why does excel create multiple copies (as many as 18) of a file?
 

Excel creates copy after copy of the same file! It doesn't open multiple
copies, just lists them - makes looking through my excel directory for a
partoicular file extremely slow.How can I stop this?

I've never seen excel do this.

What do those 18 file names look like?

Any chance you have a "helpful" addin that's not working correctly?

Beezie wrote:

Excel creates copy after copy of the same file! It doesn't open multiple
copies, just lists them - makes looking through my excel directory for a
partoicular file extremely slow.How can I stop this?

--

Dave Peterson

Thanks for your reply, Dave. In a sample file entitled "MH1", the filenames
look like this:
Copy (2) of MH1
Copy (3) of MH1
Copy (4) of MH1
and so on up to 30 copies (of each file) at last count!
I also get copies of copies, e.g.
Copy (33) of copy of MH1
I've checked the "save" options in case I had indavertently ticked
something, but no.
Deleting the copies does no good - they just replicate.
Beezie


"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I've never seen excel do this.

What do those 18 file names look like?

Any chance you have a "helpful" addin that's not working correctly?

Beezie wrote:

Excel creates copy after copy of the same file! It doesn't open multiple
copies, just lists them - makes looking through my excel directory for a
partoicular file extremely slow.How can I stop this?

--

Dave Peterson

The only time I've seen that is when I've used windows explorer to copy|paste
the file within the same folder.

I'd close excel and reopen in safe mode.
windows start button|run
excel /safe

and test it out a bit.

My bet is that you won't see the problem.

I'm guessing that you have an addin that's helping you.

Close excel and open it normally.

Look in tools|addins and uncheck all the selected items (keep track of what you
did).

Now close excel and look in your XLStart folder for workbooks that load when you
start excel. Move all those workbooks to a nice safe location.

Now reopen excel and see if the problem still exists.

If it's gone, then one of those things you turned off/moved could have been the
culprit.

Start adding them back one by one--and restart excel after each. See when the
problem comes back. Then you've got the problem. The solution will will depend
on whether you can just keep that turned off or if you can find the developer to
turn off that feature.

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to diagnose startup errors at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

And Jan Karel Pieterse has more notes at:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.htm

Beezie wrote:

Thanks for your reply, Dave. In a sample file entitled "MH1", the filenames
look like this:
Copy (2) of MH1
Copy (3) of MH1
Copy (4) of MH1
and so on up to 30 copies (of each file) at last count!
I also get copies of copies, e.g.
Copy (33) of copy of MH1
I've checked the "save" options in case I had indavertently ticked
something, but no.
Deleting the copies does no good - they just replicate.
Beezie

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I've never seen excel do this.

What do those 18 file names look like?

Any chance you have a "helpful" addin that's not working correctly?

Beezie wrote:

Excel creates copy after copy of the same file! It doesn't open multiple
copies, just lists them - makes looking through my excel directory for a
partoicular file extremely slow.How can I stop this?

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson

Thanks, Dave - I'll try this and let you know! I did look in "add-ins" and
there are none....

Beezie

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

The only time I've seen that is when I've used windows explorer to copy|paste
the file within the same folder.

I'd close excel and reopen in safe mode.
windows start button|run
excel /safe

and test it out a bit.

My bet is that you won't see the problem.

I'm guessing that you have an addin that's helping you.

Close excel and open it normally.

Look in tools|addins and uncheck all the selected items (keep track of what you
did).

Now close excel and look in your XLStart folder for workbooks that load when you
start excel. Move all those workbooks to a nice safe location.

Now reopen excel and see if the problem still exists.

If it's gone, then one of those things you turned off/moved could have been the
culprit.

Start adding them back one by one--and restart excel after each. See when the
problem comes back. Then you've got the problem. The solution will will depend
on whether you can just keep that turned off or if you can find the developer to
turn off that feature.

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to diagnose startup errors at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

And Jan Karel Pieterse has more notes at:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.htm

Beezie wrote:

Thanks for your reply, Dave. In a sample file entitled "MH1", the filenames
look like this:
Copy (2) of MH1
Copy (3) of MH1
Copy (4) of MH1
and so on up to 30 copies (of each file) at last count!
I also get copies of copies, e.g.
Copy (33) of copy of MH1
I've checked the "save" options in case I had indavertently ticked
something, but no.
Deleting the copies does no good - they just replicate.
Beezie

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I've never seen excel do this.

What do those 18 file names look like?

Any chance you have a "helpful" addin that's not working correctly?

Beezie wrote:

Excel creates copy after copy of the same file! It doesn't open multiple
copies, just lists them - makes looking through my excel directory for a
partoicular file extremely slow.How can I stop this?

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson

Did this, but the files appeared even in safe mode. There are definitely no
add-ins.
It's a mystery - but thank you very much for your efforts.

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

The only time I've seen that is when I've used windows explorer to copy|paste
the file within the same folder.

I'd close excel and reopen in safe mode.
windows start button|run
excel /safe

and test it out a bit.

My bet is that you won't see the problem.

I'm guessing that you have an addin that's helping you.

Close excel and open it normally.

Look in tools|addins and uncheck all the selected items (keep track of what you
did).

Now close excel and look in your XLStart folder for workbooks that load when you
start excel. Move all those workbooks to a nice safe location.

Now reopen excel and see if the problem still exists.

If it's gone, then one of those things you turned off/moved could have been the
culprit.

Start adding them back one by one--and restart excel after each. See when the
problem comes back. Then you've got the problem. The solution will will depend
on whether you can just keep that turned off or if you can find the developer to
turn off that feature.

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to diagnose startup errors at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

And Jan Karel Pieterse has more notes at:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.htm

Beezie wrote:

Thanks for your reply, Dave. In a sample file entitled "MH1", the filenames
look like this:
Copy (2) of MH1
Copy (3) of MH1
Copy (4) of MH1
and so on up to 30 copies (of each file) at last count!
I also get copies of copies, e.g.
Copy (33) of copy of MH1
I've checked the "save" options in case I had indavertently ticked
something, but no.
Deleting the copies does no good - they just replicate.
Beezie

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I've never seen excel do this.

What do those 18 file names look like?

Any chance you have a "helpful" addin that's not working correctly?

Beezie wrote:

Excel creates copy after copy of the same file! It doesn't open multiple
copies, just lists them - makes looking through my excel directory for a
partoicular file extremely slow.How can I stop this?

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson

I still don't think it's excel--but it can't hurt to reregister excel.

Close Excel and
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver

The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets the windows registry to excel's
factory defaults.

=======
Do you have any other programs that run that could be making backups of your
files? Kind of like how an antivirus program will look for viruses, this
program could be making a backup of each file you open.

(I've never seen anything like this either--but who knows....)

Beezie wrote:

Did this, but the files appeared even in safe mode. There are definitely no
add-ins.
It's a mystery - but thank you very much for your efforts.

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

The only time I've seen that is when I've used windows explorer to copy|paste
the file within the same folder.

I'd close excel and reopen in safe mode.
windows start button|run
excel /safe

and test it out a bit.

My bet is that you won't see the problem.

I'm guessing that you have an addin that's helping you.

Close excel and open it normally.

Look in tools|addins and uncheck all the selected items (keep track of what you
did).

Now close excel and look in your XLStart folder for workbooks that load when you
start excel. Move all those workbooks to a nice safe location.

Now reopen excel and see if the problem still exists.

If it's gone, then one of those things you turned off/moved could have been the
culprit.

Start adding them back one by one--and restart excel after each. See when the
problem comes back. Then you've got the problem. The solution will will depend
on whether you can just keep that turned off or if you can find the developer to
turn off that feature.

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to diagnose startup errors at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

And Jan Karel Pieterse has more notes at:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.htm

Beezie wrote:

Thanks for your reply, Dave. In a sample file entitled "MH1", the filenames
look like this:
Copy (2) of MH1
Copy (3) of MH1
Copy (4) of MH1
and so on up to 30 copies (of each file) at last count!
I also get copies of copies, e.g.
Copy (33) of copy of MH1
I've checked the "save" options in case I had indavertently ticked
something, but no.
Deleting the copies does no good - they just replicate.
Beezie

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I've never seen excel do this.

What do those 18 file names look like?

Any chance you have a "helpful" addin that's not working correctly?

Beezie wrote:

Excel creates copy after copy of the same file! It doesn't open multiple
copies, just lists them - makes looking through my excel directory for a
partoicular file extremely slow.How can I stop this?

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson