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Why Won't My Excel VBA Macro Run? 6 Reasons Why You Can't Run Your Microsoft Excel Macro
Why Won't My Excel VBA Macro Run? 6 Reasons Why You Can't Run Your Microsoft Excel Macro
We've all been there - you choose to runa macro, and either you can't find it or - mysteriously - it has vanished off the face of the earth (well, off the face of your computer at any rate). This article explains 6 possible reasons why this can happen.
Reason 1 - You're In the Wrong Workbook
Are you sure you saved the macro in your current workbook? Maybe it's just that you've got the wrong file open. If you press ALT + F11 to view your macros in the VBA code editor and they're not there, chances are you haven't got the right file open.
Reason 2 - Someone Held Down the Shift Key
If you hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard while you open up a workbook, you'll open the file but won't be able to run any macros it contains!
Reason 3 - You Didn't Enable Macros
Silly, I realise - but you did enable macros when you opend the workbook, didn't you? If you open up a workbook and choose to disable the macros it contains, you can't be surprised when they subsequently don't run.
Reason 4 - You've Lost your Work by Saving as XLSX, not XLSM
In Excel 2007 and Excel 2010, when you save a workbook which contains macros you will be asked whether you want to save your file as a macro-enabled workbook, with an XLSM extension. If you answer wrongly, Excel will save the file as an XLSX workbook - and delete all of the macros that you've written in the process.
Reason 5 - You're Already Running a Macro
One reason why you can't runa macro might be that there's one already running. To make sure that this isn't the case:
- presss ALT + F11 to go to the VBA code editor
- click on the reset button on the toolbar to stop any running macros (it's a blue square)
This will also close down any customised user forms (dialog boxes) that you have open in Excel.
Reason 6 - You're in the Wrong Excel Application
Every time that you double-click on an Excelfile in Windows Explorer, Excel will open it in a different application window. These applications are independent of each other, so just because you've got a workbook containing macros open in one Excel application doesn't mean that the macros will be visible in another.
We hope this has helped you track down why you can't run your Excel VBA macro. If you can add to the list above, please add a comment.