This workbook contains links to one or more external sources that may be unsafe

Does Excel continue to throw This workbook contains links to one or more external sources that may display an unsafe warning message when opening the workbook? Many users have reported that they receive this warning whenever they open an Excel file. Although this warning indicates the presence of a potentially malicious link in the workbook, it may be triggered even if you have included a trusted external source

This workbook contains links to one or more external sources that may be unsafe

If a warning message "This workbook contains links to one or more potentially unsafe external sources" appears when opening an Excel file, you can try the following solutions to resolve the issue:

Check external links in the workbook and remove untrusted links.

Use the edit link function to break the link.

Prevent Excel from displaying alerts and update links.

Disable the Require Update Automatic Link option.

1] Check external links in the workbook and remove untrusted links

Because the warning indicates that there are links in the workbook that may contain malicious content, it is recommended that you carefully check the security of these links and confirm their trustworthiness. You can check these links manually by using the Find and Replace function. Here are the steps on how to do this:

First, open the workbook in question and press Ctrl F to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

Now, type “.xls” in the Find What box and press the Find All button. It will list all links referencing xls and xlsx files. Verify all links and remove unnecessary links.

When finished, save the workbook, close it, and then reopen it again to check if the warnings have stopped.

Similarly, you can find links to other files and external sources and check whether they are trustworthy.

2]Use the edit link function to break the link

Another thing you can do is edit the links in the workbook using the dedicated functions provided by Excel. Here's how to do it:

• First, move to the Data tab on the ribbon and click the Edit Links option from the Query and Connections group.
• Next, in the opened Edit Link window, select the suspicious link and press the Break Link button.

Check if the issue is now resolved.

3] Prevent Excel from showing alerts and update links

Another thing you can do to stop receiving this warning prompt is to prevent Excel from asking to update links when you open a workbook. You can do this:

• First, click on the Edit Data and Edit Link options.
• In the opened Edit Link window, press the Start Prompt button.
• After that, select the Do not show warnings and update links option and press OK button to save the changes.
• Finally, press CTRL S to save the workbook and close the workbook.

You should now stop receiving warnings that This workbook contains links to one or more external sources that may not be safe when opening the Excel workbook.

Reading: Word or Excel hyperlinks are slow to open.

4] Disable the Require Update Automatic Link option

One more thing you can try to stop getting this warning message is to disable the Ask for Updates Automatic Links option. When this option is activated, Excel will display a dialog box to the user every time they open a workbook that contains an external link. It allows the user to choose whether to refresh the link with the latest data from the connected source. If you don't want this, you can disable this option.

Here are the steps to achieve this:

• First, open Excel and go to the "File" menu.
• Now, select Options and move to Advanced tab.
• Afterwards, under the General section, uncheck the Require automatic link updates checkbox.
• Finally, press the OK button to see if the warning has now stopped.

See: Excel crashes when clicking a hyperlink.

I hope you don't get the same warning in Excel now.

How to remove links from one or more external sources?

The steps to remove links to external sources in an Excel workbook are very simple. You can go to the Data tab, click on Edit Links, select the link you want to remove and press the Break Link option. It's that simple.

How to close the links in Excel contained in this workbook?

To stop receiving prompts for update links when opening an Excel workbook, you can use the "Hide alerts and update links" feature. Additionally, you can change global Excel settings and prevent it from requesting update links by turning off the Request Updates automatic link feature.

Now read: Fix Hyperlinks not opening or working in Excel.

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