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I have a report where some data and charts are generated in Excel, then linked from Word. Normally, the links are updated using a macro, but all of a sudden links to charts no longer update.

When I right click on a chart in Word, I can click the Update link button, but nothing happens. However, I can get the link to update by doing the following

  1. Click the Linked Object > Links button to bring up the Links dialog
  2. Click the Open Source button, which takes me to the correct chart in Excel
  3. The link is now somehow refreshed, so clicking the "Update link" button in Word works again

Unfortunately, there are far too many links for this workaround to suffice. Once the Word file is closed and reopened, the procedure must be done again.

I am running the latest version of Word (Version 2210 Build 16.0.15726.20188).

I have verified on a different computer that's running an older version of Office (Version 2202 Build 16.0.14931.20648) that the links still work as intended, so this problem does not seem to be with the files themselves. I also created a minimal reproduction with just one chart, which also exhibits the problem on the affected rig.

I tried uninstalling Office entirely using Microsoft's SetupProd_OffScrub.exe, then reinstalled the latest version (which was the one I already had) from the official site. That didn't help, which leads me to believe it's either a bug in the latest version or something else about my Windows 10 install.

Any advice? I will next try to downgrade Office.

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I followed the instructions for downgrading to an earlier version.

I was able to get it working with version 2202, build 14931.20120, which was the first one I tried. The known working version mentioned in the question was not available.

So this appears to be a regression bug that is at least present in build 16.0.15726.20188.

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    I was just writing an Answer as this kind of problem has been popping up for many years and I don't think Word's behaviour has ever been explained, but others have reported that it has become a widespread problem recently - see e.g. answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/… . So not much point completing my "Answer" - downgrading was probably the best thing to do - the difficulty is knowing whether and when Microsoft might provide a fix. Commented Dec 3, 2022 at 0:24
  • Thanks for the advice, @jonsson. I'm satisfied with that as a resolution, so I'll mark it answered. Commented Dec 5, 2022 at 20:31

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