Formula Omits Adjacent Cells Error in Excel: How to Fix It

If you get an Excel error message saying that your formula omits adjacent cells when you try to enter it, your Excel spreadsheet has probably been modified.

This could mean that the cell has no data, no longer exists, the range has been changed, or there are blank cells in between each cell that you want to include in your formula.

Find tested fixes below:

What can I do if the Excel error formula omits adjacent cells?

1. Uncheck formulas that omit cells

1. Launch your Excel sheet and then click on File.
2. Navigate to Options and then select Formulas.
3. Look for Error checking rules and uncheck Formulas which omit cells in a region.
4. Click OK.

2. Switch from absolute to relative reference

1. Open the Excel sheet and select the cell that contains the formula.
2. Navigate to the formula bar at the top and press F4 until you get the relative reference option.

Absolute and relative references in Excel formulas are two ways to refer to cells in your spreadsheet. They both have their purpose, and sometimes you may find yourself using them interchangeably.

Absolute cell references are the default in Excel. However, there are times when using an absolute reference is not the best option. This type of notation is not always intuitive because it does not take into account the position of the cell that contains the formula.

3. Update the formula to include the cells

When you update the formula to include the cells that you want to reference, Excel can properly evaluate it and display its result properly.

The caveat to this method is that if you have a very large spreadsheet with many formulas, then it can be difficult to track down which cell is causing the problem.

If nothing seems to work, you can opt to ignore the error or seek help from the help task pane in Excel. The built-in tool diagnoses some problems and may be able to recommend a solution.

Excel errors are in no shortage as you can expect to encounter a few hiccups when you’re working with sheets and formulas. We have crafted a dedicated article to help you in case you want to recover a corrupted Excel file so that you don’t have to lose all your work.

In other instances, you may be unable to type in Excel, but we know what you can do to keep things moving as you shall see in our expert guide. To learn more about Excel, don’t miss our guide on how to add a new line in cell in Excel.

Let us know of any other tricks you used if you were in a similar predicament in the comment section below.