Phantom Drop down boxes in excel 2016

06/11/2016 - FANTASTIC NEWS everyone. Very recently, Microsoft FINALLY released a patch to Excel 2016. Update your software. The bug in the software is now fixed! No more phantom dropdown boxes!!

And to Microsoft tech support monitoring this, pass along my thanks for fixing this problem. <Case number removed for privacy>.

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As has been noted further on, Addons are NOT the problem. There was a documented bug in the program. I know because I worked extensively with top level tech support and developers at Microsoft to identify the bug.

As of this writing, I am happy to announce, Microsoft has finally released a patch for the bug. Excel 2016 no longer creates Phantom Dropdown boxes.

MAC USERS!!! Does anyone use Excel 2016 on a Mac? If you are reading this and experience the phantom dropdown on your Mac, can you please reply to this for me? The more reply the better. I can contact tech support on my support ticket and let the top level tech support know it affects Macs as well.

It is a display issue, but more so. The phantom dropdown is an object that gets created on top of the cell. Most times the real dropdown works, but sometimes not. You can always enter data manually. But it is a royal pain. There are two ways to remove the dropdown phantom object. 1) Delete the entire column or entire row, or 2) get a visual-basic macro from someone, insert the appropriate cell info and run the macro. That is not a fix.

What is worse, if you also use Excel Mobile, as I do extensively, those phantom dropdowns effectively cripple the cell and render it useless. The phantom is only generated in Excel 2016 desktop. Mobile and online do not generate the phantom. It is also only generated in the .xlsx file format, NOT the .xls file format. Tech support and I also tested it on Google Docs and it was not generated there.

IT IS ONLY GENERATED IN EXCEL 2016. We know it is generated in Windows version. We were unable to test Mac version. If someone has a Mac and can test and let me know, I'll can pass along the info to the tech.

For everyone reading this post, perform the following experiment. If you experience the same problem, contact Tech Support, COMPLAIN VERY LOUDLY that you are having the same problem, that it is a known bug and you wish it to be repaired quickly. The last update from last week is it could take a few months before they decide to patch it because not enough people are affected to do it sooner.

EXCEL 2016 ONLY!!! - Test of phantom dropdown bug.

1. Create a new workbook.
2. On first worksheet, create a data validation list of any kind on cells A1-A7 (this is just an example).
3. Copy the worksheet 5 or 6 times. This is important as the worksheet in #1 slot will NEVER have a problem.
4. Next, on each worksheet, make the active cell any of the data validation cells (A1 as an example).
5. Save the workbook.
6. Reopen the workbook.
7. Move to another cell on every worksheet.
8. On worksheets (OTHER THAN position #1) do you now see phantom dropdown objects?) If so, report to Microsoft immediately.

If you are reporting to Microsoft, report using this <Case number removed for privacy>.

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Well done you guys!  This issue has been driving me crazy over recent months!

Come on Microsoft - we need you to fix this.

Being a bit of a geek, I am interested in the technical cause of this issue.  In any affected cell, there is no property that suggests it contains data validation criteria.  Is this a display problem?

Robert