Easy Steps to Make Excel Hyperlinks Working
Summary: This blog discusses why hyperlinks won't work in Excel and solutions to fix it. If nothing works, try using Stellar Repair for Excel software to recover your workbook with hyperlinks and all the data intact.
Contents
Hyperlinks in your Excel file could be references to a file’s location on the computer or a location within the same worksheet. Or, hyperlinks might be pointing to a URL. Sometimes, the hyperlinks won’t work and any of the following errors may pop up on your screen on clicking a hyperlink:
‘Cannot open the specified file.’
‘This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.’
Causes of ‘hyperlinks not working in Excel’ problem, and solutions thereof
Here are some of the possible causes behind the ‘hyperlinks not working’ issue and solutions to fix it:
Cause 1 – Change in the name of the hyperlinked file
If the file name that appears in the hyperlink text is different than the actual file name, it will prevent the hyperlink from working.
Solution – Link to the renamed file
Ensure that the links in the Excel file are updated and points to the renamed file. For this, right-click the hyperlink and select ‘Edit the hyperlink’. Next, in the hyperlink address, replace the current filename with the renamed one in the hyperlink address.
Cause 2 – File name has a pound (#) sign
When you create a hyperlink for a file in Excel, you cannot use a pound character (#) in the file name that appears in the hyperlink. That is because the pound sign is not accepted in hyperlinks and may lead to the ‘Cannot open the specified file’ error.
Note: While you can use a pound character in a file name, it cannot be used in hyperlinks in an MS Office document.
Solution – Rename the file name and remove the pound sign
Open the file that contains the ‘#’ sign and rename it by following these steps.
- Right-click the cell containing the hyperlink that is not working, and click Edit Hyperlink.
- From the Address box, copy the address of the file you are linking to.
- Go to the location where the file is stored, right-click on the file, and click Rename.
- Remove the ‘#’ character from the name of the file.
- Go back to the Excel file, right-click on the problematic hyperlink, and choose Edit Hyperlink. Next, browse and select the renamed file.
- The renamed file without the pound sign will be added in the Address box.
- Click OK.
Now try opening the hyperlink.
Cause 3 – Sudden system shutdown causes abrupt closing of Excel
There may be a discrepancy in the data in hyperlinks when a system shut down suddenly, without properly closing the Excel file. And so, when trying to open a link, it won’t open.
Solution – Enable the option to save hyperlinks
There is an inbuilt option in Excel to update hyperlinks every time the workbook is saved. Follow these steps to enable that option:
Note: The steps may vary based on the Excel version you are using.
For Excel 2013, 2016, or 2019:
- Open Excel Workbook -> Go to File->Options->Advanced
- Scroll down to find the General tab and click on Web Options
- Web Options Window pops-up
- In the Web Options Window, go to Files Tab and select the ‘Update Links on save‘ checkbox
- Click on OK button and your option is saved
The steps are also explained in the image below:
For Excel 2007:
- Click the Office button
- Select Excel Options, then follow Step 1) to Step 5), as mentioned above and get the Excel Hyperlinks to work again.
Still unable to open hyperlinks in Excel?
If you fail to make Excel hyperlinks work using the above-discussed solutions, use an Excel repair tool to fix the hyperlinks issue. Download the Stellar Repair for Excel to repair an XLS/XLSX file and restore the hyperlinks.
See the working of the tool here:
The tool recovers all components of the Excel file including tables, charts, chart sheets, cell comments, images, formulas, and more. You can repair multiple worksheets and fix all dysfunctional Excel hyperlinks across multiple worksheets in a single workbook. Click on the workbook, select all worksheets and start repairing
Conclusion
Carefully read the possible causes behind the ‘Excel Hyperlinks not working’ issue to understand what resulted in the issue in the first place. If nothing helps, use Stellar Repair for Excel to restore the hyperlinks and save the result in a new Excel file, without interfering with worksheet properties and cell formatting.
After several attempts at resolving the hyperlinks issue, I came across your post and tried the solutions. Was finally able to fix the issue, thanks!
Is this Working on Windows 10?
Hi Alan, yes these solutions and our software Stellar Repair for Excel are compatible with window 10.
You actually make it seem so easy together with your presentation. I’m having a look forward to your subsequent publish, I will try to
get the hang of it!
Hi, Ramen thank you so much for your feedback. keep reading and learning.
IF still crashing after this steps
please look into C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel (replace user name with your user name, you can directly reach here by copy and pasting following without quotes in Explorer address bar – “%appdata%\Microsoft\Excel”) and see if is contains few files / folders. Move those files to some other location (i.e create a backup of those files / folders and delete all files / folders from here). Hence, make Excel folder blank.
Now open Excel and see if the problem disappears or not…
Worked for me!
Hope, it wouldn’t happen again.
For anyone who’s tried everything, almost literally, and nothing worked, here’s a solution:
Install Internet Explorer. Yes, as stupid as it may be, it was the only thing that worked for me after weeks trying to solve this.
On Windows 10, go to settings, apps, manage optional functionalities, click Internet Explorer 11 and install.
That’s it, instantly every hyperlink worked for me, either withing document, to others, or even browser links.
Thanks for sharing your creative findings with our blog readers.
Now, my Excel hyperlinks are working. Thank YOU!
As per the above method, I have done but not getting the desired outcome.
Can I get any other options?
Please make sure that all steps implemented without a single error. If still, you are unable to find the root cause then try Stellar Repair for Excel.
So how do you explain the situation where if I click the link in Excel for SOME websites, it either won’t open (or in some cases takes me to a DIFFERENT URL which states “You may need to update your browser. I don’t.) , but if I copy and paste the cell contents into the browser it WILL take me to the correct location?
If you still unable to fix this one error after implementing several troubleshooting tips, then go for Stellar Repair for Excel. You can start with its free demo.
Well for me, some links open and some won’t. But those that don’t have the correct hyperlink … I checked after trying to edit them. And when i copy them and paste them into the browser they open immediately. Some links open directly from Excel to Chrome.
I don’t understand what the issue is. Any feedback/solution to the problem will be highly appreciated.
Regards,
RNB
Don’t worry Ravi, this happens sometimes but you can go for Stellar Repair for Excel. This will solve your problem. You can start with our demo version.
Now, it’s running fine and no more pop-up of error message. It took only 15 minutes to make the Excel Hyperlinks functional.
Good Efforts!
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