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How to Fix Excel Crashing or Freezing

Applies toExcelMicrosoft 365Windows 10Windows 11
10 min fix Updated 23 Aug 2026

By , 10+ years in IT support and helpdesk How these guides are checked

Quick Answer

Start Excel in Safe Mode: hold Ctrl and double-click the Excel icon, then click Yes. If Excel is steady that way, an add-in is the cause — turn them off under File > Options > Add-ins. If one workbook crashes and the rest are fine, run Open and Repair on it.

Checked against Microsoft Learn - Windows release health, Microsoft 365 Roadmap and between 5 Aug 2026 and 12 Sep 2026. Nothing published in that period has been linked to this guide.

Summary ​

This article covers Excel that freezes mid-edit, shows "(Not Responding)" in the title bar, draws a blank white window, or closes itself when one particular workbook opens. The steps work through the four causes in the order that rules the most out fastest: add-ins, graphics acceleration, a damaged workbook, and a damaged Excel installation. Most people find the answer in the first two steps.

Symptoms ​

  • Excel is frozen — you click and type, and the window does not react.
  • The title bar shows (Not Responding) next to the file name.
  • The Excel window turns white or grey and stops drawing your spreadsheet.
  • Excel crashes every time one particular file opens, while other files work fine.

In this guide

Before You Start ​

Instructions ​

1. Start Excel in Safe Mode ​

Safe Mode starts Excel with every add-in and customization switched off, which separates a problem in Excel itself from a problem an add-in is causing.

  1. Close Excel completely.
  2. Find the Excel icon on your taskbar, Start menu, or desktop.
  3. Hold Ctrl and double-click the icon.
  4. Excel asks whether you want to start in Safe Mode. Click Yes.
  5. The title bar now reads Excel (Safe Mode). If holding Ctrl does nothing, press Win + R, type excel /safe, and click OK — the two routes do the same thing.
  6. Work in Safe Mode for a few minutes: open the file that usually crashes, scroll it, and edit a cell.
  7. If Excel is steady in Safe Mode, an add-in is the cause — go to Step 3.
  8. If Excel still crashes in Safe Mode, add-ins are not the cause — continue to Step 2.

2. Turn Off Hardware Graphics Acceleration ​

A graphics driver that Excel cannot drive correctly shows up as a white window, a frozen scroll, or a crash on older machines.

  1. Open Excel.
  2. Go to File > Options.
  3. Select Advanced from the left menu.
  4. Scroll down to the Display section.
  5. Tick Disable hardware graphics acceleration. Nothing is removed from your machine — untick the same box to put acceleration back.
  6. Click OK and restart Excel.
  7. If the freezing stops, leave the setting off — it costs you nothing on an office workbook. Go to Step 7 to confirm the fix held.
  8. If nothing changes, go to Step 4 when only one file crashes, or Step 6 when every file does.

3. Find and Disable the Add-in Causing the Crash ​

Add-ins from PDF tools, accounting packages, and reporting software are the most common single cause of Excel crashing.

  1. Open Excel normally, not in Safe Mode.
  2. Go to File > Options > Add-ins.
  3. At the bottom of that pane, next to Manage, select COM Add-ins and click Go.
  4. A list of installed add-ins appears, each with a checkbox.
  5. Clear every checkbox and click OK. Nothing is uninstalled — every box you clear here can be ticked again at any time.
  6. Restart Excel and use it normally for ten minutes.
  7. If the crashing stops, one of those add-ins was the cause. Re-enable them one at a time, restarting Excel after each, until the crash comes back — that add-in is the one.
  8. Leave the culprit switched off. If it is a tool you need for your job, raise a ticket naming the add-in and the version shown in File > Options > Add-ins, and ask for a build that works with your version of Excel.
  9. If the crashing continues with every add-in off, continue to Step 4.

4. Repair the Workbook That Crashes ​

When one workbook crashes and every other file opens normally, the damage is in that file rather than in Excel.

  1. Open Excel and start a blank workbook.
  2. Go to File > Open > Browse.
  3. Click your file once to select it — do not double-click it.
  4. Click the arrow next to the Open button.
  5. Select Open and Repair, then select Repair to recover as much of the workbook as Excel can read.
  6. If Repair cannot recover the data, run it again and select Extract Data instead, which pulls out the values and formulas.
  7. Save the result under a new name so the original file is still there if you need it.
  8. If the repaired copy opens and behaves, check any sheet with formulas before you rely on it, then go to Step 7.
  9. If the repair fails or Excel crashes during it, continue to Step 5.

5. Open the File in Excel for the Web ​

The browser version opens the same workbook without your add-ins, drivers, or local settings, so it separates a damaged file from a damaged installation.

  1. Go to your file in OneDrive or on the SharePoint site where it lives.
  2. Click the file name once. It opens in Excel for the web.
  3. If the workbook opens and scrolls normally in the browser, the file is fine and the problem is on your computer — go to Step 6.
  4. If the browser shows the same problem, the workbook itself is damaged. Return to Step 4 and repair it, or ask the person who sent it for a fresh copy.

6. Repair Your Office Installation ​

If Excel still crashes with add-ins off and a healthy file open, the Excel program files themselves may be damaged.

  1. Close every Office app.
  2. Press the Start key, type Installed Apps, and press Enter.
  3. Find Microsoft 365 (or Office) in the list.
  4. Click the … (three dots) next to it and select Modify.
  5. Select Quick Repair and click Repair. This takes 5–10 minutes and does not need an internet connection. Your files and settings are left alone.
  6. Open Excel and test.
  7. If the crashing continues, repeat from step 2 and choose Online Repair instead — it takes 15–30 minutes, needs an internet connection, and is more thorough.
  8. If it still crashes after an Online Repair, go to Step 8.

7. Verify the Fix Held ​

A crash that stops for ten minutes has not been fixed yet, so the last step is a deliberate re-test of the thing that used to break.

  1. Restart Excel normally, without Safe Mode.
  2. Open the workbook that used to crash and do the exact thing that triggered it — scroll to the bottom, recalculate, print-preview, whatever it was.
  3. Leave Excel open with that file for the rest of the day.
  4. If it holds, you are done.
  5. If it comes back, note what you were doing at the moment it crashed and go to Step 8 — that detail is the most useful thing in the ticket.

8. When to Contact IT ​

The local fixes are exhausted by this point, so the ticket needs the four facts IT cannot see from their side. Paste this into the ticket and fill in the blanks:

Excel crashes when I ______ in the file ______. It still crashes in Safe Mode: yes / no. Hardware graphics acceleration is off: yes / no. Quick Repair and Online Repair have both completed. The crash started on ______.

Raise a ticket if:

  • Excel crashes in Safe Mode and after a full Online Repair.
  • The same workbook crashes Excel on a colleague's computer as well — that points at the file, and it may need recovering from a backup.
  • Excel crashes only on files from one shared drive or one SharePoint site.
  • The crash arrived on the same day as a Windows or Office update.
  • You see an error naming a specific add-in you are not allowed to remove.

Troubleshooting ​

TIP

A workbook with more than about 10,000 formulas will be slow whatever you fix here. Save it as .xlsb (Excel Binary Workbook) from File > Save As, which loads and saves markedly faster than .xlsx at that size.

Symptom / ErrorPotential CauseSolution
White or grey window that never drawsGraphics accelerationTurn it off (Step 2).
Crashes on Print or Print PreviewPrinter driverSet the default printer to Microsoft Print to PDF and try again. If that works, the driver is the problem — name the printer in your ticket.
Steady in Safe Mode, crashes normallyAn add-inIsolate it (Step 3).
One workbook crashes, all others fineDamaged fileOpen and Repair (Step 4), then confirm in the browser (Step 5).
Every Office app crashes, not only ExcelDamaged installationQuick Repair, then Online Repair (Step 6).
Crashes started after an updateUpdate compatibilityOnline Repair (Step 6); if it persists, say which update in the ticket (Step 8).

Last updated:

Frequently asked questions

Why does Excel freeze every time I scroll?
That is usually graphics rendering rather than the spreadsheet. Go to File > Options > Advanced, find the Display section, tick 'Disable hardware graphics acceleration', and restart Excel. Step 2 of this guide walks through it.
How do I permanently remove a bad Excel add-in?
Go to File > Options > Add-ins, select COM Add-ins next to Manage and click Go, clear the checkbox next to the add-in causing crashes, and click OK. Re-enable them one at a time to find which one it was — step 3 of this guide covers the isolation method.
Will Open and Repair change my numbers?
Open and Repair rebuilds the parts of the file it can read and tells you what it could not recover. Work on a copy, and check the totals on any sheet with formulas before you keep the repaired version.