Excel 2016 - Cannot type anything into a cell all of a sudden

Anonymous
2017-04-14T07:08:05+00:00

Hi,

I am experiencing a problem with Excel 2016 that is really frustrating.

I am working normally in excel 2016, when all of a sudden I cannot type anything into a cell. If I press Ecs nothing happens. I do not have macros, nor protected sheet or cells. I am working with multiple (2 or more) open excel files at the same time. I tried to figure out, if I press some combination of keys that would cause this, but found nothing. I, however, can move the mouse over the sheet and click different cells. I think the arrow keys work as well.

The strange thing that always "solves" the problem is pressing Enter. Pressing the Enter opens another Excel file that is already opened, and after simply going back to the first one, I then can work on normally. This can occur once, twice but sometimes even 10-times in a single day! Just terrible.

This is time demanding, many times I write into a cell and then see that the cell is still blank, I press the enter to make it work again, going back... - I cannot work like this.

When I was working with the same files in Excel 2013 and 2010 I hadn't have experienced such problems. 

I already read some other forums with people experiencing the same problem, but haven't found any solution yet.

Do you have any?

Thank you!

P.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-09-16T22:59:54+00:00

    I thought I was just going insane...I've been having this problem intermittently for about a month now.  Newer laptop (bought back in April).  It's ridiculous that this has been happening now for over 3 years and there's no clear solution on it. 

    I initially thought it was a 32 bit vs 64 bit thing but the problem surfaced in both versions.  What finally worked for me was to disable the hardware acceleration.

    1. Click onFile, then Options
    2. Select Advancedon the list on the left hand side. 
    3. Scroll to Display
    4. Check the box to "Disable Excel Graphics Hardware Acceleration"; 
    5. Click OK to save the changes. 

    Note: Someone else mentioned this in this forum about a couple months back.  I tried this and have not had the issue since.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-19T00:28:39+00:00

    From what the users in my office have been saying, the issue has been happening on and off for quite a while now. And intermittently. So I am guessing Microsoft will not be fixing this issue anytime soon.

    The solution is just to switch excel files and it should work properly again. I tried it on a few computers and it seem to work fine after switching file.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-12-14T10:06:05+00:00

    I assume this issue occurs while / after you are switching between different open Excel files. In that process, even when your desired file comes to you visible on screen, it would not be an active file. The active file still hides behind the shown file. That time as you are trying to input in visible (but inactive) file, but will not be able to do that there.

    If this is the case, for solving this issue, you may ensure by clicking & activating a cell on your desired file before starting to type in it. It may take you one more step to activate it, but I am afraid there is no other solution.

    Another thing you can try about this is, From Excel Options> Advanced> Display> click & enable "Disable hardware graphics acceleration"

    I hope this helps.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-04-17T08:01:15+00:00

    Hi P,

    Do you need further help?

    Thanks,

    Cliff

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-04-21T09:30:27+00:00

    This issue happened to me this morning, after typing a random set of buttons (my hands were in the wrong position on the keyboard).  I look through this thread to find a solution and didn't see anything, so I went back to trying combinations of things.  

    I had several spreadsheets opened.

    I did the following on the one that the problem started:

    In any cell - ctrl c (nothing happened), ctrl x (again nothing), ctrl z (went to one of the other spreadsheets I had opened), alt/tab to get back to the original spreadsheet and was able to type.

    I hope this works for some others looking for a solution.

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