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
    2016-11-06T15:57:20+00:00

    I found the link broken, I understand its almost 5 years since you posted.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-27T19:53:54+00:00

    I found a solution!!!!  Save the file with the errant link with the same name as the file name of the linked file.  The edit link on the data tab should then be disabled.  If not, edit the link and check the file name.  Make sure you save the file with the EXACT same file name as that in the link.  You can resave to the desired file name once you have acheived disabled "edit link" status.  May the farce be with you.

    Keep in mind that all pivot table connections and named ranges should be checked and cleaned up first!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-10-21T21:30:27+00:00

    Had the same issue, turned out to be conditional formatting. Thanks!

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-08T14:48:10+00:00

    For me this happened because I wound up with two versions of the same named range (which happens when you paste a named range from one workbook to a copy of the workbook without "pasting values")

    BUT when I checked in the Formulas --> Name Manager, there was only one named range in there, the correct one what was needed for the workbook.  

    To resolve this, we actually had to break the excel file up into its XML components (it was a .xlsx file) and look for the duplication.  Lo and behold it was there.  So we deleted the link reference to the other workbook out of the XML and saved the file.  And the link was finally gone.

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