Excel’s Find not working? Excel’s Find function is a quick way to locate specific data in a spreadsheet, but sometimes it doesn’t return the expected results. This often happens because the search settings are incorrect, causing Excel to ONLY look in the wrong place. If Find isn’t working even though the data exists, adjusting the ‘Look in’ setting can resolve the issue.
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YouTube: FIND not working? Looking in the notes/ comments not the cells
Excel FIND searching in the wrong place
If Excel’s Find function isn’t locating data you know exists, it might be searching in the wrong place. In the example below, we search for “Luke” in a spreadsheet where the name appears in A3 and C3, yet Excel doesn’t find it. The issue is that Find is set to look in ‘Notes’ instead of the actual spreadsheet.
Change FIND’s ‘Look in’ settings
To fix this, open the Find and Replace window by pressing Ctrl + F. Click on Options to expand the settings and check the Look in field. If it is set to Notes, change it to Values or Formulas instead as shown below. Once you update the Look in setting, click Find All or Find Next, Excel will correctly find all instances of the specified text.
Tips and troubleshooting
- If Find is still not working, check that there are no extra spaces or formatting inconsistencies in your data.
- Ensure that the correct Match case and Match entire cell contents options are selected or deselected, depending on what you need.
- If searching for numbers, Excel may not recognize them due to formatting differences—try changing Look in to Values.
- If you often use Find and Replace, remember that Excel keeps your last-used settings, so always check the Look in field before searching.