How to Disable Link Update Pop-up Message in Excel

When working with Excel received from others, you may get the pop-up message when you first open the Excel file and ask you to update the links. It might be useful, but most time the links are invalid and quite annoying. Please see below how to disable the pop-up message:

Message 1: Ask to Update the Links

You may get the following message:

This workbook contains links to one or more external sources that could be unsafe. If you trust the links, update them to get the latest data. Otherwise, you can keep working with the data you have.

Step 1: To disable the pop-up message, please click the "Data" tab from the ribbon;

Step 2: Click the "Edit Links" command in the "Queries & Connections" section;

Step 3: Click "Startup Prompt" button at the bottom in the new window;

Step 4: In the "Start Prompt" window, check "Don't display the alert and don't update automatic links";

Step 5: Click "OK" to close the window, then click "Close" to close the first window. Save the file and you should not get the pop-up message now.

Message 2: Cannot Update the Links

You may also get a different message as below:

We can't update some of the links in your workbook right now. You can continue without updating their values, or edit the links you think are wrong.

To disable this message, you can repeat the steps above, or directly click "Edit Links" button in the box, then follow the steps mentioned above and repeat step 3, step 4, and step 5.

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