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Cannot add rows in sheet view/temporary View in excel web. Others can though

Sammy Ali 0 Reputation points
2026-04-23T12:50:14.3133333+00:00

Hello,

We are a group of about 10 users who use an excel online spreadsheet to track sales. When i sort a column by any order, the spreadsheet goes into temporary view (indicated by the black rows and column headers). In this state i cannot add rows, but when others do it they are able to. When i am not in that view i can add rows just fine.

Please see the below error. I have the same permissions as all others. I cleared my cache and cookies, tried different browsers and incognito mode, had the owner remove me and re-add me to the sheet but still same issue. There is no sheet protection by the way. i also tried to unfreeze/freeze the top row and added rows to the bottom of the table but nothing seems to work. But when others do the same thing they are able to add rows.

We also added a new user to the sheet and he was also unable to add just like me. Don't know what is going on. Any insight is appreciated.

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Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Other
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  1. Gabriel-N 17,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-04-23T14:30:46.71+00:00

    Hello Sammy Ali

    May I confirm, when you mentioned that your colleagues can still add rows, they are doing this while in the same Sheet View on the same sheet, right? If so, that behavior is a bit unexpected.

    From my testing, I noticed a similar issue when there are merged cells in the sheet. In that case, it can affect users who are working in Sheet View (Temporary View). For example, I had a merged cell (highlighted in a red box), and interestingly, I was still able to add a column to the left, but not to the right, which triggered the same type of error you are seeing.

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    So at this point, I would suggest checking if there are any merged cells in the sheet, as they might be preventing rows or columns from being added.

    Another thing you can try: Go to the View tab > Sheet View group, and instead of letting Excel automatically create a “Temporary View” when you sort/filter, try clicking New and give it a name (for example: Sammy_Test). In my testing, explicitly creating and saving a Sheet View seems help Excel stabilize editing behavior for that session. In that named view, I was able to add columns even near merged cells.

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    If that still doesn’t help, you might also try duplicating the sheet, and then test whether you can add rows when using Sheet View on the duplicated version. This can help determine whether the issue is specific to the current sheet structure.

    Hope this helps, and I’m looking forward to your update.

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