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Find and search error

Michael Geist 0 Reputation points
2026-04-08T21:27:26.9266667+00:00

Just within the past three weeks, Excel has crashed any time I try to do and Find and Replace (Command F and then selecting replace). It doesn't matter how much data I am finding and replacing - just crashes. I looked at the link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5787242/mac-os-ms-excel-crashing-when-using-the-search-fun and none of that has worked. Any ideas?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For education | MacOS
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  1. Hendrix-C 16,725 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-04-08T22:25:24.08+00:00

    Hi @Michael Geist,

    Based on your sharing, I have tried reproducing the same behavior on my MacBook which is currently using Excel 16.107.4 and MacOS Tahoe 26.3.1 but the Find & Search function is working properly, and I couldn't gather more details or insights into the problem causing it. May I confirm since you have checked the article's solutions and you mentioned that "none of that has worked", does that mean you have already tried clearing Excel cache, deleting the .plist holder to reset Excel preferences and also trying with a new MacOS user profile but none of these steps works?

    If that's the case, the last workaround I want to suggest is to do a clean reinstall of Microsoft Excel:

    • First quit all Office apps and then go to Finder > Applications > move Excel app to Trash then clear Trash to permanently delete it
    • Delete the Excel preferences and containers: remove com.microsoft.Excel.plist from ~/Library/Preferences/ and the FontCache folder in ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/
    • After that, reinstall Excel via App Store and try the Replace feature again.

    If the issue still persists, I sincerely encourage you to submit feedback directly to the team through the official Feedback Portal or via Excel in-app Help > Feedback > report an issue. The product team doesn't actively monitor issues on this forum, so submitting feedback through official channels ensures that your input is truly communicated to them and prioritized as a hotfix in a short time since Office for MacOS does receive regular updates including quality and performance improvements.

    I understand this may not be the answer you were hoping for. As a forum moderator, I don’t have the ability to modify built‑in Excel behaviors, I can only help confirm how the product currently works and make sure you have clear information.

    I'm sure there are other users who have been in the same situation but don't know where to share their feedback, so hopefully you will click "Yes" in this post if you can so this answer will be marked as helpful. This pins the post to the pin, making it easier for other users who may be experiencing the same issue to find your post, understand the context, and support your feedback. Your voice matters, and collective feedback is one of the most effective ways to drive meaningful improvement.

    Thank you again for your patience and for bringing this to our attention. While I can't change the product's design, please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions about its current functionality. 

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread

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  2. Michael Geist 0 Reputation points
    2026-04-09T12:40:53.0233333+00:00

    The AI answer did not help. Tried all

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