Fix “Too Many Different Cell Formats” Error Message In Excel

Are you the one facing the “too many different cell formats” error messages in Excel? Then this article is going to help you to sort the issue. The reason behind getting the error is an excel file can only have approximately 4,000 different combinations of cell formats. This may seem a lot but think about all the unique formatting characteristics that can be applied to a cell. 

This is really a big problem; here in this article follow the complete information about the error such as reasons, symptoms, as well as how to fix it.

Symptoms of the Error:

When the cell or range of cells is formatted by the user in the MS Excel, then the user get the error message:

Too many different cell formats.

In this case, you need to remove the formatting to avoid computing the workbook. In some case you also get the error like: 

Excel found unreadable content in the file

Following situation is related with styles:

• As you open the file you will see the entire formatting done by you are missing.
• The file size increases after doing the copy or paste between workbooks. 
• Or when you try pasting the text, you will get following error messages:

Microsoft Excel can’t paste data

In this situation, none of the paste or Ctrl + V shortcut can produce any result even though the clipboard is not empty. 

Also Read: Top 5 Solutions to Fix “Excel Formulas Not Working Error” 

Causes behind Getting the Error:

The major reason behind getting the error in the workbook contains more than approximately 4,000 different combinations of the cell format in excel 2003 or 64,000 different combination in excel 2007 and the earlier versions. A combination is defined as the single set of formatting elements applied to a cell. This combination contains entire font formatting for e.g.:  typeface, font size, italic bold, underline, cell patterns, number formatting, alignment and cell protection. And as the cell format limit exceeds the fixed limit this type of error occurs.

Here follow possible causes behind exceeding the cell formatting limits:

• If two or more than two share the same formatting then, they utilize one formatting combination. But if there is any difference in formatting between the cells, then each cell uses a different combination.  
• Data was pasted from another resource like Internet
• In Excel, style counts might increase when it is copied between workbooks as custom styles are copied.
• Due to file corruption
• The custom cell format is regularly imported with data from external sources. These custom styles multiply it quickly and can cause errors or get corrupted.

Also Read: How To Recover Missing Sheet Tabs In Microsoft Excel?

Solution to Fix the Error

Well, to get rid of the error you can make use of the MS Excel Repair Tool. This is the advance tool designed with the advanced technology to fix all sort of issues, corruption, damages, and errors in the excel file, as well as the user, can recover the entire data including cell comments, charts, worksheet properties and other related data easily. This is the unique tool to repair multiple excel files at one time and recovers data in the preferred location easily. This is easy to use and compatible with both Windows as well as Mac OS. 

For Manual Fixes Visit: How To Fix “Too Many Different Cell Formats” Error Message In Excel