workbook opens slowly after protecting all worksheets

[jontherev]

I have never seen this before. Suddenly, after protecting all worksheets, it takes about 30-40 seconds to open the file. As soon as I unprotect it and save, it opens instantly. I have zero macros, and the protection was done manually, not with vba. It's like it is trying to calculate something. Weird. Any ideas why this would happen? I have another, much more massively complicated spreadsheet I've done with macros and I've never seen anything like this before. I'm running Excel 2013 if it matters. Thanks in advance. Future Sediment Basin designers in Georgia will appreciate your efforts.

[xladept]

Why not just protect the workbook after you open it?

[jontherev]

This is to be used by a lot of people and I want to protect the sheets prior to it being used. I would not expect end-users to protect a spreadsheet on their own, prior to using it. I'm just wondering why the simple act of protecting the sheets has caused the extremely long file-opening issue. Again, if I turn off the protection, it opens instantly. Otherwise, it takes about 40 seconds.

[jontherev]

Ok, here is the file in question. If anyone can figure out how to protect all of the worksheets in this file without causing it to take 40 seconds to open, I would appreciate it! Thanks so much,
Jon

[xladept]

Hi jon,

It's already protected

[jontherev]

xladept, I don't think you understand my problem. It wasn't about protecting sheets...it was diagnosing why the file was taking forever to open (the non-protected version opened instantly...the protected version took 40 seconds to open). But, I found the answer, thanks to 'the google'. From a thread here: http://excelribbon.tips.net/T011315_..._Workbook.html

"What I did to fix this issue was go to the dropdown button next to the undo/redo arrows. It's called "Customize quick access toolbar", select 'more commands', under 'Choose commands from', Select 'All Commands', Find the 'Close all' button and add it to the toolbar, then hit 'OK', Now the new button didn't work for me originally, but once I removed it from the toolbar, excel seems to close correctly now."

Strangely, doing the above fixed 2 issues. Now I no longer get a blank file when I close this file, and it luckily fixed my issue with taking forever to open. Weird. Hope this helps someone else in the future...

[xladept]

Very interesting - glad you figured it out!