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.

<Thread has been moved to the correct category by forum moderator>

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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.

0 comments

169 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2019-03-27T15:45:36+00:00

    This is a well known bug, that is there for 10 years, that Microsoft never fixed.

    It happens when several excel windows are opened, and the only way to unlock this is to click to another cell that is into another spreadsheet. This is very annoying, because sometime it makes input far slower, and it is really bothering.

    I affects all PC we have in the company and installing, reinstalling it will not change anything.

    There is not solution but the one I have described. May be Microsoft will ask us to pay a fee to fix this basic bug ? Who knows ... but this is clearly unacceptable.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-03-06T17:04:28+00:00

    This just started happening to me today.  Super annoying.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2019-02-15T01:26:22+00:00

    I just encountered this issue today.  I've read through all the threads.  Maybe I can shed some light on what I suspect.  I'm running a Dell PC with Windows 7 Pro, 32 GB RAM, 4GB Nvidia video with O365 2016.  Current Version 1808 (Build10730.20264 Click-to-run). 

    I manage about a 120 machines.  The problem is definitely the 64-bit version of O365.  Per Microsoft's recommendation in their "Message Center Major Change Update Notification", I removed my 32-bit version (Build 1812) on my PC and installed the 64-bit version about two weeks ago so that I can test it.  Note: I also had to un-install Sharepoint Designer (32-bit) and the Compatibility Pack 2007 (32-bit) in order to get O365 64-bit to install.

    I used other apps in the O365 Suite but only used Excel for some minor edits until today when I experienced the problem.  None of my 32-bit users are experiencing this issue.  I started a simple spreadsheet (1 tab) in which I only populated 8 fields when the problem hit.  Only other apps open: Outlook, Chrome & One Note.  I have not tried the autosave disable trick yet that someone mentioned, but I think the easy resolve for me is to uninstall the 64-bit and go back to 32-bit.  I'm so glad I decided to test first prior to deploying to all of my users.  If for some reason going back to 32-bit doesn't work, Ill chime in again with my findings.  :-)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2019-01-18T17:55:26+00:00

    I have the same problem when I cannot enter anything in a cell or save the file or perform other functions in the worksheet. I inadvertently figured out that if I go to another open Excel file or to another worksheet in my same Excel file and then come back to where I was locked up, I can enter in the cell or do whatever I was trying to do. This may not solve the problem, but at least I can save the file and not lose my work.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2019-01-18T01:58:12+00:00

    For our case, it does not seem that the user will skip to another workbook but this closely assembles what they have been facing. Anyway that could actually be a "workaround" but telling so many users to change how they normally use Excel to run their files can be very difficult. I think many of them would just rather switch to another sheet and back again if the problem occurs. And from what they told me, it happens randomly. Sometimes they will not have this issue for days. Sometimes it happens like a few times in one day....

    Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments