Excel may suddenly stop responding, freeze, or crash for various causes. This can happen when you save a spreadsheet or open an Excel document. It can also happen while altering or inserting photos, graphs, etc. However, it frequently happens when the system crashes or shuts down unexpectedly while you are working on a document. The following are some possible explanations for why Microsoft Excel is not responding: You have not upgraded Excel to the most recent version. Other apps are interfering with your Excel. The add-ins are hampering your application. System issues are causing the files to be corrupted.