How to break an external link that won't break

Anonymous

I have studied all the Excel help available and followed the advice, but I have encountered an external link in an Excel 2010 workbook that simply will not break. No matter how many times I select "Break Link," this zombie is always there. I have tried deleting range names that came from the source file, to no avail. I "break the link" in the destination file, save, close the file, reopen it -- and the link is still there. I have tried adjusting the options every which way, no luck.

How do I absolutely, positively, completely and forever, send this link to Davy Jones's locker?

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Anonymous

Dear Long_John_Silver

I had a similar issue and in addition to Raju S Das' recommendation, I have also checked the data validations for various fields; this is where I found some zombie links that were not required anymore.

Maybe you can find some in your file too and remove them:

Select the cells where you expect the zombie data validation (I could narrow it down to one section on a specific worksheet)
In the Data Tools section of the Data ribbon, select Data Validation from the Data Validation dropdown
Check if there is any list validation with a reference to a linked file location.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Roger

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69 additional answers

Anonymous

2017-05-04T23:46:14+00:00

Long John Silver & Roger Loosli,

I had a similar error when I couldn't for the life of me remove the link to the source file. "Break Link" wasn't even an active option in my case. After reviewing your response, I searched through my new file and found that I didn't have a Data Validation issue, but rather a Format Control issue.

My file has a drop-down menu format control box and I found that the Controls for the input ranges and cell link were not the issue. My issue was on the "Protection" tab where I found the "Locked" box was checked. By removing the check from the box, I was able to go back to the Edit Links section in the Data tab on the ribbon, and finally break the link to the source file.

Best,
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Anonymous

2017-04-27T01:08:40+00:00

In addition to checking for lists, also check if your conditional formatting refers to another workbook.
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Anonymous

2017-03-11T14:58:18+00:00

I've been trying for months to break this phantom link and did not know any place to go but to edit links/break links...

When I went to formulas/name manager, I found like 12 phantom links... deleted them all, and the link was gone in edit links... THANK YOU!!
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Anonymous

2016-11-20T15:51:02+00:00

What a LEGEND ... so simple and also should know better! GJ!
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