresponsive often ?

Use RevoUninstaller to uninstall MS Office. If prompted to restart, don't do (at first)

When the uninstallation is complete, don't reboot even if prompted, choose the Advanced option to remove all leftover files, folders, and reigustry entries (don't worry about creating a system restore point, not worth it).

Now reboot and re-install Ms Office

TIP : Use freewares Macrium Reflect and/or AOMEI Backupper (I put my tin-foil hat on and do both) to create images of the current installation. Create restore boot USBs also for both programs. Then run Revo.

Next test, ultimate sacrifice ... remove drive from computer** (i.e. keeps existing system intact), insert blank drive and do a clean install of W11 and MS Office.

** Ease of removal and replacement depends on computer type. Some newer laptops require a degree in Electrical Engineering just to access the drive (e.g. have to remove keyboard and disconnecting wafer thin fragile ribbon cables .... UGH !). Also some NVMe drives aren't so easy to swap over, and costly to get as second one. In both cases, if so, don't bother.

I have two laptops with Microsoft Office. One has Office 2019 while the other has Office 2021. I use both Word and Excel but Word mostly. Once in a while Word 2019 will freeze for a few minutes and then be OK. Word 2021 freezes also but not as much as Word 2019. Reinstalling Office 2019 did not solve the problem.

Do you have any 3rd party Add-ins installed (File > Options > Add-ins?) If so, you might want to try disabling them one at a time. In the "Manage" dropdown at the bottom, you may need to cycle through the different selections.

Sorry I didn't get back right way regarding some of the suggestions . . . got distracted with some other things. Here's some additional feedback.

johnlgalt - turning off internet connection didn't have any impact. Note that internet is connected via Ethernet to both my wife's and my desktops.

jds63 - Haven't seen any of same symptoms from other applications. Apparently just Excel.

idgat - Haven't tried your suggestions yet due to time constraints. Did do both an offline and online repair of Office as well as an SFC /scannow. Neither option helped. If all else fails, I'll try what's basically a "from scratch" approach as you suggest.

MisterEd - Experiencing what you describe mainly on my wife's desktop at this time (temporary freezes/blackouts that eventually recover). Except with Excel rather than Word. Also, the cell bold problem at first time use (described earlier). My desktop has been seen fewer faults over time. No blackouts or cell bold problems, just some unexplained lags lately that should not occur given the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700 processer combined with the spreadsheet simplicity.

safron - No 3rd party Add-Ins installed.

Update: My wife has recently started keeping a log. Too early to tell but looks like a DCOM error is reported in Event Viewer at about the same time certain problems have occurred. Sample size too small to be sure. I'll see whether there's a consistent pattern over the next several days.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

It does sound like a reinstall might be in order then.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!

My wife's desktop (an Intel NUC i7) is still experiencing slow bolding, not responding messages at times, temporary blackouts that self-resolve in a about a minute).

Don't know what else to do. Have tried every suggestion (except actually swapping out the storage drive). I have scanned the drive for errors. None found. Also, only the Office apps are experiencing problems. Zero problems with other applications.

My latest efforts:

1. Made sure Win 11 is fully updated
2. Ran Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM.exe) - No problems identified.
3. Ran SFC /scannow - No problems identified.
4. Ran antivirus and antimalware apps - No problems identified
5. Uninstalled, restarted and reinstalled Office - Still experiencing same problems.
6. Opened same spreadsheets with Office installed on a laptop. No problems. Laptop has Office Home & Student 2021. The NUC has the 2019 version.
7. Compared problem log my wife has been keeping to items shown on Event Viewer. No relationship between reported events and problems experienced.

I'm at a loss.

I've had a similar thing with word recently. Usually clears if I close it and restart it. Is it just your wife's computer that is having this issue? If so there is maybe something else installed that's conflicting with excel?