How to break an external link that won't break

Anonymous
2012-01-11T18:42:31+00:00

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?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2012-12-04T08:40:04+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2016-11-09T10:34:21+00:00

    Jan,

    Can you tell me how you found the link in conditional formatting?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-20T15:51:02+00:00

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

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  3. 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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  4. 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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