Excel 2013, Macros won't run when sheet is protected

Hi everyone,

Our users here have an Excel workbook which I've created - it relies heavily on macros but they don't seem to work when the document is protected (requiring a password to edit) and the user is on Excel 2013.

Excel 2010 users can use the macros regardless of whether or not the document is protected.
Excel 2013 users can use it provided the document is not protected.

Is this a known problem?


The error message thrown up is:

Cannot run the macro "macroname". The macro may not be available in this workbook or all macros may be disabled

Thanks in advance

Hi Richard,

I've been on the user's machine myself and have enabled Macros for the workbook. I've also tried setting Excel to enable all Macros and reopened the workbook. Finally I tried resaving the workbook and then opening it again, it works fine until protection is applied and that stops working.

That said, it may be the case that it isn't a 2013 exclusive problem - we don't have many here that have upgraded and it was the one notable feature I could find with that user.

When the file was saved, I went into Tools > General options and then set a password to modify.

After doing this, the user was unable to use macros anywhere in the workbook even after entering the correct password to edit the file. She was also unable to use macros when the file was in read only mode.

I was able to use macros on the same file (it's stored on our intranet) from my computer and another user with Excel 2010 was able to use them on his too.

Steps I've taken since Friday (original user = "User X"):

- Tested the problem on another machine with Excel 2013, all buttons worked fine on this user's machine even when the sheet was password protected



- Changed the password on User X's machine, still didn't work.
- Reset all Excel settings to default on User X's machine. No effect.
- Signed in as a different user on User X's machine, buttons didn't work on that profile either

- Ran a macro through the developer tab on User X's machine, this worked fine
- Assigned the same macro to a button on User X's machine, the button did not work
- Wrote a macro on her version of Excel, still could not assign it to a button.

And still everything works when the password is removed from the sheet. Totally stumped. It's just the combination of her machine, a password being set and the macro being assigned to a button that stops it from working.

I unprotect the Sheet while run the macro.
Is this possible?

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