Excel Circular Reference error without circular reference

Question

I am working on an excel sheet with a lot of formulas and references, and am getting the dreaded circular reference warning.

I have deleted the latest edits, and re-written the formulas, but these reference only fixed values.

It may be to do with a sort I did, which is never a good idea on formula derived lists, but I thought I was careful to replace formulas with values before sorting a defined region.

The error is not shown in the circular reference error checking box. It is faded. It is also not shown in the bottom left corner of the sheet, which says ready. It occurs only when I open the sheet, or intermittently. I'm not sure if it is affecting any calculations

I suspect it is in the following formula, but values in A are based on two fixed values elsewhere in the sheet, and if I put a fixed value into O, I still get the circular reference error.

=WENNNV(INDEX($A$2:$A$241;VERGLEICH(1;(ZÄHLENWENN($A$244:A244;$A$2:$A$241)=0) * ISTZAHL($O$2:$O$241);0));"")

I've mapped out all other formulas, tried deleting them, but the only time the error stops, is when I delete the above formulas.

I can't share the sheet, but if anyone has a similar experience, please let me know how to escape the circular reference.

Answer 1

I'm not sure if I should delete this question, or if this is a valid answer. I guess I would like to have heard of this as a possible solution.

So I copied the formula in the question as text; deleted it (which removed the error if I close and open the sheet), I then pasted the same formula back into the sheet, close the sheet, re-open the sheet, and now, no more circular reference error. I wish I could say I understand why this would work - I was just desperately trying anything and it seemed the only option left.