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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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-01T18:55:05+00:00

    Mea I couldn't agree more

    Microsoft just have not grasped the point that some users of a workbook are not authorised to alter it - just to use it as designed.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-01T16:50:00+00:00

    Spencer - BRAVO! You've said exactly what we've all thought and you said it perfectly! Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-02-28T21:56:29+00:00

    Dear all,

    We acknowledge the issues still being encountered and appreciate your feedback.

    Extending our solution to disable the notification on first dismiss (click "X") for Cloud workbooks to local or network shared ones still isn’t there yet to work reliably when these workbooks are shared with others via email attachments, or downloaded locally, etc.

    That said, in response to feedback from users of local or network shared workbooks, we have decided to disable the notification for local and network shared ones while we work on a reliable long-term solution. You should find the notification disabled starting in the Beta Channel version 2503, build 16.0.18604.20000  or later. Please give it a try and inform us if you find the notification remains enabled.

    We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your continued feedback.

    Thank you,
    Prash

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-01-27T10:42:20+00:00

    Thanks Andreas,

    I followed the link and upvoted it, and was immediately blocked from the feedback portal! Anyone else had this experience? I didn't even have time to leave a sarcastic comment lol.

    Please can as many people as possible upvote this issue. I strongly doubt anyone is writing to Microsoft to tell them how much they love this 'Feature' so if we persevere surely sense will prevail at some point...

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