Office 365 version 2206.15330.20196: Excel bug prevents display of cell contents (OP396850)

[German]Users who have upgraded Microsoft Office 365 as a Click-2-Run variant to version 2206.15330.20196 (released June 29, 2022) report a strange bug. In Microsoft Excel, the contents of cells (rows and/or columns)in a spreadsheet are no longer displayed, but are overlaid in white. Currently only the rollback to a previous version remains. Microsoft already knows about this bug and has documented it under OP396850 in the status area.


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The error description

I first became aware of the issue within my German blog, because reader G.Anger wrote the following in the discussion area (I've translated the text):

The current Office 365 version 2206.15330.20196 has a serious bug when displaying spreadsheets.

On the Microsoft pages the 2207 is already announced, but apparently not yet available. Whoever can, should delay the update to the above mentioned version (in the current channel).

The reader had posted another link to a website – but it is an automatically translated page in German, which is not very helpful. I have therefore pulled out some reports from the Internet. On reddit.com there is since the weekend the thread strange visual glitch in excel 365, which describes the issue in more detail:

strange visual glitch in excel 365

Hi, I started getting a strange visual glitch in excel as shown in the figure below. There is white color everywhere that blocks the contents of the cells, cell row and column numbers, and the sheet numbers. Any idea how to fix it? Reinstalling didn't help.

Excel version: 2206 (build 15330.20196 click-to-run)

Excel 2206.15330.20196 white table bug

In the spreadsheet, rows and columns are arbitrarily overlaid in white and the contents or even the row and column headers are hidden. Excel is effectively unusable. Matt C. also picked up on on Twitte and posted it to Microsoft365 Status.

Excel 2206.15330.20196 white table bug


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Rollback helps, fix is coming

A user writes on reddit.com that he tested the case and rolled back to the previous Office 365 version 16.0.15225.20204. After that, the error was gone, he says:.

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun\officec2rclient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.15225.20204

The rollback should work with the command above. On Twitter Microsoft (@MSFT365Status) wrote, that Microsoft is aware of the bug:

We are aware of the issue and have posted under OP396850. Please follow those communications for further updates.

The Microsoft people refer to internal status pages that are only open to Office 365 users – I can't get there. However, using the code above, I found this page where the error is documented. 

ID: OP396850
Status
Service Restored
Restored Services
Microsoft 365 Apps
Details
Title: Users may see that cells in Excel desktop client appear blank or white when clicking on them or scrolling
User Impact: Users may have seen that cells in Excel desktop client appeared blank or white when clicking on them or when scrolling.
More info: While we focused on remediation, users may have been able to circumvent the issue by using Excel on the web.
Final status: We've reverted the offending update and have received confirmation from some users that the impact is remediated. Users that were impacted may need to force an update of the Excel desktop client for full service restoration.
Scope of impact: Any user that was utilizing Version 2206 (Build 15330.20196) of the Excel desktop client may have been impacted.

A bug fix is supposed to come for the Office 365 version therefore. G.Anger writes in his comment in the discussion area here in the blog that version 2207 is already announced on the Microsoft pages. Whether this fixes the bug, I do not know. Anyone affected by the bug?


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2 Responses to Office 365 version 2206.15330.20196: Excel bug prevents display of cell contents (OP396850)

  1. Lars220 says:

    My Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus rolled back automatically when I manually checked for updates. I was surprised to see it go from 2022-06 to 2022-05, but now with your blog post I can understand why. Thank you for your current news items.

  2. Bruce Roberts says:

    "The Microsoft people refer to internal status pages that are only open to Office 365 users –"

    Open to business/enterprise Office 365 users, not Personal/Family subscribers.

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