Excel changes the colour of tick boxes in random cells

Hello Clive Rabson,

I understand why this feels confusing — especially when you expect all the checkboxes to look the same after using Fill Down.

From what you described, the behavior you’re seeing in Microsoft Excel is actually something that can happen on iPad, and it’s usually not caused by anything you did wrong.

What’s happening:

• When you use Fill Down to copy checkboxes, Excel is not just copying a simple value. Checkboxes are treated more like small objects inside the cells.
• On iPad, Excel doesn’t always handle these objects consistently when copying many cells at once. As a result:
• Some checkboxes appear black (normal/active). Some appear grey (inactive-looking)
• Even though they look different, they are often still the same type of checkbox — it’s just a display inconsistency or state issue.

Why this happens:

There are a few common reasons:

• The iPad version of Excel has limitations with object rendering, especially when using Fill Down
• The checkbox’s state or formatting doesn’t copy perfectly across all cells.
• If the file was edited on another device before, there may be mixed checkbox types or formats.

What you can do (step by step) 

Option 1: Use Copy & Paste instead of Fill Down (recommended)

1. Select one checkbox that looks correct
2. Tap Copy
3. Select the full range of cells (e.g. all 100 cells)
4. Tap Paste

This usually keeps the checkbox appearance consistent.

Option 2: Recreate the checkboxes in one consistent way

1. Delete the existing checkboxes in the column
2. Insert a new checkbox in one cell
3. Copy that checkbox
4. Paste it down the column (instead of using Fill Down)

Option 3: Open the file on a computer to fix it

If possible:

1. Open the file in Excel on a PC or Mac
2. Remove the inconsistent checkboxes 
3. Insert new ones and copy them down
4. Save the file and reopen it on your iPad

The desktop version handles this more reliably.

Option 4: Check cell formatting

1. Select the affected column
2. Make sure all cells have the same formatting (no fill color, same style) 

If you’d like, you can share a screenshot of your file, and I can help you pinpoint exactly what’s causing the grey checkboxes in your specific case.

I hope this will help with your situation. Please feel free to reach back if you have further update or more questions.

Best Regards,

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