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

2017-07-25T00:55:11+00:00

Anything that can have a formula can have a link. That includes conditional formats, data validations, range names (which are really formulas), pivot-table calculated fields, Form or ActiveX objects' properties, and lots of objects within charts, even its title! Search the help for "Formula1", "Formula2" and "Formula Property" with quotes.

Also, much earlier in this thread I posted code which will search everything for all links.
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Anonymous

2017-07-25T01:00:12+00:00

FYI JAndrewSmith and jjasmith4 are the same person, me.
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Anonymous

2017-07-27T10:59:01+00:00

Hello JAndrew

I will run you code and let you know how it works.

Thank again for taking the trouble to provide helpful advice and assistance.

This is most appreciated.
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Anonymous

2017-08-12T13:43:12+00:00

Download findlink from here:

http://www.manville.org.uk/software/default.htm

Update link:

http://www.manville.org.uk/software/findlink.htm

I ran this application, but I can't find where it adds to a 2016 ribbon. When I click on Add-Ins on the developer ribbon, I am sent to the Microsoft Store.
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