Updating Workbook Links

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 20, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365

1

Normally, if you have linked information in your workbook, the information is updated whenever you open the workbook. There may be times when you need to update the links manually, however. You do this by following these steps:

  1. Display the Data tab of the ribbon.
  2. In the Queries & Connections group, click the Workbook Links tool. Excel displays the Workbook Links task pane at the right side of the program window. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Workbook Links task pane.

  3. Click on the workbook whose links you want to update. Excel expands that workbook name just a bit within the task pane and selects, within the workbook, the first link to the external workbook.
  4. In the options presented in the expanded link area, click the Refresh option.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for any other links you want to update.
  6. Click on Close.

If the Workbook Links tool (step 2) is grayed out, it is because you have no links in your workbook. Note that the links listed in the Workbook Links task pane are to other workbooks. If you have multiple links to the same workbook, then the workbook is listed only once in the task pane. When you choose to refresh the links to that workbook (steps 3 and 4), then all the links to that workbook are refreshed.

If you want to update all of the links instead of doing them individually, you can click the Refresh All option at the top of the Workbook Links task pane. When you are done updating links, you can close the task pane.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (7556) applies to Microsoft Excel 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 7 + 9?

2025-12-21 12:09:45

J. Woolley

The legacy Edit Links dialog (see Figure 1 below) can be opened by adding the Edit Links command to your QAT or to your Custom group in the ribbon; otherwise, use this VBA statement:
    Application.Dialogs(xlDialogOpenLinks).Show
My Excel Toolbox includes the following dynamic array function:
    =ListExLinks([SkipReference], [SkipHeader])
The result of ListExLinks is similar to the Edit Links dialog minus the Update column, but ListExLinks adds an optional Reference column to identify cells that contain a formula referencing the link.
ListExLinks is concerned with external links referenced by the active workbook, but the LinksToMe macro identifies all workbooks having an external link that references the active workbook.
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/

Figure 1. 

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