vba excel: Add-in in XLSTART ignored

Question

We have a vba excel Add-In installed in the users XLSTART folder. This works fine.

Now we did a small code change in a function and tested it on the developer machine. This works fine as well.

After deploying the Add-In, it's completely ignored by Excel. It's not loaded on start-up, no error message, nothing. If we copy again the old versin to the XLSTART folder, it works as expected. We did the same code change to a Word macro which is installed in the STARTUP folder. This one works fine.

Any ideas why the changed Excel Add-In gets ignored?

Answer 1

Just had this problem with a user. The reason was that the xla (ours is password protected) was not read-only . I know it is ridiculous but the xla was ignored until this changed.

Hopefully this will help others avoid such headaches.

Answer 2

Possible reasons are:
It does not get opened
Permissions or macro security prevent it from functioning
THe original XLA is actually being loaded from somewhere else

I suggest you do some tests:
- When you look at Tools->Addins is the addin checked? If so it has been installed somewhere probably other than XLSTART
- when you place the revised addin in XLStart does it get opened and is it visible in the VBE?
- If you remove it from XLSTART and then open the XLA file as if it was a normal workbook does it work?