There are a number of things that can cause an Excel spreadsheet to slow down. Sometimes, the spreadsheet can become unusable, requiring up to a minute for saving or even the most basic of changes. Here’s a brief checklist of the most frequent causes of Excel slowdowns.
(Have a spreadsheet slow-down that I haven’t described below? Let me know in the comments! Thanks! 
-Rich)
- Network problems. If the spreadsheet is accessed over the network (local or remote), network issues can delay saving.
- Macros/VBA code. If you are using macros (or Visual Basic for Applications), make sure you don’t have unnecessary macros running, or macros that perform unnecessary calculations.
- Burdensome animation. Try disabling animation. 2003: Tools > Options > Edit > Turn off “Provide feedback with animation”. 2007: Excel Button > Excel Options > Advanced > General > Provide feedback with animation (uncheck)
- Complicated calculations. If you’re doing lots of calculations, you can disable auto-updating of these calculations. When you do so, your spreadsheet will not update until you explicitly desire (e.g. when you hit the F9 key). To disable auto-updating in 2007, go to the Excel Button > Excel Options > Formulas > Workbook Calculation, and select “Manual”.
- Duplicate Conditional Formatting Rules. Conditional formatting can be a processor-intensive task if your rules aren’t set up right. Manage your conditional formatting rules (2007) via the ribbon at Home > Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules… Try to consolidate similar rules into one rule (e.g. a rule for an entire column instead of a rule for each cell in the column)
- Funky Formatting. Formatting can really slow down a spreadsheet, especially on slower machines. Try removing all formatting: Removing All Formatting.
- Unnecessary junk. Sometimes, an Excel file can become backlogged with a bunch of unnecessary junk. Try saving as a CSV (comma-separated) file, which will strip out everything except for the data. (Make sure to not save over your original file in case this workaround does not, well, work! )
- Unknown, but it seems to help sometimes. Install the Lookup Wizard add-in.
- Other issues. Do you know of another issue that causes Excel to slow down? Let me know in the comments!
Assorted helpful links:
12 responses so far ↓
1 Michael Baker // Aug 30, 2009 at 6:55 am
I tend to construct spreadsheets with blocks of common features including conditional formatting. Having copied one area to another I have duplicated the conditional formatting in the process. Do you have any suggestions for automating the process for removing duplicate conditional formatting?
2 Sample newsgrab | Agribusiness Australia // Aug 30, 2009 at 10:29 pm
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3 TessM // Apr 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm
I had issue #5 – thx for the tip!
4 admin // Dec 28, 2010 at 5:09 pm
@Michael: Have you found a solution? I’m not sure I know how to accomplish that.
@TessM: Sure thing!
5 Aliente // Jan 6, 2011 at 3:45 am
Our IT department struggled a lot on a slow Excel sheet and we finally found the problem.
Users had created tousands of text areas : each time they made anotations they created one more area but when they removed such anotations they just erased the text without removing text area. With the time it ended with 10000 text areas hidden on the datasheet. To select all hit F5, click Cells and select “Objects”.
6 MerkDog // Sep 28, 2011 at 3:55 am
@ Aliente: simply brilliant! Searched for a solution for this everywhere, and all you ever hear is “make sure there are no macros” or “don’t use volatile functions” etc etc. Even doing Edit > Clear > All had no effect. Thank you! For the benefit of others (Excel 2003): after F5, select Special, then Objects, then Edit menu > Cut. Repeat on all sheets. Save.
7 scott biggs // Oct 11, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Excel needs lots of memory to run efficiently. If you are multi-tasking with another memory-hog program (like a data base program, for example), there’s a very good chance that your computer will run out of memory for even a moderate spreadsheet. The resulting hard-drive thrashing will slow your work down to a crawl.
Lots of flashing of the hard-drive light while doing even simple typing is an indicator of this thrashing.
Solution: quit the other programs. As you work, Excel should speed up.
8 Ferenc // Nov 1, 2011 at 9:13 am
Hi, just a note – my solution for the slow excel was to disable multi-processer calculations, even though I have a dual-core on my desktop.
With only that, I managed to boost my Excel up
9 Isaac // Jan 4, 2012 at 1:01 pm
I was going crazy over a particular spreadsheet which was really lagging when scrolling, paging up or down, etc. I tried everything and after reading this discovered it was some funky conditional formatting someone before used. Awesome tips!
10 David // Feb 22, 2012 at 12:34 pm
@ Aliente
Thank you for that last comment about “objects”. Ii had a slow file that I inherited. Thought the cause of the slowness was all the formulas. Turned out the button that was created as a shortcut to print had 3,000 buttons on top of each other.
11 NeilB // Mar 8, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Embedded Graphics. I had a horribly slow wookbook with 48 worksheets. Then I found 3 embedded pictures hidden in one of the woorksheets (it just looked like a date, the size of one cell) I deleted them and now the whole workbook is blazing fast
12 Raheel // Mar 17, 2012 at 4:14 am
I’ve same problem in excel 2007 as Isaac mentioned “I was going crazy over a particular spreadsheet which was really lagging when scrolling, paging up or down, etc. I tried everything and after reading this discovered it was some funky conditional formatting someone before used. Awesome tips!”
I tried following and spreadsheet is now running like a light speed:
(2007) Go to ribbon at Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules > Clear Rules from entire worksheet
Its awesome……………
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