Remove a workbook's connections before sharing it
A workbook you send can, on the recipient's machine, try to reconnect to a website, a database or a network file, and show link errors. This tool removes those connections; the figures already computed stay, frozen.
What this tool does
- Power Query: the queries that fetch data from elsewhere.
- Data connections (web, database, ODBC) and query tables.
- Links to other workbooks.
- The values already in the cells stay: they just no longer refresh.
- The output is an .xlsx, ready to share; nothing is sent.
What it does not do: The tool removes connections, it does not recompute and removes neither macros nor formulas; for macros, see See what a macro does, and to break links in formulas, Remove external links.
No file is uploaded. Turn off your network once this page has loaded: the tool keeps working. How to check it yourself.
Other tools
- Slim down a workbook : Phantom rows, thousands of styles, copied formatting: the extra weight, removed.
- Remove external links : The "this workbook contains links" warning goes away: formulas become values.
- Formulas to values : Paste Special, Values, on the whole workbook at once: the file is frozen.
- Find and replace : A find and replace Excel doesn't have: regular expression, every sheet, text and formulas, with a preview.
- Unmerge cells : Merges removed and the value copied everywhere: you can finally sort and filter.