A formula that is not calculating shows one of two symptoms, and they point at different causes. If the cell shows the formula text itself, =SUM(B2:B4) sitting in the grid where a number should be, Excel is storing or displaying the formula as text: a Text-formatted cell, Show Formulas mode, or a stray character before the =. If the cell shows a number but the number is stale, ignoring edits to the cells it depends on, calculation is almost certainly set to Manual.
The fastest first check covers the second case: press F9. If the numbers jump, you have your diagnosis, and the first section below is the fix. If nothing moves, work down the remaining causes in order; each has a specific, repeatable fix.
Why are my formulas not updating when I change a cell?
By default Excel recalculates every dependent formula each time you change a value, a formula, or a name. That default is called Automatic, and it can be switched off. With calculation set to Manual, Excel updates formulas only when you manually recalculate, so edits land in the grid while every total built on them keeps showing the old answer.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Region | Sales |
| 2 | North | 500 |
| 3 | South | 700 |
| 4 | Total | 1,100 |
The setting lives in two places. On the ribbon: the Formulas tab, Calculation group, Calculation Options, where you pick Automatic or Manual. In the options dialog, in Excel for Windows: File, then Options, then the Formulas category, under Workbook Calculation in the Calculation options section. Either route sets the same thing, and in the Excel desktop apps changing it affects all open workbooks, not only the one you changed it in. That reach is why the symptom spreads: one workbook that needed Manual mode leaves every other open workbook manual too. Excel for the web behaves differently on this point; there, per Microsoft, changing the calculation option affects the current workbook only, not other workbooks open in the browser.
While calculation is Manual, the recalculation keys are how you refresh results. Per Microsoft’s calculation-options page, F9 means “Recalculate formulas that have changed since the last calculation, and formulas dependent on them, in all open workbooks.” Shift+F9 does the same for the active worksheet only, and Ctrl+Alt+F9 recalculates every formula in every open workbook whether it changed or not.
Two side effects of Manual mode matter here. When you select it, Excel automatically ticks a Recalculate workbook before saving check box, so a saved file normally gets fresh numbers on the way out; if someone cleared that box to speed up saving, the file on disk can hold stale results too. And Manual mode is not a malfunction: people turn it on deliberately in slow, heavily linked models. The problem is that Excel gives no visible cue that the mode changed, so the next person reads old numbers as current ones.
The fix, once you want live results again: Formulas > Calculation Options > Automatic.
Why is Excel showing the formula instead of the result?
This is the other symptom family: the cell displays =SUM(B2:B4) as text. Which fix applies depends on whether it is one cell or the whole sheet.
The cell was formatted as Text before you typed the formula
If a single cell shows its formula, the usual cause is that the cell carried the Text number format when the formula was entered, so Excel stored the characters instead of calculating them.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Item | Amount |
| 2 | Rent | 1,150 |
| 3 | Power | 240 |
| 4 | Internet | 60 |
| 5 | Total | =SUM(B2:B4) |
Microsoft’s fix has two parts, and both matter: right-click the cell and select Format Cells, then General (or press Ctrl+1), then press F2 and Enter. The F2 and Enter step re-enters the formula. Changing the format alone does nothing visible, because the cell still contains the text it stored; the formula has to be entered again under the new format.
Show Formulas mode is on for the whole sheet
If every formula on the sheet is showing as text at once, nothing is wrong with the cells. Show Formulas mode is on, a view toggle that switches the sheet between displaying formulas and displaying results. It is genuinely useful for reviewing a sheet’s logic, and genuinely alarming when someone hits its shortcut by accident.
Turn it off where it was turned on: the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, select Show Formulas, or press Ctrl+` (the grave accent key, under Esc on most keyboards). The tell that separates this cause from the Text-format one: Show Formulas affects every formula on the sheet; a Text-formatted cell affects only itself.
The opposite arrangement exists as well, and it confuses reviews in the other direction. Excel can hide formulas on a protected sheet: mark the cells as Hidden on the Protection tab of the Format Cells dialog, then protect the sheet via Review and Protect Sheet, and the results display while the formula bar shows nothing for those cells. Microsoft notes the procedure also stops those cells being edited. If you can see results but not the formulas behind them, look for that setup and use Review, then Unprotect Sheet.
An apostrophe or a space before the equal sign
Excel decides whether an entry is a formula by how it starts. Microsoft’s troubleshooting page puts it plainly: “If your entry doesn’t start with an equal sign, it isn’t a formula, and won’t be calculated”, and calls it a common mistake. A space typed before the = means the entry starts with a space, so the whole thing is text. An apostrophe does the same job on purpose: Microsoft documents the leading apostrophe as the way to tell Excel to treat a number as text, and it does the same to a formula, which is exactly what you do not want.
The fix is the obvious one: edit the cell, delete the apostrophe or the leading space, and press Enter.
What if the formula calculates but returns an error?
A cell showing #REF!, #VALUE!, #NAME?, or #DIV/0! is a different situation from everything above: the formula is calculating, and the calculation is failing. Each error value names its own cause, and each has its own fix; the full vocabulary is in Excel’s error values, explained.
Two nearby cases are worth naming because they masquerade as “not working.” A lookup that returns #N/A is usually running correctly and failing to find a match, most often over a missing exact-match argument or a type mismatch; that one has its own walkthrough in the VLOOKUP #N/A guide. And a formula that calculates without complaint but returns the wrong number after being copied down a column usually lost a $: a relative reference shifted when the formula moved. Cell references in Excel covers when to lock a reference and when not to.
Why does my formula show 0 or a value that never changes?
A formula that displays 0 for no visible reason, or a result that stopped moving even though calculation is Automatic, can be a circular reference: the formula depends on its own cell, directly or through a chain of other formulas. Excel shows a warning the first time it finds one; after that, per Microsoft’s circular-reference page, the cell shows either a zero or whatever it last managed to calculate, and it sits there quietly.
The check is quick. Look at the status bar at the bottom left for the words Circular References, then use the Formulas tab, the arrow next to Error Checking, and Circular References to jump to the offending cell. Repointing the formula so it no longer includes its own cell is the fix; the full treatment, including the rare intentional case with iterative calculation, is in Circular references in Excel.
The short version
Match the symptom to the cause and the fix follows.
- The number is stale and F9 fixes it: calculation is set to Manual. Set Formulas > Calculation Options back to Automatic, and remember the setting spans all open workbooks in desktop Excel.
- Every formula on the sheet shows as text: Show Formulas mode. Toggle it off on the Formulas tab or with Ctrl+` (grave accent).
- One cell shows its formula as text: the cell was formatted as Text first. Set it to General (Ctrl+1), then F2 and Enter to re-enter the formula.
- The entry starts with an apostrophe or a space: it is text by definition, because it does not start with
=. Delete the leading character. - The cell shows an error value: the formula runs and fails. Read the error; each one names its cause.
- The cell shows 0 or froze: check the status bar for Circular References.
The common thread is that none of these announce themselves. A workbook can carry a Manual-mode stale total or a text-formatted “formula” through three reviews without anyone noticing, because the grid looks normal. If a number that turned out to be stale already went out the door, compare the sent version against the corrected one so you can say precisely which figures were affected instead of guessing.
