Excel not responding: how to unfreeze it and stop it happening

1. Check whether it's busy, not frozen

"(Not Responding)" in the title bar only means Excel hasn't answered Windows for a few seconds. A big recalculation, a paste of 100,000 rows, a sort on a huge range or a save to a slow network folder can all do that. The status bar often shows Calculating (8 threads): 42% or a progress bar for the save.

If the percentage is moving, wait. Clicking around while it's busy queues up more work and can make things worse. If nothing has changed for 10 minutes and the PC's fan is quiet, it's really stuck.

2. Close it safely and get your work back

When it won't respond at all, end it. You lose changes since the last save, but AutoRecover usually kept a copy from the last few minutes, and Excel offers it in the Document Recovery pane the next time it opens.

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.
2. On the Processes tab, select Microsoft Excel and click End task.
3. Check that no Excel process is left in the list, then start Excel again.
4. If the Document Recovery pane appears, open the newest version and save it with File > Save As under a new name.
5. On a Mac, press Cmd+Option+Esc, choose Microsoft Excel and click Force Quit.

3. One file or all of Excel?

Open Excel with a blank workbook. If blank Excel is fine and it only hangs with one file, the cause is in that workbook or where it's stored: skip to step 5. If it freezes even with a blank workbook, or with every file, the cause is in Excel itself, usually an add-in: go to step 4.

The table above sums up which fix to try first for each pattern.

4. Hangs with every file: safe mode and add-ins

Safe mode starts Excel without add-ins and without custom startup files. Hold Ctrl while you click Excel, then answer Yes to "Do you want to start Excel in safe mode?". You can also press Windows+R, type excel /safe and press Enter.

If Excel behaves in safe mode, an add-in is the likely cause. PDF tools, CRM and accounting connectors and old toolbars are common culprits. Turn them all off, then back on one at a time until the hang returns.

1. Start Excel normally and go to File > Options > Add-ins.
2. In the Manage box at the bottom, choose COM Add-ins and click Go.
3. Untick every add-in and click OK, then restart Excel.
4. If the hang is gone, tick one add-in, restart, and repeat until you find the one that causes it. Leave that one off and check for an update from its maker.

5. Hangs with one file: where it lives and what's in it

Files on a network drive, a VPN or a OneDrive folder that hasn't finished syncing can hang Excel while it waits for the connection. Copy the file to your desktop and open the copy. If that opens fine, the problem is the connection or the sync, not the workbook.

If the local copy still hangs, stop it recalculating on open. Calculation mode is shared by every workbook open in one Excel session, and a fresh session takes its mode from the first workbook it opens. So open a blank workbook, choose Formulas > Calculation Options > Manual, then open the problem file with File > Open. Once it's open, look for the usual heavy causes: formulas over whole columns, thousands of conditional formatting rules, pasted shapes, and links to other files on drives that no longer exist (Data > Edit Links, called Workbook Links in newer versions). Excel running slow covers these fixes in detail. Press F9 to calculate once you've cleaned up.

6. Freezes when opening, printing or saving

Excel asks the default printer for page sizes when it lays out a sheet, so a default printer that's offline or has a broken driver can stall Excel when you open, print or preview. To test, make Microsoft Print to PDF the default in Windows Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners (turn off Let Windows manage my default printer first), then reopen the file.

Also check that Office is up to date with File > Account > Update Options > Update Now. If nothing else works, repair Office: Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps, click the three dots next to Microsoft 365 (or Microsoft Office), choose Modify, and run Quick Repair. If that doesn't help, run Online Repair, which takes longer and needs an internet connection.