How to stop Excel from automatically checking Workbook performance?

Anonymous
2023-03-06T17:17:06+00:00

Performance check??

The Excel sheet is the way I want it to look and don't want to change it for better performance. I just want Excel to stop prompting me.

Every time I open an Excel sheet, it wants me to do a performance check because of:

"Excess formatting and unneeded metadata cause large, slow workbooks. Check for improvements to performance"

So I find myself X-clicking away this message every time. Because there is no 'excess' of formatting. The Excel sheet simply is a nicely layouted workbook and we want it to be looking this way. We don't need Excel trying to outsmart us and giving this suggestion every time you open the workbook to remove information.

It is only very confusing for not-very-experienced users who also make use of my Excel sheet.

How and where can I set Excel in a way that is stops asking this unwanted question?

  • The question mostly pops-up in the Web version of Office 365.
  • I tried unchecking boxes in the performance check tool, in the desktop version, but to no result.

Would be lovely if someone has a workaround or knows which box needs to be un-checked.

And it would be awesome if a MS engineer helps giving priority to this problem, so that it can be switched of universally.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | 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.

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Answer accepted by question author
Andreas Killer 144.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2025-01-25T10:37:57+00:00

This thread shows that there are a significant number of people complaining about this. Unfortunately, this is only a user forum, we understand your problem, but we cannot do anything to fix it. Only the Excel developers can do this if they are instructed to do so.

As previously stated, this is simply a statistical problem, Microsoft must first recognize that this is a problem. Unfortunately, this is not so easy considering that more than 200,000 people work at Microsoft.

There is a feedback portal where you can cast your vote. There is already a feed on this topic, unfortunately with very few votes. I'm sure if we get as many votes as this post has been viewed, then Microsoft will react.

Anyone reading this, please follow these steps:

Click on this link:
https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/89bb523d-b197-ef11-95f6-0022484d7a88

  1. Sign in
  2. Click the Vote button

@HanzieV:

If you mark this reply as answer, it will be the first to appear when someone views this thread. I hope we can encourage as many people as possible to draw Microsoft's attention to this problem. Unfortunately, this is all we can do for you.

Andreas.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-01-24T20:13:31+00:00

    Dear Prash - and other Microsoft wizards,

    Don't you think it is time to get into action finally to get this problem solved?

    Don't you notice the sheer number of people who deal with the same issue?

    Don't you read all the examples in the answers to this - rather simple - question?

    Do you actually care for your loyal consumers and users who actually work with your products? We try to make something nice out of dull Excelsheets, which then in one stroke is distroyed by a dumb option to eliminate all carefull layouting that was applied.

    Please.

    Please make this work Prash!

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-01-20T14:08:03+00:00

    "And so, we believe most users suffer from performance pain due to Unintentional excessive formatted cells with no data"

    This statement clearly indicates that Microsoft has completely disconnected itself from reality.

    What evidence exists that substantiates this "belief"? What is the scope?

    Might it be limited to a very specific demographic?

    If the feature toggle existed, but was not set as a default, would the small group of elites affected be unable to enable the feature by themselves, rather than inflict this irritation on the unaffected masses?

    I have always used so-called "excessive formatting" for functional and aesthetic purposes and have not experienced any noticeable performance degradation. I also suspect that in most cases, except for the most extreme, any performance impact would be negligible and an acceptable trade-off for the majority of users.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-01-20T13:42:41+00:00

    "And so, we believe most users suffer from performance pain due to Unintentional excessive formatted cells with no data and would benefit from the notification to enhance their productivity. At the same time, we agree that users with Intentional excessive formatted cells with no data need control over the notification with a setting, and we are actively working on releasing this setting soon. We plan to monitor the setting’s usage to determine if future adjustments are needed as well.

    We apologize again for the delay. And your feedback and patience are greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,

    Prash"

    In other words, the Microsoft echelon believes it's users are the dumbest of the dumb and figured Every. Single. User. would LOVE this function because they didn't know what they were doing and needed guidance from the echelon.

    Instead, the echelon should realize that some Excel customers have been using it for decades, and don't just program it but also actively use it so know it inside and out, and have the same knowledge as the developers except without the ability to program it to make it better (instead of making it worse like the Microsoft developers do).

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