Red Security Notice in Excel - Trust Settings

Question: There’s a red security notice in my Excel document and the buttons in my Excel aren’t working.

Solution: If you receive a red security notice along the top in Excel that the attached Excel file is untrusted and therefore blocked on your end, and/or find that all macro buttons in the file are unresponsive, you can unblock the file.

Microsoft recently initiated a change where every Excel file downloaded from a source it considers to be "the internet", such as email or shared drives, is distrusted by default. (If you're curious, more details are available at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/security/internet-macros-blocked and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/security/internet-macros-blocked#tools-available-to-manage-policies) This may necessitate unblocking the file, the folder it is in, or the shared drive it is on.

Here's the instructions to individually trust a file:

1. Right click on the icon for the file in the folder it's stored in, and select Properties.

2. Check the Unblock checkbox near the bottom and click OK.

If the above does not work, generally locally-created copies of files are trusted. You may be able to use the File menu and Save As to create a new copy, which should be trusted by default, or even just try saving the file with Save and then close and re-open it.

If you want to trust files en masse, or if the above option is not available, here's how to add a folder on your PC as a trusted location:

1. In Excel, click the File menu > Options.

2. Click Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Trusted Locations.

3. Check Allow Trusted Locations on my network if it is not already checked.

4. Click Add new location.

5. Click Browse to find the folder, select a folder, and then click OK.

6. You may want to check Subfolders of this location are also trusted to automatically trust any folders contained by this folder.

7. Click OK.

If the folder is a network drive, it may give an error saying that "The path you have entered cannot be used as a trusted location for security reasons" when you try to trust the folder. You can instead trust it this way:

First, you want to get the IP address of your network drive. (Skip to the next instructions if you already have this) Press Windows key+R (the Windows key is usually between the left Ctrl and Alt) and type in cmd then press Enter. Type in:

net use

and hit Enter. It should show you all shared drives you're using and the IP addresses thereof. If that does not work, you can also try:

ping (insert name of drive)

and hit Enter. Ex: ping Shared, if the network drive is named "Shared"

It will show a string of numbers next after the name of the drive you are pinging, like 192.168.1.1 or something similar. This is the IP address of your shared drive.

To trust this IP address:

1. Click the Start menu and type control panel, and click on the Control Panel icon when it appears.

2. Click Internet Options.

3. Click the Security tab.

4. Click Trusted Sites.

5. Click the Sites button.

6. Uncheck Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone if it is checked.

7. In Add this website to the zone enter \\ followed by the IP address of your shared drive. Ex: \\192.168.1.1 if your drive's IP address is 192.168.1.1.

8. Click Add and then click OK.