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Google Sheets Formulas Not Working

Sometimes in Google Sheets, you may encounter problems where your formulas don’t seem to be working properly.

It’s always frustrating when your formulas are not calculating properly.

In this tutorial, I will show you 4 different ways to troubleshoot when your formulas aren’t working in Google Sheets.

Table of Contents

Troubleshooting Formulas Not Working

Refresh Your Spreadsheet

One of the first things you want to try when your formulas aren’t working properly is a simple refresh on your spreadsheet.

To do this in the top left corner of your browser select the refresh button. You can also press F5 on your keyboard to refresh. Sometimes a simple refresh will fix your problems.

Refresh

Change Your Calculation Settings

If your formulas still aren’t working, you can try adjusting your calculation settings.

Here’s how this is done:

  1. In the top menu select File and then select Spreadsheet settings

Calculations-1

2. Change the option to calculation. From here try toggling the different settings. You can adjust the recalculation and iterative calculation settings and hit save

Calculation Settings

 

Sometimes simply changing these settings and then reverting them back to the default can fix your problems.

Restore an Earlier Version

If your formulas still aren’t working, sometimes restoring an earlier version is the only way to go.

Here’s how to do this:

  1. Click the last edit section next to the help button in the top menu
  2. In the version history popup on the right hand side, click the three-dot menu next to the version you want to restore
  3. From you here, you can restore a version or make a copy of it. Click on the option you want
  4. If you are restoring a previous version, select Restore from the popup menu

Restore Version

Make a Copy of Your Spreadsheet

Lastly if none of the above work you might want to copy your spreadsheet into a new workbook and see if this fixes the issue.

In the top menu select File and then select Make a copy.

Make a copy

Closing Thoughts

There are a number of reasons that a formula might not be working, but if you go through the troubleshooting steps above, you will likely be able to resolve thie issue.

More Google Sheets Tutorials:
Notes vs. Comments
How to Do Math Formulas
How to Convert Formulas to Values