How to find broken links in Excel

Use the Find Broken Links tool to quickly find all broken external references in your Excel sheet. Get all the found links displayed on the add-in pane, review and fix them.

Note. The tool checks references to other Excel sheets and cells only, hyperlinks are not supported.

Open Excel table where you need to find links and run the add-in by clicking the Find Broken Links icon in the Search group on the Ablebits Tools tab:
Run Find Broken Links.
You will see all broken links displayed in a tree view on the Find Broken Links pane:
Find valid and invalid external links.
If you want the tool to display not only broken links but all the found ones, clear the Broken links only checkbox and click the Refresh button. The broken links will be marked by a light red background:
Find all links.
Also, you can select the type of links to be shown by opening the drop-down list:
Find all links.

To fix a link, right-click it on the add-in pane and select the needed action:
Fix external broken links, edit the path, change book or worksheet.

  • You can click Change Path and set the right source directory:
    Change path and find the correct file.
  • To browse for the folder with the correct linked file, pick Change Workbook or Change Sheet:
    Change worksheet or workbook to correct a reference.

How to open source files

To open the linked file, right-click the reference on the add-in panel and select the Open Source option:
Open the linked file.

Please contact us here

Our working hours:
Pacific Time (PT) 11:00 PM (previous day) – 2:00 PM
Central European Time (CET) 08:00 - 23:00
Eastern Time (ET) 2:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Central Time (CT) 1:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Pacific Time (PT) 11:00 PM (previous day) – 2:00 PM
Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) 6:00 PM – 9:00 AM (next day)
If you want to attach files (e.g. screenshots or log files), it will be possible right after you send this form and we automatically create a support ticket for you.