When Excel is frozen but not crashed, should you wait for it to respond or force a close? Here are 10 tips

There are many reasons why the Excel program might freeze, become unresponsive, or hang, and sometimes it will stay that way until you close the frozen window and restart.

• While copying files
• While saving a file
• While deleting rows or columns
• While undoing changes
• While filtering data
• While loading an Excel file

Are you one of those users who experience instability with Excel on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, or 7? It would take quite a while to enumerate all the reasons behind Excel program crashes or specific workbook crashes, but the troubleshooting steps are generally the same. In this article, we'll tackle an easier issue to deal with than a completely crashed Excel – the “frozen but not crashed” Excel problem.

Discover all solutions to fix Excel frozen, not responding issue under 2 scenarios with quick navigation:

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1. Start Excel in Safe Mode

Safe Mode enables you to start Excel without loading certain add-ins.

• Hold down the Windows key and press R to open the Run box.
• Type excel.exe /safe in the Run box, then press Enter.

2. Update Excel (and really, the entire Office suite)

The Excel-freeze problem seems to have been fixed in a recent Microsoft update.

1. Go to "File", then click "Account" 2. Click "Update Options", and then select "Update Now" under "Product Information"

Updates for earlier versions of Microsoft Office, prior to Office 2010, work differently:

1. Go to "Help" under the "File" menu. 2. Click on "Check for Updates".

3. Repair the Microsoft Office installation

Fix issues with system and registry files related to Microsoft Office

Press and hold the Windows + R keys on your keyboard, then type appwiz.cpl, and click OK to open the Programs and Features section in Control Panel. In the list of available programs, locate Microsoft Office, right-click on it, and select Change.

• Choose Quick Fix, then click the Fix button.

4. Remove damaged add-ons

Incorrect add-ins can sometimes interfere with or conflict with Excel, causing it to hang

• Start Excel in Safe Mode first
• Click on File > Options > Add-ins
• Select COM Add-ins, then click on Go
• Uncheck all boxes in the list, then click OK
• Close and restart Excel

5. Stop or wait for any other processes that are using Excel

Many simultaneous Excel operations can freeze a workbook, especially when you open a large one.

If you're working in one workbook and another workbook is printing in the background, Excel might freeze. There's not much you can do in this situation except:

• Stop unnecessary activity in the workbook that is open, or
• Wait for another workbook to finish what it's doing, and then Excel should return to normal.

6. Modify Excel's Advanced Settings

Enabling the Show Insert Options buttons and the Display Paste Options buttons when pasting can cause delays in Excel.

1. Open Microsoft Excel. 2. Click on "File," then select "Options." 3. Click on "Advanced." 4. Uncheck the boxes for "Show Insert Options buttons" and "Show Paste Options buttons when content is pasted." 5. Click "OK" to save your changes.

7. Increase C drive space

If the Office suite is installed on the system drive, insufficient disk space can degrade Excel performance and eventually cause it to crash.

• Download and install tools Partition Master Professional
• Follow the video guide to extend C drive space

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8. Run the Check Workbook tool

General troubleshooting steps for various issues in Excel, including freezing and crashing

1. Open the workbook. 2. Click on "File," then select "Info." 3. Click on the button preceding "Check for Issues" and choose "Check Document." 4. Select all applicable options in the window, then click "Check."

Delete a conditional formatting rule

Conditional formatting rules are often seen as a real burden on Excel's performance.

1. Open Excel. 2. Select the cell(s) (if you only want to remove formatting from specific cells, not the entire worksheet). 3. Go to the "Home" tab and click on "Conditional Formatting" under "Styles." 4. Click on "Clear Rules." 5. Select "Clear Rules from Entire Worksheet."

Clear Conditional Formatting

10. Disable the "Ask to Update Links" Option

Many Excel calculations can cause it to freeze when opening or closing a worksheet.

1. Open Excel, click on "File" in the top-left corner, and select "Options." 2. Click on "Advanced." 3. Uncheck the option "Update links to other documents." 4. Click "OK."

Supplement - Are you interested in a comprehensive Excel recovery and repair tool?

After going through these 10 quick fixes for an unresponsive but not crashed Excel, you should know how to react in both situations. As a supplementary solution to prevent data loss due to Excel freezing, we also recommend the renowned Data Recovery Wizard Pro to help you recover lost and deleted Excel files.

What's more, in addition to its comprehensive file recovery capabilities, it can also fix corrupted files that won't open.

Anyone interested in this utility can watch this video tutorial to learn how to recover different types of deleted files, such as images, videos, Excel workbooks, Word documents, and emails.