Date formats in Excel for Mac

Long time Excel user, I had to reformat my MacBook recently and couldn't restore from a backup so I restarted from factory settings. Amongst other apps I've reinstalled Office 365. System region setting is Australia, date format dd/mm/yyyy but in Excel I have to enter mm/dd/yyyy in order to get the correct date to display (and format of the cells is set to dd/mm/yyyy). What am I missing please?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 23, 2025 5:45 AM

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Posted on Sep 23, 2025 6:51 AM

Since you reset to factory settings, check Settings > General > Language & Region. You may need to select Oceania > Australia as your Region.


For more information, see Change how dates, times, and more appear on Mac - Apple Support


If that doesn't correct things then it's an Excel problem and you should contact Microsoft.

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Date formats in Excel for Mac

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