VBAProject remains in VBE after workbook is closed — persists in Safe Mode

Question

VBAProject remains in VBE after workbook is closed — persists in Safe Mode

Anonymous

I’m using Excel 365 on Windows 11, and I’ve noticed a repeatable issue with the Visual Basic Editor (VBE).

When I open a workbook (.xlsx or .xlsm) and then close it, its VBAProject remains visible in the Project Explorer in VBE — and is still editable — even though the workbook has been closed and does not appear in Application.Workbooks.

This happens even when:

Excel is run in Safe Mode (excel.exe /safe)
No Add-ins are installed or active
The workbook is a simple test file with minimal or no code
Excel is closed cleanly, and no background Excel.exe processes remain

The leftover VBAProject is not removed from the VBE memory and persists until Excel is fully restarted.

Excel Version:
Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2504 Build 16.0.18730.20186) 64-bit

Can anyone from the product team confirm if this is a known issue? Is there a workaround or hotfix planned?

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Get rid of the Google Drive app - that solved this problem for me.

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2 additional answers

Answer 1

Anonymous

I've never seen a truly plausible explanation - file sharing / backup functionality of GDrive, timing of the file close, etc. doesn't really explain Excel's part in all that. But it never happens without GDrive being active, for me, at least.

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Answer 2

Anonymous

Thank You.
I exited the google drive app and the projects are now being removed as expected. I will test some more.
Not sure why the google drive app would cause this behaviour, perhaps someone can cast light on this.

Thanks again for you quick reply.

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