Split from this thread.
I use Excel daily, currently version 16.28 (19081202). Today it started randomly freezing (spinning beach ball) for 30 to 60 seconds, always ending with the error dialog "There was a problem connecting to the server "XXXXX". (server name varies) This occurs while I am working ONLY with local files. I believe that I have determined that Excel is attempting to access files which are in the "Open Recent" menu and which are on a currently inaccessible server.
The behavior is triggered at these times:
a) About 15 seconds after opening the application, without opening any documents or taking any actions
b) By attempting to open the "Open Recent" submenu
c) Sometimes by attempting to open the "File" menu, but not always
The behavior can be avoided by these actions:
1) Connecting to the server(s) appearing in the error dialogs
OR
2) Using File> Open Recent> More… to remove non-local files from the "Recent" list.
I have had some success with (2), I now have a server file that appears in the "Open Recent" submenu but which does NOT appear in the "Recent" list, so that I cannot remove it.
Any solutions or workarounds? Is anyone else experiencing this?
I have the exact same issue and downgraded back to 16.27 using my time machine. I am awaiting fix from MS. I have tried eliminating all server references in Finder but to no avail. Its the recent file system that keeps the server reference from my work server and I was travelling. I may try confirming this week but it is no use if you travel allot. Lucky I had access to my time-machine to downgrade. Wasted allot of my time last week.