As we all know that Microsoft Excel is a very helpful and popular workbook for users to store any kind of important data safely.
In Microsoft Excel users stores various types of valuable, confidential, official, projects, and important data in a sequence order with dates as per their convenience. Along with dates, numbers and times are also the most common data types that people use in Excel.
But sometimes if you want to change the date of your Excel document, you are unable to change the date due to unexpected errors.
Therefore, today here I am with my new blog post discussing date format not changing in Excel. Don’t worry; I will discuss each and everything in detail about why date format does not change in Excel.
So, let us go through this blog carefully to solve the issue of Excel unable to change date format.
Practical Scenario:
Excel date formatting not working
I have an Excel sheet created by a 3rd party program.
One of the columns has dates in this format: “Jan 19, 2015, 03:00:00 PM”
I would like these dates to appear in the following format: “19/01/2015”
I have selected the cell or cells, right-clicked and selected “Format Cells…” chose “Date” in the category, then chose “14/03/2001” in the type, to no avail, the dates won’t change.
I also tried “Custom” from the category and “dd/mm/yyyy” from the type, again, no changes at all.
The file is not protected, the sheet is editable.
Could someone explain what I could be doing wrong?
Regards Crouz
Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28516923/excel-date-formatting-not-working
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Why Is My Date Formula Not Working In Excel?
There may certain causes or unwanted reasons that date formula not working in Excel properly. But before we get into the solutions of date format Excel not working issue, let’s put a spotlight on some of the causes for why is my date formula not working in Excel.
1) Cells are formatted as text
Cells are formatted as text means that the formula will appear directly in the cells instead of text. This is due to when you import any data from notepad or CSV file.
2) The workbook is to be set in Manual calculation mode
If you are doing any type of calculation work in Excel by copying and pasting the formula, then the result will be copied in place of the right answer. This will appear until you set the workbook in manual calculation mode.
As we all know that users like to save their Excel files as per the dates in manual order for convenience in use. People can also change the dates whenever required as per their need but sometimes due to unwanted errors date format does not change in Excel.
So, there are different ways to fix the issue of date format does not change in Excel and they are as follows:
Method #1: Sorting The Date
To fix Excel unable to change date format issue, just follow the steps given below.
- At first, press the Window + R button to open the Run dialog box
- Then type Regedit and then press the OK button
- Now, select the HKEY_CURRENT_USER option
- Here choose the Control Panel menu.
- After that choose the International option.
- Now, double click on sShortDate menu.
- Another window will open the screen.
- Here, change the format of the date that you want to change.
Method #2: Format The Cells
In Microsoft Excel, dates can be displayed in a variety of ways. To solve date format Excel not working issue, go through the below steps:
- Open your Excel worksheet
- Now, right-click on the top of the Excel column and select the Format Cells menu
- After selecting the Format Cells, a format cells Window will appear
- Here, choose the Date option and select the date format that you needed for that particular column
- Finally, click on the OK button to save the format change and then close the Window
- Thus, by following this step you will able to solve your date format problem
Method #3: Resize The Cells Size
Generally, MS Excel understands the dates exceptionally fine and it is improbable to hit any barrier when working with them.
If still, you are facing date format Excel not working issue, then just follow the troubleshooting tips provided to you to get rid of date format not changing in Excel problem.
If the cell is not having enough space to fit the complete date and you observe a number of pound signs (#####) in place of the dates in your Excel spreadsheet, then the cells are not broad to the completion dates that you enter.
Now to auto fix the dates, double click on the right border of the column to resize it. Or else, to set the column width; just drag it to the right border to fix the date format Excel not working issue.
So, this method is applicable for date format not changing in Excel 2007, 2013, 2016.
Method #4: Change The Date To Number Format
To fix the issue of Excel unable to change date format to real dates, with the help of Number format commands you can format them.
To perform this, follow the steps given below:
- Go to your Excel document
- Select the Dates that you want to format
- Now, go to the Excel Ribbon menu
- Select the Number Format option
- Or else click on the dialog launcher option to see more format options
- After that convert, the text dates to real dates and see that everything is working properly or not
Recommended Solution: MS Excel Repair & Recovery Tool
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Steps to Utilize MS Excel Repair & Recovery Tool:
Conclusion:
Hope the above-specified solutions suggested to you will help you to solve the issue of Date format not changing in Excel.
I tried my level best to bring simple and effective ways to fix why is my date format not changing in Excel problems.
Thus, make proper use of the methods provided to you and in the future also if you come across such types of issues then you can easily get rid of this with ease.
Priyanka is an entrepreneur & content marketing expert. She writes tech blogs and has expertise in MS Office, Excel, and other tech subjects. Her distinctive art of presenting tech information in the easy-to-understand language is very impressive. When not writing, she loves unplanned travels.
I have a similar situation currently.
I am working with about 200 000 rows across 10 columns.
My first column contained the date and time. I separated these. My dates are somewhat repetitive since data was collected every 5 minutes for 2 years.
All my dates from the first one to the 90 754th one will not format correctly. Excel is reading it as year, month day, when I need it should be month, day, year. For example, my dates are reading 05/04/15 (y/m/d) but i need 05 to be the month, 04 to be the day and 15 to be the year.
All my dates below 90 754 are correct.
I have tried formatting them so many different times. I have spent the last three hours trying to figure this out.
I spent days stitching my data together. I don’t want to have to redo it because I can’t get this right.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
The date format in Excel always caused some issues to users
by Vladimir Popescu
Being an artist his entire life while also playing handball at a professional level, Vladimir has also developed a passion for all things computer-related. With an innate fascination… read more
Updated on January 5, 2023
Reviewed by
Alex Serban
After moving away from the corporate work-style, Alex has found rewards in a lifestyle of constant analysis, team coordination and pestering his colleagues. Holding an MCSA Windows Server… read more
- Users can fix Excel’s inability to change date formats by using the Text to Columns feature and selecting the MDY custom option.
- The default Windows date format can also be changed to simplify the process in Excel.
- Be mindful that changing the Windows date format will affect all applications on the PC, not just Excel.
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If your Excel software is not changing the date format, you have to know that you’re not the only one experiencing this issue.
This problem seems to be spread across a variety of platforms and versions of Excel, but don’t worry, we will give you step-by-step instructions to fix it.
Follow the steps presented in this guide carefully to avoid making any unwanted changes.
Try this method if Excel doesn’t change the date format
- Click the Data tab from the top menu of your screen.
- Choose the Text to columns option from the menu.
- Tick the box next to the option Delimited to activate it.
- Press the Next button two times to move through the setup pages.
- Select Date -> click the drop-down menu -> choose the MDY custom option.
- Click the Finish button.
- Select any empty cell inside your Excel document -> press the Ctrl+1 keys on your keyboard.
- Select the Custom format option found at the bottom of the list.
- In the text box -> type YYYY/MM/DDD -> press Ok.
Here’s how to change the Windows default date format
Because in some cases the formats used for dates can be confusing, it is recommended that you change the default Windows date format to simplify the process in the long run.
Of course, this specific setting will depend on your requirements, but you can follow these steps to set it:
- Press Win+R keys -> type control international > press Enter.
- Under the Formats tab -> check or change the default formats available.
- Click the drop-down lists and choose the desired option.
- Press Ok to save the settings.
NOTE
Changing the Windows date format settings will affect all the applications installed on your PC, and not only the options found in MS Excel.
Conclusion
In today’s article, we discussed the most efficient way of dealing with Excel not changing the date format.
If you found this guide helpful please don’t forget to let us know. You can do so by using the comment section found below this article.
Newsletter
Have you ever imported data into Excel, from your credit card statement, or somewhere else, and found that Excel dates won’t change format? And, if you try to sort that column of dates, things end up in the wrong order.
That happened to me this week, and here’s how I fixed the problem, using a built-in Excel tool.
Fix Dates That Won’t Change Format
This video shows how to fix the dates that won’t change format, and there are written steps below.
Dates As Text
In the screen shot below, you can see the column of imported dates, which show the date and time. I didn’t want the times showing, but when I tried to format the column as Short Date, nothing happened – the dates stayed the same.
Why won’t the dates change format? Even though they look like dates, Excel sees them as text, and Excel can’t apply number formatting to text.
There are a few signs that the cell contents are being treated as text:
- The dates are left-aligned
- There is an apostrophe at the start of the date (visible in the formula bar)
- If two or more dates are selected, the Quick Calc in the Status Bar only shows Count, not Numerical Count or Sum.
Fix the Dates
If you want to sort the dates, or change their format, you’ll have to convert them to numbers – that’s how Excel stores valid dates.
Sometimes, you can fix the dates by copying a blank cell, then selecting the date cells, and using Paste Special > Add to change them to real dates. There’s a video at the end of this article, that shows how to do that.
Unfortunately, that technique didn’t work on this data, probably because of the extra spaces. You could go to each cell, and remove the apostrophe, but that could take quite a while, if you have more than a few dates to fix.
A much quicker way is to use the Text to Columns feature, and let Excel do the work for you:
- Select the cells that contain the dates
- On the Excel Ribbon, click the Data tab
- Click Text to Columns
In Step 1, select Delimited, and click Next
- In Step 2, select Space as the delimiter, and the preview pane should show the dates divided into columns.
- Click Next
In Step 3, you can set the data type for each column:
- In the preview pane, click on the date column, and select Date
- In the Date drop down, choose the date format that your dates are currently displayed in. In this example, the dates show month/day/year, so I’ve selected MDY.
- Select each of the remaining columns, and set it as “Do not import column (skip)”
- Click Finish, to convert the text dates to real dates.
Format the Dates
Now that the dates have been converted to real dates (stored as numbers), you can format them with the Number Format commands.
There are a few signs that the cell contents are now being recognized as real dates (numbers):
- The dates are right-aligned
- There is no apostrophe at the start of the date (visible in the formula bar)
- If two or more dates are selected, the Quick Calc in the Status Bar shows Count, Numerical Count and Sum.
To format the dates, select them, and use the quick Number formats on the Excel Ribbon, or click the dialog launcher, to see more formats.
Everything should work correctly, after you have converted the text dates to real dates.
Download the Sample File
To follow along with this tutorial, get the Date Format Fix Sample file from my Contextures website, on the Excel Dates Fix Format page.
More Excel Date Info
Prevent Grouped Dates in Excel
Sum for a Date Range in Excel
Count Items in a Date Range in Excel
How to Fix Numbers That Won’t Add Up
If you’re having a problem with Excel numbers that won’t add up, this video shows a few fixes that you can try. There are details on the Fix Numbers that Don’t Add Up page on my Contextures site.
______________________________
How to Fix Excel Dates That Won’t Change Format
___________________________
This article will explain to you how to change the default Date format by your custom display.
How is displayed a date in Excel?
By default, when you insert a date in a cell, the default delimiter between the day, the month and the year it’s the slash. And this, even if you write your date with dashes.
Excel automatically replaces the dashes with slashes 🤔
Change the default Date format
If you want to customize the default display, you must change a Windows setting.
Step 1: Open the Regional setting
To open the Regional setting quickly, you write the command line intl.cpl in the Windows Search box
And there, you have the following dialog box with the default date format.
Step 2: Select another date format
When you press on the drop-down button, you display other date formats but the number of choices is limited 😕
Step 3: Change the default date format
To change the default date format, you must click on the button Additional Settings
Step 4: Create your custom date format
- Select the Date tab
- Change the custom date format (here dd-MM-yyyy)
The code of your custom date follow the standard rules of date format in Excel
And without restarting Excel, neither your computer, all the dates format in your worksheets has the dash for date delimiter 😉
Caution
When you change the setting of the date format of Windows, ALL THE DATES of your computer are impacted.
As you can see, after changing the default date format, the format of the date in the taskbar has changed too.
Почему не меняется формат даты в Excel? Возможной причиной является конфликт форматов или блокировка стиля ячеек, неправильное выполнение работы или временный сбой в работе приложения. Для устранения попробуйте перезапустить программу или воспользуйтесь одним из приведенных в статье способов. Ниже рассмотрим основные причины и способы решения такой проблемы в Excel.
Причины и пути решения
Для решения проблемы нужно понимать, почему Эксель не меняет формат даты при любых попытках. К возможным причинам стоит отнести:
- Конфликт форматов и блокировка стиля ячейки.
- Несоответствие заданных стилей Excel.
- Неправильное выполнение работы.
- Временные сбои в работе программы.
- Неправильные региональные настройки.
В ситуации, когда не меняется дата в Эксель, можно воспользоваться одним из рассмотренных ниже решений.
Способ №1:
- Выберите столбец даты в Excel.
- Зайдите в раздел «Данные» и выберите «Text to Columns».
- На первом экране поставьте переключатель «delimited».
- Кликните на кнопку «Далее».
- Снимите флажки-разделители и кликните на кнопку «Далее».
- В секции «Формат данных столбца» выберите «Дату».
- Жмите «Готово».
Решение №2:
- Выделите ячейки, где не меняется дата в Экселе.
- Жмите на сочетание Ctrl+1.
- В разделе «Формат ячеек» откройте вкладку «Число».
- В перечне «Категория» выберите требуемый раздел.
- Перейдите в «Тип» и укажите подходящий вариант форматирования в Excel. Для предварительного просмотра перейдите в раздел «Образец». Если сделанный вариант не устраивает, можно внести изменения и снова выполнить проверку — меняется отображение или нет.
Метод №3:
- Жмите нужную ячейку, где формат даты в Эксель не меняется.
- Кликните сочетание Ctrl+Shift+#.
Способ №4:
- Используйте формулу: =DATE(MID(A1,FIND(«,»,A1)+1,5),MATCH(LEFT(A1,3),{«Jan»;»Feb»;»Mar»;»Apr»;»May»;»Jun»;»Jul»;»Aug»;»Sep»;»Oct»;»Nov»;»Dec»},0),MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,»,»,» «),5,5)) для перевода в REAL.
- Проверьте, что отображение в Excel меняется с учетом предпочтений.
Такой вариант может сработать в случае неправильных региональных настроек и невозможности изменения форматирования для дня, строки и времени. Представленную форму Excel можно сделать проще, если представить больше сведений о формате ввода. Но даже в таком случае все должно работать корректно. Кроме того, при желании сохранить часть времени можно воспользоваться формулой +RIGHT(A1,11).
Решение №5:
- Загрузите лист Excel, где не меняется стиль отображения, на Гугл Док.
- Откройте файл с помощью электронной Гугл-таблицы.
- Выберите весь столбец с информацией.
- Установите тип формата для даты. На данном этапе можно выбрать любой подходящий вариант.
- Закройте электронную таблицу Гугл в формате .xlsx.
Метод №6:
- Копируйте несколько ячеек, где не меняется форматирование даты в Excel, в блокнот.
- Жмите на Clear All.
- Вставьте содержимое ячейки в блокнот обратно в те же ячейки.
- Установите их в качестве текущего дня в нужном варианте и т. д.
Как поменять формат в Excel
Распространенная причина, почему софт не меняет дату в Экселе — неправильные действия пользователя. Для решения проблемы необходимо правильно сделать эту работу. Здесь существует несколько путей.
Вариант №1:
- Зайдите во вкладку «Главная».
- Перейдите в раздел «Число».
- Жмите на кнопку вызова диалогового окна (находится над строчкой «Число»).
- В списке «Категория» выберите нужный пункт.
- Перейдите в раздел «Тип» и установите нужный вариант отображения в Excel.
Тип форматирования, который начинается со звездочки, влияют за изменение параметров дня / времени, установленных на панели управления. В ином случае этого влияния нет. После этого необходимо выбрать нужный язык, который меняется с помощью специального переключателя. Выбор осуществляется из доступного перечня (русский язык предусмотрен).
Вариант №2:
- Зайдите во вкладку XLTools.
- В группе «Дата и время» откройте выпадающий перечень.
- Войдите в раздел «Изменить формат даты и времени».
- Задайте область поиска. Здесь указывается выбранный диапазон, рабочий лист, книга, открытые книги.
- Выберите подходящий вариант из перечня, принятый в стране и на нужном языке. По желанию задайте пользовательский формат.
- Кликните на кнопку «Готово».
Если Excel не меняет формат даты, это не повод беспокоиться. В большинстве случаев проблема связана с неправильным выполнением работы или временными сбоями в работе приложения. Перед тем, как предпринимать какие-либо шаги, попробуйте сохраниться и перезапустить Excel. Если же это не дало результата, проверьте возможность применения одного из рассмотренных выше методов.
В комментариях расскажите, приходилось ли вам сталкиваться с ситуацией, когда не работает дата в Эксель или не меняется ее форматирование. Поделитесь, какой из приведенных выше методов сработал, и какие еще варианты можно использовать.
Отличного Вам дня!