Are your hyperlinks in Excel not working?
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet tool included in the Microsoft Office Suite. This software has been around for more than 30 years and is the go-to application by professionals, students, and various organizations.
With Excel, you can process, manipulate, and analyze large data. Besides numbers, you can also include texts, names, dates, and even links on your worksheet, if necessary.
Hyperlinks in Microsoft Excel allow you to link a file, a page on the internet, or a specific part of your workbook. This way, users who will view your file can access necessary information easier in one worksheet.
Unfortunately, there have been reports from users who encounter issues while using hyperlinks in Excel.
Based on the reports, a “Can’t open the specified file” error shows up whenever they click on a link. Most of the time, this issue is caused by incorrect file paths on the link. However, it can also be due to wrong configurations and drive paths.
Today, we will show you what to do if hyperlinks in Microsoft Excel are not working correctly on your worksheet.
Let’s get started!
1. Check the File Path.
As we’ve mentioned above, hyperlinks that are not working properly on Excel are usually caused by incorrect file paths. If the wrong path is set to your link, don’t expect Excel to find the file automatically for you.
To confirm this, here’s what you need to do:
- On your worksheet, right-click on the hyperlink and select the Edit Hyperlink option.
- After that, check the file path in the Address bar.
- Finally, remove unnecessary characters from the path like percentage icons.
Once done, save the changes and see if the hyperlink works.
2. Change the Drive Name.
Another reason why hyperlinks are not working on Microsoft Excel is if the wrong drive name is specified in the link’s path. To confirm this, right-click on the link and choose Edit Hyperlink to access its options.
From there, check the address bar and see if the right drive is specified. You can go to File Explorer to confirm the name of your storage drive.
Once done, go back to your worksheet and see if the problem is solved.
3. Check Excel Options.
You can also try tweaking the web options in Microsoft Excel if hyperlinks for websites are not working on your worksheet.
Here’s what you need to do:
- In Microsoft Excel, navigate to File > Options.
- Now, go to Advanced and click on Web Options.
- Go to the Files tab and disable “Update links on save”. Click OK afterward to save the changes.
Relaunch Microsoft Excel and check if hyperlinks are now working.
4. Update Microsoft Excel.
At this point, you can try updating Microsoft Excel to patch potential bugs and glitches in the software. The version you are running might have an issue explaining why hyperlinks do not work.
Check out the steps below to update Excel:
- First, open Microsoft Excel and access the File tab.
- Now, go to Accounts.
- Lastly, click on Update Options and choose Update Now or Enable Updates.
Go back to your worksheet afterward and check if the problem is solved.
That brings us to the end of our guide for fixing hyperlinks in Excel that are not working. If you have questions, please drop a comment below, and we’ll do our best to help.
If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂
