Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Problems with Custom Views.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 31, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Custom views can be a great help in presenting data in a workbook. If you are using custom views, you may be surprised at some point by an error message that says "Some view settings could not be applied."
Don't despair if you see this message; it could simply mean that protection has been applied to one or more of the worksheets involved in the custom view. With protection enabled, any view settings that would violate the protection settings will not be applied and the message is displayed.
The solution is to either modify the view so it doesn't use any of the protected worksheets, or remove the protection from the worksheets used in the view.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10184) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Problems with Custom Views.
Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!
The Format Painter is great for copying formatting from one cell to another. If you don't want to grab the mouse to use ...
Discover MoreInformation in a worksheet needs to be displayed using fonts. If you understand the two different types of fonts ...
Discover MoreHave you ever entered information in a cell only for it to appear as hash marks? This tip explains why this happens, how ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2019-12-20 11:09:19
Walter Rauschenberger
Dear Allen,
Re "Some view settings could not be applied."
You wrote "Don't despair if you see this message" but it seems that there is a serious issue with this message. A CustomView is not Worksheet specific but covers all sheet's appearance in a Workbook - and that is why the message shows up when one is protected as you wrote. However, it appears that re-establishing a CustomView is done sheet by sheet.When re-establishing a CustomView fails because of a protected sheet the CustomView will not be applied for subsequent sheets. In other words: The sheet's sequence matters. Only when sheets not concerned by the CustomView are protected a-n-d come after all unprotected concerned sheets the "don't despair" is correct.
Best regards
Walter Rauschenberger
2016-09-23 14:48:58
Rosa
I have run across a problem with custom views and wanted to share and ask about it in case there's a solution I'm not finding when I Google the issue. I created custom view for a report back in June. The header of this report has a title, fiscal year and an "as of date" that changes as needed. I update the "as of" date to, say, today's date but when I select a custom view, the header reverts back to how it was when I saved it so now the header shows me an old fiscal year and "as of" date, as well as any other font or title changes that happened since I created the custom view. Why does this happen and is there a fix?
2016-01-05 16:06:38
Liz
I found another situation where this happens - if you have a saved custom view filtering for a condition that no longer exists (i.e., omit any zeros in column A of Sheet1, and there are no zeros in that column), you will also get this error. The message will appear even if the filter is on another worksheet than the one you are currently viewing, if it was in effect when the custom view was saved. I resaved all my custom views without that filter on Sheet1 and the error went away.
2015-07-11 12:53:49
srv
A protected worksheet is not the only culprit. Adding a column to a filtered range (after the custom view has been created) also seems to cause this error message when the custom view is shown. I don't know of a way to fix this except to re-define the custom view.
2014-11-04 09:35:58
Jen
I've had custom views in a spreadsheet that isn't protected in any way, and has no tables. I still get the error message "Some view settings could not be applied"
2014-11-03 18:29:34
phil
I posted a request for how to automate the unprotect/protect procedure. With some help from another venue, I've developed the following.
'=EMBED("Forms.CommandButton.1","") Put this button on the worksheet
Private Sub cbCustomView_Click()
ActiveSheet.Unprotect
Application.Dialogs(xlDialogCustomViews).Show
ActiveSheet.Protect contents:=True, DrawingObjects:=True
End Sub
I'm running this on Excel 2010, Windows 7.
2014-11-01 05:10:42
Daniel
Worth mention that if you have a table in your worksheet it disables custom views. Need to format the table as a range.
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
Comments