Unhide rows not working in Excel

We have received a number of queries saying the unhide rows is not working in Excel. There are generally a few reasons why the rows won’t unhide.

YouTube Unhide rows not working in Excel

Unhiding where row 1 is hidden

If rows are hidden from row 1, it is important to correctly highlight the rows and right click on the correct row.

In the example below, you need to highlight all the rows above 9. You do this by left clicking on the number 9 and dragging up, BUT then you right click while hovering over the 9 again. If you right click in the top left corner it highlights everything again and you can’t find the UNHIDE option.

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Frozen Panes and unhiding rows

If you try the above and it does not work, it is possible that you have frozen panes which make it look like the row is hidden but it is frozen. Go to the VIEW and FREEZE PANES buttons. If it says ‘Unfreeze Panes’ then this is the problem. Once you unfreeze them you will be able to scroll upwards and see the hidden rows.

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Row height is very small

If neither of these work, it may just be that the row heights are so small it looks like it is hidden. So when you unhide or unfreeze rows it has no effect.

In this case, highlight the rows (in the case below highlight rows 14 to 22) and double click on one of the row lines, or change the row height (HOME TABE, FORMAT, Row Height) to be a bigger number.

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