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Mac Office 2016 - Excel - Solver not working

Dear Community 

I have recently upgraded my Mac Office to Mac Office 2016. Since then, the Excel Solver add-in is not working at all. I can select all relevant parameters and cells, but once I click "solve" the window disappears without any warning or error message. It seems like Solver doesn't solve the problem at all. When transferring the file to any other Mac or Windows PC, Solver has no issues solving any linear problems. Is this a known problem and are there any workarounds? I have reached out to Frontline Solvers (the company that develops Solver) but they have no idea what it could be and blame Microsoft. Solver is crucial for my job, I would really appreciate your help. 

Thanks and best, Mike.

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Answer

Hello Guys,

I am from Brazil and have the same issue with solver.

After changing the MAC OS to English, like Mike Middleton said the Solver works normally.
We found that each Excel Language folder have a solver.xlam file.

We made the following steps and now the Solver is working with Excel in Portuguese.

Open Go > Applications > Then locate the Microsoft Excel App
Right click into the Microsoft Excel App and click in Show Packages Contents
Now, open the folder Contents > Resources

Now, find the en.lproj and open the folder Add-Ins
Copy the file Solver.xlam

After copying the file, back to the Resources folder and access the folder about your language (in my case I need to enter the in the folder pt.lproj - about Brazilian Portuguese). Then paste and replace the file Solver.xlam present in this folder closing all Finder Window after that.

Open Microsoft Excel and enable the Solver Add-in (If you don't enabled yet)

Now, the solver will be working normally.

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If you are interested in doing more detective work, I suggest you change the Language & Region settings to English (U.S.), reboot, and see if you are more successful when you enter the Solver settings.

When I use reference edit box in Solver (by clicking on the symbol at far right end of the edit box) to point to a cell for selection, the reference initially includes the sheet name. After I click the Solve button and return to the Solver Parameters dialog box, the references in those edit boxes do not include the sheet name. With or without the sheet name in the reference, Solver finds the solution (for a simple test problem).

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Last updated April 5, 2024 Views 25,920 Applies to: