I have been experimenting with several different custom number formats and want to clean up a few of them I no longer need. However, when I press the delete button after selecting the format I want to delete, I receive this notification: This is despite all worksheets and the workbook being unprotected. I have used protection previously but currently have disabled it on all sheets. Is there a workaround to this I can use? A family of Microsoft spreadsheet software with tools for analyzing, charting, and communicating data. Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question. Hi Dojo_Kanojo_Cho, I would like to make a summary on this issue to find the information easily. This will also help other community members to find solution much easier of they come across the same situation: Issue Description: Unable to delete a custom number format from an unprotect sheet. Create an entirely new Excel workbook and copy the data from the original Excel workbook I tried your suggestion of creating a new copy of the file and this did not work, but when I created an entirely new Excel file from scratch and copied over each sheet individually from the original file, that solution worked. Thank you for your help!

7 additional answers Anonymous 2019-08-16T06:26:47+00:00 Hi Dojo_Kanojo_Cho, Have you tried all the suggestions above? If the issue still exists please provide above information for further assists. Thank you. Best regards, Dihao 0 comments No comments Hi Dojo_Kanojo_Cho, Have you tried all the suggestions above? If the issue still exists please provide above information for further assists. Thank you. Anonymous 2019-08-14T08:04:44+00:00 Hi Dojo_Kanojo_Cho, Have you tried out the suggestion provided by MVP, Bob? If the issue still exists, please share your Office version and License with us when you are convenient. In addition, please also try to save as the Excel workbook as a new file and test whether custom number format can be removed. Because the issue could be caused by the file itself. Best regards, Dihao 0 comments No comments Hi Dojo_Kanojo_Cho, Have you tried out the suggestion provided by MVP, Bob? If the issue still exists, please share your Office version and License with us when you are convenient. In addition, please also try to save as the Excel workbook as a new file and test whether custom number format can be removed. Because the issue could be caused by the file itself. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP • 438.5K Reputation points 2019-08-13T16:33:14+00:00 Did you save & close the file after turning Protection off? If not, try that to see whether you can delete the formats when you reopen the file. Another thought: The file type indicates that it may contain macros. Is any of the code protected? 0 comments No comments Did you save & close the file after turning Protection off? If not, try that to see whether you can delete the formats when you reopen the file. Another thought: The file type indicates that it may contain macros. Is any of the code protected?