EXCEL imbedded sheets major problems in a long used sheet

Jackie Jackson 0 Reputation points
2026-09-16T23:49:31.4566667+00:00

I Excel every day to create two new sheets and discard two month-old sheets. These sheets have multiple imbedded images and I have been doing this for years. As of today, Excel is very sluggish and imported images move and disappear which I have never seen before. Also, it takes a very long time to save the book when it took only 1 or 2 seconds for the past 2 years.

I do the same thing every day, adding two new sheets into the book and deleting 2 month-old sheets.

Has a recent ISO or EXCEl update done something to cause this? If I was doing something different, I would think it was me but I have been doing the same thing everyday for years and WHAM today it slows to a snails pace and even while working on the sheets the images that have been placed move and disappear but then re-appear! I have never seen this before and I have been using and paying for Excel for years.

Has anyone else seen such things? The size of the book remains very nearly the same size always since it always has the same number of sheets (2X the number of days in the past month - max 62). Any advice would be appreciated…

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | iOS
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  1. Hendrix-V 19,035 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-09-17T05:55:14.7533333+00:00

    Hi Jackie Jackson,

    Based on your description, the fact that the workbook size and daily process have remained essentially unchanged for years, and the issue appeared suddenly, this may point to a problem related to how Excel is currently handling embedded objects or graphics rather than a change in your workbook design. The symptoms you describe, including slow saving, image flickering, and images temporarily disappearing and reappearing, can sometimes occur when Excel encounters rendering or workbook object-related issues.

    As a few quick checks, you could try:

    1, Test in a new workbook

    • Create a blank workbook.
    • Insert a few images.
    • Save and move the images around.
    • Compare the performance with your existing workbook.

    2, Disable hardware graphics acceleration

    • Excel > File > Options > Advanced.
    • Under Display, enable Disable hardware graphics acceleration.
    • Restart Excel and test again.

    3, Create a workbook copy

    • Save a copy of the workbook with a new name.
    • Remove several older sheets from the copy.
    • Check whether saving and image behavior improve.

    4, Check for Office updates

    • Open any Office app.
    • Go to File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.
    • Install any available updates and retest.

    If the issue only occurs in this specific workbook while new workbooks behave normally, that would help narrow the investigation toward workbook-specific content rather than Excel itself.

    Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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