Excel Keeps Crashing? 6 fixes, easiest first

Crashes are almost always one of six things. Do them in order and stop when it stops.

1. Update Office

File › Account › Update Options › Update Now. Many crashes are known bugs already fixed.

2. Disable add-ins

File › Options › Add-ins › at the bottom Manage: COM Add-ins › Go › untick everything › OK. Restart Excel. No crash? Re-tick them one by one to find the culprit. Third-party PDF, finance and CRM add-ins are frequent offenders.

3. Turn off hardware graphics acceleration

File › Options › Advanced › Display › tick Disable hardware graphics acceleration. Fixes crashes on scroll, zoom, and when charts appear.

4. It only crashes with one file

• File › Open › select it › Open ▾ › Open and Repair.
• Press Ctrl + End: if it lands far below your data, delete the empty rows/columns after the data and save.
• Conditional Formatting › Manage Rules › This Worksheet — hundreds of rules? Clear and redo.
• Copy the sheets into a brand-new workbook and save that.

5. Repair Office

Windows Settings › Apps › Microsoft 365 › Modify › Quick Repair, then Online Repair if needed.

6. Antivirus

Some scanners hook into Office and crash it on save. Add Excel to the exclusion list, or update the scanner.

Save your work meanwhile

File › Options › Save › AutoRecover every 2 minutes. After a crash, reopen Excel and use the Document Recovery panel.

Check it worked

Work normally for a day. No crash = done. Crash again = next step.