External Links to Sharepoint Files Slow to Update (Excel)

Question

_{Friday, November 20, 2015 7:59 PM}

I have a file (Stock) with approx 120 cell references to cells located in files hosted on a sharepoint site.  When I open the Stock file, excel takes some time (10 secs) to update all of the cells as it updates all links.  I appreciate that there would be some lag in updating these links, but it is possible for this process to be quicker and/or for the links to update in the background, rather than having to wait for the links to update before the file itself is viewable?

All replies (2)

_{Monday, November 23, 2015 8:53 AM}

Hi Chin,

Based on your description, it seems that this file contain a lot of links. Did this issue only appear when opening it? Did it work fine when saving it?

As you said you want to open the file without waiting for updating links in Excel, I suggest you try this method:

Go to File- Options- Trust Center- Trust Center Settings- External Content.

Please check "Disable automatic update of Workbook Links"

If your issue not only with opening Excel files, please provide more information. I'm glad to help and follow up your reply.

Regards,

Emi Zhang
TechNet Community Support

Please mark the reply as an answer if you find it is helpful.

If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].

_{Tuesday, November 24, 2015 12:48 AM}

Thanks Emi,

The file I am opening acts as a "front page" of sorts that collates data from a number of separate files, and as such needs to be updated when it opens.  The "stock" file opens automatically when excel opens, and so causes a delay, that I have to wait a few seconds before I can continue to work,  While not a big deal, it is a little frustrating having to wait, where it would be ideal if the link updates were happening in the background.  Our company has recently migrated all our files from a local network server to Sharepoint, and the inevitable wait times as files open etc has also been a source of annoyance, though not insurmoutable.

I wouldn't be surprised if this issue has no real solution, but was interested to know if there was a simple settings fix.  The other option I had considered was to disable automatic updating of links and have excel manually update links after a predetermined time via VBA, though I suspect that would still cause a "freeze up" of the workspace while the links are updated.  The other problem there though, would be that the links wouldn't necessarily be updated in real time apart from file opening.