The Excel Troubleshooting Guide — Solve the 20 Most Common Problems
Excel acts up. Formulas return #N/A, the file is slow or data disappears. Our guide gives you solutions to the 20 most common Excel problems.
Contents (20 pages)
Formula errors
- #N/A with VLOOKUP
- #DIV/0! on division
- Circular reference warnings
- Formulas show text instead of results
Performance problems
- Excel is extremely slow
- The file crashes with large datasets
- Calculations take several minutes
Data problems
- Numbers stored as text
- Dates display in the wrong format
- Duplicates that cannot be found
- Data disappears when filtering
File and system problems
- ”The file is corrupt and cannot be opened”
- Excel freezes on opening
- Macros do not work
- Sharing does not work (locked file)
Advanced problems
- Pivot table does not refresh
- Broken external links
Each problem: Symptom → Cause → Solution (step by step) → Prevention tips
