Can't open Excel after upgrade to Sequoia 15.7.2

swinging gus gorilla wrote:

I don't think it is necessary to download Etrecheck as my iMac is running fine, it's just this minor issue with Excel and nothing else.

Actually, that's quite unusual, for an almost ubiquitous program like Excel to NOT open. There is certainly something wrong, and the fact that it did work in safe mode means something is likely installed that is interfering. Safe mode disables all but Apple native extensions. So some non-Apple extension that is installed is likely the culprit. It might not be a "cleanup app" but do you have anti-virus or any other type of non-Apple security or VPN installed or running? Even if not running, those types of software can interfere as they install things that run in the background, even when "off." One thing that Excel does do is "phone home" to Microsoft periodically to check its license validity. This is done at different times than for the other Microsoft apps if they are being run at different times. If that connection is hampered or affected in any way (security tools, VPN, etc.), then the license check might not finish and an odd error could occur. The Etrecheck program will reveal third party software installed, it keeps all info anonymous, but the Etrecheck report may provide key clues for the cause.

You can also try this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/download-and-install-or-reinstall-office-2021-office-2019-or-office-2016-7c695b06-6d1a-4917-809c-98ce43f86479#id0edbf=office_for_mac_2019_-_2021

I agree that the Office 2021 should still run under Sequoia; in fact I have read that it runs under Tahoe so I think you should be able to use it for a while going forward.

If you're able to open it in Safe Mode means there's some 3rd party software that may be interfering with Excel. Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

Please download and run Etrecheck.  The free version is sufficient.

Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and after clicking on the Reply button use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

swinging gus gorilla wrote:

Hi.

I upgraded to Sequoia 15.7.2 and now I can't open Excel on my iMac.

The other MS Office applications such as Word appear to be fine. Please can you advise on what I should do? Thanks.

Justin

I would start by going to Microsoft forum and see if there is a solution, if not contact Microsoft support.

That's great, you seem to have resolved it yourself! I believe holding the SHIFT key when opening an app will clear preferences and saved info (such as its previous state or its cache), perhaps COMMAND performs something similar. This might mean something being retained from earlier was interfering with normal operation of Excel. Reinstalling would have likely cured it of this but what you did is much less trouble and much faster!