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Many people wants to know how to fix ‘Excel Date Format Not Changing’ issue. Excel users can fix the fact that they can’t change the format of a date by using the Text to Columns feature and choosing the MDY custom option. To make things easier in Excel, you can also change the date format that comes with Windows. Be aware that if you change the date format in Windows, it will affect all programs on the PC, not just Excel. Excel is a spreadsheet program made by Microsoft.
It is part of the company’s Office suite of business software. Users can format, organize, and do math on a spreadsheet of data using Microsoft Excel. By using software like Excel to organize data, data analysts and other users can make it easier to see information as more data is added or changed. Excel is made up of a lot of boxes called “cells,” which are set up in rows and columns. The information is put in these cells.
Excel comes with Microsoft Office and Office 365, and it works with the other programs in those suites. You can get the spreadsheet software for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. If your Excel software won’t change the format of the date, you should know that you’re not the only one who has this problem. This problem seems to be happening on a number of different platforms and versions of Excel, but don’t worry—we’ll show you how to fix ‘Excel Date Format Not Changing’ issue. Carefully follow the steps in this guide to avoid making any changes you don’t want.
What is the Excel date format not changing issue?
The Excel date format not changing issue is when you try to change how dates are shown in Microsoft Excel, but the format you want doesn’t work the way you expect it to. When people enter data, it’s common for the dates to be changed with text or other formats. This article will show you how to change, customize, or fix dates in an Excel spreadsheet that were not formatted correctly. If you want to know more information about this issue so you can visit Microsoft Excel Official Website.
What are the causes of Excel date format not changing issue?
- Cell Format Conflict: If there’s a conflict between the cell’s existing format and the new date format you’re trying to apply, Excel might not change the format as expected.
- Text Recognition: If Excel is treating dates as text, it won’t apply date formatting correctly. This can happen if the dates are imported from external sources or entered with inconsistent formats.
- Regional Settings: Excel’s default date format is often tied to the regional settings of your computer. If these settings are not configured correctly, it can affect how Excel displays dates.
- Manual Formatting: Manually formatting dates through cell properties instead of using the “Format Cells” dialog can lead to inconsistencies.
- Date Values Stored as Numbers: Dates are essentially stored as numbers in Excel. If these numbers are not correctly recognized as dates, formatting issues can occur.
How to fix ‘Excel Date Format Not Changing’ issue
Check the Cell Format

- Select the cells with the dates you want to format.
- Right-click and choose “Format Cells.”
- In the “Number” tab, select “Date” from the category list.
- Choose the desired date format from the list.
Text to Columns
- Select the column with the dates.
- Go to the “Data” tab and click “Text to Columns.”
- Choose “Delimited” and click Next.
- If there’s no delimiter, just click Next again.
- In the “Column data format” section, select “Date” and choose the correct date format.
- Click Finish.
Convert Text Dates to Real Dates:
- Assuming the text date is in cell A1.
- In a blank cell, use the formula: =DATEVALUE(A1).
- Copy the result cell and paste as values over the original text date column.
Ensure Automatic Calculation
- Go to the “Formulas” tab.
- Click “Calculation Options“
- Then make sure “Automatic” is selected.
Regional Settings
- Go to computer’s control panel or settings.
- Navigate to region and language settings.
- Verify date format in regional settings.
- Match format you want in Excel.
Reenter the Date
- Copy the content.
- Paste the content into a text editor to remove hidden formatting.
- Copy the cleaned content.
- Paste it back into Excel.
- Format the content as required.
Questions and Answers
If so, you need to choose the same settings for the time and date in the operating system’s regional settings. Instead, you can choose the date format by right-clicking on the cell, clicking on Format cells, then clicking on Custom under the category.
But Excel may not always correctly recognize dates when the “Paste Special” option is used. To fix this problem, force the cells to be in Text format before putting dates in them: 1. Copy the dates from the Excel sheet exactly as they are (they are probably in “Date” format).
Please keep in mind that the DATEVALUE function doesn’t work if your dates are already in the date format. It will instead give a #VALUE error. Also, the text you want to change should be typed in the date format used by Excel. For example, “2/3/2022”, “2-March-2022”, “2-3-2022”, and “23 Sep 2022” are all valid date formats in Excel.
Choose the cell where you want to copy the formatting. Choose Home > Painter Format. Drag to choose the cell or range of cells you want to change. When you let go of the mouse button, the formatting should be done.