Microsoft Excel for Mac is SO SLOW

Anonymous
2015-08-26T10:35:20+00:00

Hi Guys,

I have recently noticed that my Excel for Mac has become incredibly slow. I am using an almost new iMac and have a business enterprise solution account with the programme installed on 4 office computers, however this problem is only affecting my computer.

The spreadsheet I am using has less than 100 rows and takes 5-10 seconds to load whenever I click on another cell let alone try to edit a value or place a new value in.

This is heavily affecting my productivity at work. I have tried to fix this by removing bad fonts and giving the iMac a general cleanse but it's not had any affect on Excel performance.

Computer specs are:

  • 21.5-inch Mid 2014 iMac
  • OSX Yosemite
  • 1.4GHz intel core i5 processor
  • 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory
  • Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536MB

Please help!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | MacOS

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2016-04-13T03:44:26+00:00

Switch from Page Layout to Normal view (on the View menu). Solved the problem for me - from excruciatingly slow to normal zippy performance.

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Anonymous
2016-12-29T22:27:45+00:00

Hey I think I just fixed this for myself. Looking at another forum post regarding Microsoft Word 15.29.1 acting very slow too, it says to go to: - System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy Tab > Accessibility (on left menu), and disable any 3rd party apps that have certain controls over your computer.

On my laptop, I installed a window manager called "Divvy" years ago (it updates regularly), that allows me to resize app windows using keyboard shortcuts. Once I disabled this app from "controlling my windows", MS Office 15.29.1 *(specifically Excel) works beautifully.

Try it and let us know!

Daniel

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Anonymous
2018-03-01T21:45:37+00:00

I found this on-line and it helped me:

Go to settings, click on Accessibility, go to Display, click on Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency. 

This helped my Excel experience on the Mac. 

Tom

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Anonymous
2018-01-22T21:28:10+00:00

I had this problem today and figured out that my problem occurred because I had pasted in a couple of characters that the program was having trouble reading. My spreadsheet contains a TON of text froma  variety of sources in multiple languages and one of the sources came with a character that resulted in a "square" shape in Excel. This killed everything (on my Activity Monitor, excel was taking up 100% of my CPU).

I deleted the squares and it solved everything.

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Anonymous
2018-01-08T03:59:30+00:00

Thanks for advise. In my case it was Dropbox.

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Anonymous
2017-01-12T20:01:58+00:00

Latest Office update has totally solved the issue for me!

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-07-25T13:45:24+00:00

    HI  - I have just started using excel on my new mac.  After considerable compatibility problems using word I have given up and gone to google docs.  But I wanted to use an old  excel file to complete some work. it is lagging and doing really stupid things that it has never done when same doc was being used on a PC.

    I so regret getting the mac but then just as furious with MS as well.  I have the latest everything and barely anything works.

    I don't know who to vent my rage on first - apple for not making sure that Office works on its system - and it is is their business to do this as they have nothing that compares - and getting rid of all apple products within sight - or MS Office and doing everything online whilst getting a refund for my subscription. 

    I also don't have the days you have to give away calling help lines.

    Is a solution is to take this brand new expensive mac to a private technican and get Office 2106 taken off and 2011 put on?

    Seriously disgusted witih both of them but will probably go back to a PC as never had so many problems with a laptop before.  As much as I loathe to give MS any more money.

    If anyone could yea or nay the wiping 2016 off and getting 2011 along with a refund for my subscription - woudl be appreciated.

    I do think that this is a legal issue to be frank - the requirement for all products is to be fit for purpose and this little arrangement between apple and MS is failing to meet that.  Advertising that MS office is compatible with Macs is simply misleading.  It is not for many. Likewise for MS Office.  Its utterly random.  Therefore, refunds and exchanges for laptops and software all round until they take their customers seriously and put out some decent products.  

    When I get my thesis complete - and if I still have some sanity - I may well pursue this. Anybody else interested in taking up damages owing to undeclared software compatibility on high price items  that is not fixed in a timely manner - feel free to get in touch in October.

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