Excel formulas not working, not updating, not calculating: fixes & solutions

This tutorial explains the most common mistakes when making formulas in Excel, and how to fix a formula that is not calculating or not updating automatically.

Can someone imagine using Microsoft Excel without formulas? I believe no one can. And hardly anything could compare to the frustration caused by Excel formulas stop working all of a sudden. When this happens, a bunch of questions immediately flash across your mind. Why is my Excel formula not calculating? Why doesn't this formula update its value automatically? Is my Excel corrupt or is this due to some malicious virus? And how do I get my Excel to calculate and update formulas automatically again? Don't worry, most likely your Excel is all right, and you will get all the answers in a moment.

Excel formulas not working

Symptoms: Excel formula not working correctly, it returns an error or a wrong result.

This section provides a summary of the most common mistakes people make when creating formulas in Excel and solutions to fix them.

1. Match all opening and closing parentheses in a formula

As you know, the arguments of Excel functions are entered within the parentheses. In complex formulas, you may need to enter more than one set of parentheses, one within another, to indicate the order in which the calculations should take place. When creating such a formula, be sure to pair the parentheses properly so that you always have a right parenthesis for every left parenthesis in your formula.

Microsoft Excel displays the parentheses pairs in different colors as you enter them in a formula. If your formula is short of one or more parentheses, Excel displays an error message and suggests a correction to balance the pairs. Please see How to highlight and match parenthesis pairs for more information.

2. Enter all required arguments in an Excel function

All Excel functions have one or more required arguments. Some functions also have optional arguments, which are enclosed in [square brackets] in the formula's syntax.

A formula must contain all of the required arguments, otherwise Excel displays "You've entered too few arguments for this function" alert.

If you have entered more arguments than allowed by the formula's syntax, you will get "You've entered too many arguments for this function" error message.

3. Do not nest more than 64 functions in a formula

When nesting two or more Excel functions into each other, e.g. creating a nested IF formula, remember about the following limitations:

  • In Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel 2010 and Excel 2007, you can use up to 64 nested functions.
  • In Excel 2003 and lower, only up to 7 nested functions can be used.

4. Don't enclose numbers in double quotes

In Excel formulas, any value enclosed in double quotes is interpreted as a text string.

What it means is that if you enter a formula like =IF(A1>0, "1"), Excel will treat number 1 as text, and therefore you won't be able to use the returned 1's in other calculations. To fix this, just remove the double quotes around "1": =IF(A1>0, 1).

So, whenever you are writing a formula for numerical values, follow this simple rule: don't enclose numbers in double quotes unless you want them to be treated as text.

5. Enter numbers without any formatting

When using a number in an Excel formula, don't add any decimal separator or currency sign like $ or €.

Remember that in Excel formulas, a comma is typically used to separate a function's arguments, and the dollar sign makes an absolute cell reference.

For instance, instead of entering $50,000 in your formula, input simply 50000, and use the Format Cells dialog (Ctrl + 1) to format the output to your liking.

6. Make sure numbers are not formatted as text values

Numbers formatted as text values are another common reason for Excel formulas not working. At first sight, they look like normal numbers, but Microsoft Excel perceives them as text strings and leaves out of calculations.

The visual indicators of text-numbers are as follows:

  • Numbers formatted as text are left-aligned by default, while normal numbers are right-aligned in cells.
  • The Number Format box on the Home tab in the Number group displays the Text format.
  • When several cells with text numbers are selected on the sheet, the Status Bar only shows Count, while usually it shows Average, Count and SUM for numbers.
  • There may be a leading apostrophe visible in the formula bar, or green triangles appear in the top-left corner of the cells.

The below screenshot shows that even a simple Excel SUM formula may not work because of numbers formatted as text:
Excel SUM formula not working because of numbers formatted as text values.

To fix this, select all problematic cells, click the warning sign, and then click Convert to Number:
Select cells with numbers formatted as text, click the warning sign, and then click Convert to Number.

In some cases, however, neither green triangles nor the warning sign appear in cells. For example, if you enclose numeric values in double quotes in your formulas, Excel assumes you want to output a text string rather than a number.

At first sight, the following formula appears to be working fine:
=IF(A1="Good", "1", "0")

But the problem is the returned 1's and 0's are text values, not numbers! And if you reference any cells with the above formula in other formulas, those cells won't be included in calculations. As soon as you remove "" surrounding 1 and 0 in the above formula, Excel will treat the outputs as numbers and they will be calculated correctly.

If the small green triangles do not appear in cells for some other reason, look at the Number Format box on the Home tab in the Number group. If it displays Text, try clearing all formatting for the problematic cells, and set the cells' format to Number or General. If that doesn't work, you might have to create a new column, manually input the data (e.g. copy your text-numbers to Notepad, and then back to a new column), and delete the broken column.

Another possible solution is to multiply the values in the problematic column by 1 using a simple formula like =A1*1. And then, copy the formula cells and paste them as values in the same or in any other column via Paste Special > Values.

7. Separate function arguments with a proper character

Most of us are used to separating function arguments with commas. However, this does not work for everyone's Excel. The character you use to separate arguments depends on the List Separator set in your Regional Settings.

Comma is the default list separator in North America and some other countries. In European countries, comma is used as the decimal symbol and the list separator is usually set to semicolon.

For example, in North America you would write =IF(A1>0, "OK", "Not OK"), while European users of Excel should put the same formula as =IF(A1>0; "OK"; "Not OK").

So, if your Excel formulas are not working because of "We found a problem with this formula..." error, go to your Regional Settings (Control Panel > Region and Language > Additional Settings) and check what character is set as List Separator there. And then, use exactly that character to separate arguments in your Excel formulas.

8. Enclose workbook and worksheet names in single quotes

When referring to other worksheets or workbooks that have spaces or non-alphabetical characters in their names, enclose the names in 'single quotation marks'. For example,

Reference to another sheet:
=SUM('Jan Sales'!B2:B10)

Reference to another workbook:
=SUM('[2015 Sales.xlsx]Jan sales'!B2:B10)

For more information, please see How to refer to another sheet or workbook in Excel.

9. Include the full path to a closed workbook

If you are writing a formula that references a closed Excel workbook, your external reference must include the workbook name and entire path to the workbook. For example:

=SUM('D:\Reports\[Sales.xlsx]Jan'!B2:B10)

For more information, please see Creating a reference to another workbook.

If the above tips do not help, try to evaluate and debug each part of your formula individually by using the F9 key and other debugging techniques explained in the following tutorial: How to evaluate and debug formulas in Excel.

Excel formulas not updating

Symptoms: The value returned by your Excel formula does not update automatically, i.e. the formula continues to show the old value even after you've changed the values of the dependent cells.

When Excel formulas are not updating automatically, most likely it's because the Calculation setting has been changed to Manual instead of Automatic. To fix this, just set the Calculation option to Automatic again.

On the Excel ribbon, go to the Formulas tab > Calculation group, click the Calculation Options button, and select Automatic:
For Excel formulas to update automatically, enable 'Automatic' under Calculation Options.

Alternatively, you can change this setting in Excel Options:

  • In Excel 2003, click Tools > Options > Calculation > Calculation > Automatic.
  • In Excel 2007, click Office button > Excel options > Formulas > Workbook Calculation > Automatic.
  • In Excel 2010, Excel 2013, and Excel 2016, go to File > Options > Formulas > Calculation options section, and select Automatic under Workbook Calculation.

Another way to turn on the Automatic Calculation setting.

How to force Excel formulas to recalculate

If for some reason, you need to have the Calculation option set to Manual, you can force the formulas to recalculate by clicking the Calculate button on the ribbon or by using one of the following shortcuts:

To recalculate the entire workbook:

  • Press F9, or
  • Click the Calculate Now button on the Formulas tab > Calculation group.

To recalculate an active sheet:

  • Press Shift + F9, or
  • Click Calculate Sheet on the Formulas tab > Calculation group.

Click the Calculate Sheet button to force the active sheet's formulas to recalculate.

To recalculate all sheets in all open workbooks, press Ctrl + Alt + F9.

If you need to recalculate only one formula on a sheet, select the formula cell, enter the editing mode either by pressing F2 or double clicking the cell, and then press the Enter key.

Excel formulas not calculating

Symptoms: A cell displays the formula, not the result.

If your Excel formula is not working because a cell displays the function instead of the calculated value, it's because one of the following reasons.

1. Show Formulas mode is turned on

The most common reason for an Excel formula not calculating is that you have inadvertently activated the Show Formulas mode in a worksheet.

To get the formula to display the calculated result, just turn off the Show Formulas mode by doing one of the following:

  • Pressing the Ctrl + ` shortcut, or
  • Clicking the Show Formulas button on the Formulas tab > Formula Auditing group.

To get Excel formulas to display the calculated results, turn off the Show Formulas mode.

2. A formula is entered as text

Another frequent reason for your Excel formula not calculating is that the formula has been formatted as text. To check this, select the formula cell, and look at the Number Format box in the Number group on the Home tab:
A formula formatted as text is not calculating.

If it is the case, change the cell format to General, and while in the cell press F2 and Enter for the formula to recalculate and display the calculated value.

3. A formula cell has a leading space or apostrophe before the equal sign

If you have inadvertently entered a space or apostrophe (') before the equal sign, Excel treats the cell contents as text, and consequently does not evaluate any formula within that cell (a leading space often appears when you copy a formula from the web). To fix this, just remove the leading space or single quote.
When a space or apostrophe precedes the equal sign, Excel treats the cell contents as text and does not evaluate the formula.

This is how you deal with formulas not working in Excel. If you know any other solutions to fix formulas not updating or not calculating, please do share in comments. I thank you for reading and hope to see you on our blog next week.

Table of contents

453 comments

  1. My IF formula has worked no problem for 38 rows of my spreadsheet (adding a sequential number) but now no longer works and I believe I have tried every troubleshoot option above. When I compare the formulae the only difference is the row number which has been the same for the formula in every other row. Please can you help?

    =IF(C38="","",LEFT(C38,1)&"-"&RIGHT(YEAR(D38),2)&"-"&MONTH(D38)&"-"&WEEKNUM(D38)&"-"&RIGHT(A38,4)) - This formula works for row 38 & all previous rows and returns C-22-8-35-1036

    =IF(C39="","",LEFT(C39,1)&"-"&RIGHT(YEAR(D39),2)&"-"&MONTH(D39)&"-"&WEEKNUM(D39)&"-"&RIGHT(A39,4)) - This formula works for row 39 & returns
    C-22-4-17-1037

    =IF(C40="","",LEFT(C40,1)&"-"&RIGHT(YEAR(D40),2)&"-"&MONTH(D40)&"-"&WEEKNUM(D40)&"-"&RIGHT(A40,4)) - This formula does not work for row 40 & returns C-22-4-17- where it should return C-22-4-17-1038.

    Unique identifier
    The first letter is the source from column C.
    2nd two digits are the year (column D)
    Next two are the month (column D)
    Next two are the week (column D)
    Last is (should be) the next sequential number

    Thanks

  2. When I paste new data in a sheet excel is stopping calculation if where a row is blank

  3. Hi!

    I have a lot of data in my excel , around 160 000 rows and I have a few formulas in separate column that are supposed to read from the data. I am manually calculating it ,and for some reason it only calculates part of it and then I have to refresh and calculate again ,it happens on smaller samples as well and I never really know how many times should I recalculate to make sure it's fully calculated. Could you please let me know if you have any idea what can be causing it?

    Thanks in advance!

    Best Regards,
    Nino

    • Hello!
      If you use the F9 key, then the formulas changed since the last calculation and the formulas that depend on them are recalculated.
      Try CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F9 key. All formulas in all open workbooks will be recalculated, regardless of whether they have been modified since the last recalculation.
      You can read more details here: Excel calculations: automatic, manual, iterative.
      I hope my advice will help you solve your task.

  4. Dear Sirs:

    I have this formula
    =INDICE(Chiesa[Switch]|COINCIDIR(Instalaciones!$I10|Chiesa[IP]|0))

    if I edit it, for example, adding an extra space at the end, and then removing it, it will never be calculated again. although, formating to text, general, recalculate, etc...

    there is no choice for me to edit it and include an if.na , or other function.

    Please, do you have any ideas?

    Thank you

    Alfredo

  5. I have at least two cells the formulae are not working in a .xlsm file. The formulae are in the cells but the displays are blank, and are on different worksheets. In both cases the adjacent formulae, the only difference being the column/row numbers, are working as intended.

    The simplest of the two formulae is =IF(MAX(Y14:Y17)>NOW()-$B46,MAX(Y14:Y17),0)

    Automatic calculation is set, format for the formula below is set to date (and number on the one below).

    I had been trying to find why the following formula wasn’t working for a couple of days, when today I realised that the date formula above also wasn’t working now.

    =INDEX(Nation2!G$4:G$9999,MATCH(INDIRECT("A"&ROW()),Nation2!B$4:B$9999,0))

    I knew that the first formula was working yesterday. For the last three months I have been saving this file as a back-up yet, when I opened two of the back-ups, the corresponding formulae in those two cells were no longer working correctly.

    On the second formula, the ‘A’ cell value date is ‘31/12/22’ [UK date], and there is one ‘31/12/22’ date in the ‘B’ range, and the corresponding ‘G’ value was not being displayed. However, if I changed the ‘A’ and ‘B’ dates to virtually any other date, the correct ‘G’ value would be displayed. This is true if the dates were any month end bar Dec 22 (including Dec 21 and Dec 23), and having seen it work with ‘15/12/22’ I changed just the ‘15’ element but to no avail.

    • Hi!
      Unfortunately, you didn't explain and I can't guess what doesn't work in your formula.
      If in column B the desired date is in position 4, then the fourth value from column G is returned.

  6. I have a workbook with many different sheets. On one sheet (Master Project List), there are 17 columns and 365 rows of information. I have multiple other sheets that go through this list of projects and separate them into the correct ones (i.e., work plans, under budget projects, over-budget projects, etc.).

    The problem I am having is that if I delete a row from the Master Project List sheet, the data on those other sheets disappears (because it can't reference the cells in the rows that I deleted), and I have to manually copy and paste them back in for it to show data again. (refreshing the calculations doesn't work).

    FORMULAS USED ON WORK PLANS SHEET (for example):
    Column A: =IF('Master Project List'!C2="Work Plan",TRUE,FALSE)
    Column B: =IFERROR(INDEX('Master Project List'!A$2:A$674,SMALL(IF($A$2:$A$1160,ROW($A$2:$A$1160)-ROW($A$2)+1),ROWS($1:1))),"")

    Is there any way to fix it so that when I delete a row on the Master Project List, the cells with TRUE/FALSE can change their reference cell to the row below it (or just delete themselves?

    • I've been using this workaround:
      To "delete" Row 25 from 'Master Project List'
      Highlight Row 26 through the last row that you're using, PLUS the next row or two. This will ensure that the last (previously populated) row doesn't become a duplicate of the 'new' last row.
      (If the last row you're using is 325, you'll highlight rows 26 thru 327)
      COPY
      Select cell A25
      PASTE
      That will keep all dependent formulas intact.

  7. Date....................Day.............Time In............Time Out...........Time In............Time Out...........Total Hours
    5/24/2022.........Tuesday.......08:05AM........12:00PM...........07:00PM ..........12:01 AM ...........#VALUE!

    I used this =(E9-D9)+(H9-G9) Formula. But my computer didn't work. I Go to Region-Additional Date & Time- number-list operator. But didn't work formula.

  8. Date Day Time In Time Out Time In Time Out Total Hours
    5/24/2022 Tuesday 08:05AM 12:00PM 07:00PM 12:01 AM #VALUE!

    I used this =(E9-D9)+(H9-G9) Formula. But my computer didn't work. I Go to Region-Additional Date & Time- number-list operator. But didn't work formula.

  9. I have a budget spreadsheet with a separate sheet for each region and a totals sheet.
    I want to calculate a simple percentage of the total budget used year to date - on the sheet itself it should simply be F2/G2 = xx% - but it always shows 0% as the answer.

    F2 is a sum of B2+C2+D2+E2 (and each of those values pulls from another sheet per row)
    G2 is simply pulling from another cell reference

    so effectively it is a formula calculating cells that are also results of formulas. (of course if I copy the data into a new excel file and the values become absolute, it is a very basic formula that works.

    can this work?

  10. I have Office365 Excel and my formulas don't work at all. Is there a security issue I need to fix? Getting a string value from Column A in Column Z, I used =A365 shows as = [@[COL_A]] not the value from Column A. As well, using

    =XLOOKUP($C:$C,'ExcelSheet2.xlsm]Exceptions'!$I:$I,'[ExcelSheet2.xlsm]Exceptions'!$N:$N,"No Match",0,1)

    does not convert to the expected display value but simply shows the formula itself.

    • Hello!
      The @ symbol means an absolute structured reference to the current row.
      I can't check the formula that contains unique references to your workbook worksheets.
      However, it is written not quite correctly. Try like this -

      =XLOOKUP($C:$C,[ExcelSheet2.xlsm]Exceptions!$I:$I,[ExcelSheet2.xlsm]Exceptions!$N:$N,"No Match",0,1)

  11. I have a cell with =ROUND((2.83 * 1.02264 * 39.2/3.6)*A8,2)&"kwh"

    If I reference this cell to perform a calculation, I get #VALUE

    But if I use =ROUND((2.83 * 1.02264 * 39.2/3.6)*A8,2)&"123"

    It works fine, I thought that what is between the “” was just a sort of tag, and shouldn’t affect calculations

    If it can’t be done then that’s not a serious problem, just would like to understand why it’s happening.

  12. =IF(K2"", IF(E2="", NOW(), E2), "") formula is not working suddenly. Please advice

  13. Make sure the "show formula function" is off is the only method that makes my calculating work. Other method does not work for me. Thank you.

  14. Thanks. that was very helpful :)

  15. Thank you so much! :)

  16. I have a few Excel spreadsheet that I've been using for a few years now, suddenly the formulas don't update in any of the sheets. it returns #Value for all my formulas in all spreadsheets.
    What could possibly have changed - do you think Excel will have to be reinstalled?

  17. I'm facing a problem as a press = and press S no suggestions for function are coming to me and I have to type entire function and tab is also not working. What to do plzz help?

  18. In our office, I and my colleagues are using different versions of excel to create/rewrite/view the documents in the same drivers.

    I've created a new spreadsheet for summing up the total amount of each category for each month, but the parts of AutoSum formula have been changed after I've saved the file/ my colleagues viewed it? I am not sure. The original formula should be =sum(A1, A7), shown at A8 but the final formula now has been changed to =sum(A1, A23), shown at A8. The result on A8 is incorrect but shows figures, not zero.

    Is it a bug? As I don't think we can get figures through the formula which selected range of cells includes A8. It never happened before..... how can I fix it? Sorry for my bad English.

      • Thanks for your reply. What data do you need to see? How can I show you?

        There are six categories in a spreadsheet but each category have their own formula for summing up the total quantity and total values. Now is just one category with the wrong result but I'm sure all in number format.

        Qty Total Amt
        (1st category)
        1.00 132,000.00
        1.00 460,000.00
        2 592,000.00

        (2nd category with wrong result)
        1.00 2,300,000.00
        1.00 390,000.00
        3 2761800

        (3nd category)
        2.00 1,600,000.00
        2 1,600,000.00
        .....

        • Qty Total Amt
          (1st category)
          (I5)1.00 (J5)132,000.00
          (I6)1.00 (J6)460,000.00
          (I7 with sum=I5:I6)2 (J7 with sum J5:J6)592,000.00

          (2nd category with wrong formula & result)
          (I9)1.00 (J9)2,300,000.00
          (I10)1.00 (J10)390,000.00
          (I11 with sum=I9:I23)3 (J11 with sum=J9:J23)2761800

          (3nd category)
          (I15)2.00 (J15)1,600,000.00
          (I16 with sum=I15)2 (J16 with sum=J15)1,600,000.00

  19. Thank you! Worked for me on Excel 365. Looks like MS Office update made the calculation formula to be manual instead of automatic.

  20. I have a active-X control button which runs a routine to change values of cells in my spreadsheet. I had a problem with this not working correctly (my programming error) and my code broke in the middle. I had set auto-calculate off and back on again using the statements below at varying points in my code to make it run faster. Now the auto-calculate does not work. I tried turning it back on with the Toolbar at the top and also using the Formula tab in File-Options. Neither one worked. There are big holes in my spreadsheet which do not update now and I can't seem to fix it. Even forcing calculations with the Toolbar option or by just using F9 or even Shift-F9 will not work. I saved my file and re-opened it but nothing changed. Is this a known issue with Excel?

    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False

    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True

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