Unhide rows not working in Excel: 7 reasons and fixes

1. You didn't select across the hidden rows

Unhide only works on hidden rows inside your selection. If rows 4 to 6 are hidden and you click row 7 alone, there's nothing hidden in the selection, so nothing happens. Look for the jump in the row numbers (3 then 7) and the thicker line between them.

Drag across the row numbers from the row above to the row below, here 3 to 7, then right-click and choose Unhide. To bring back every hidden row at once, click the triangle above row 1 (or press Ctrl+A until the whole sheet is selected), then right-click any row number and choose Unhide.

1. Select the row numbers on both sides of the gap.
2. Right-click one of the selected row numbers and choose Unhide.
3. No right-click? Use Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide Rows.

2. The row isn't hidden, it's just very short

If someone dragged a row border nearly shut, the row has a tiny height rather than being hidden. Unhide doesn't change it, because as far as Excel is concerned the row is already visible. You'll see a double line or a squashed sliver where the row should be.

Select across it and set a height: Home > Format > Row Height, type 15 and press OK. Or choose AutoFit Row Height to size it to its contents. The same goes for columns squeezed to almost nothing: Home > Format > Column Width.

Careful when you do this for the whole sheet: a fixed Row Height overrides every custom height, including wrapped-text rows you sized on purpose. AutoFit is the safer choice for a whole sheet.

3. The rows are filtered out, not hidden

Rows hidden by a filter belong to the filter, and Unhide is the wrong tool for them. The giveaways: the row numbers of the visible rows turn blue, and a column header shows a funnel icon on its filter button.

Clear the filter instead. Data > Clear removes every filter but keeps the buttons; Ctrl+Shift+L turns filtering off entirely. To clear just one column, click its filter button and choose Clear Filter From. If a colleague's file seems to be missing rows, check every header for a funnel before anything else.

4. The rows are in a collapsed group

Data > Group (or Shift+Alt+Right) puts rows in an outline. Collapse it and the rows vanish, with a + button in the margin to the left of the row numbers and small 1 and 2 level buttons at the top.

Click the + to expand the group, or click the highest level number to expand everything. If you don't want the outline at all, select the rows and use Data > Ungroup, or Data > Ungroup > Clear Outline for the whole sheet. If the margin buttons are missing, the outline symbols may be switched off: press Ctrl+8 to show them.

5. Row 1 or column A is hidden

There's no row above row 1 to select across, so the usual trick fails. Click the Name Box (left of the formula bar), type A1 and press Enter. The selection is now in the hidden row even though you can't see it.

Then use Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide Rows. For a hidden column A, do the same and choose Unhide Columns. Selecting the whole sheet and choosing Unhide also works.

6. Frozen panes are hiding the top rows

If panes were frozen while the sheet was scrolled down, the rows above the visible part are cut off and you can't scroll back up to them. They look hidden, but Unhide does nothing because they aren't.

Go to View > Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes. The top rows come back. Scroll to the top, select the row below your headers and freeze again.

7. The sheet is protected, and a quick hidden-row check

On a protected sheet, Unhide is greyed out unless the person who protected it allowed Format rows and Format columns. Use Review > Unprotect Sheet, entering the password if there is one, then unhide. If it's not your file, ask its owner; the rows may be hidden on purpose.

To check whether a list has hidden or filtered rows at all, compare two counts. COUNTA counts every filled cell; SUBTOTAL with 103 counts only the visible ones. The difference is how many filled rows in the range you can't see.