How to Fix ‘Scroll Bar Missing’ Error in Excel?

Excel is a spreadsheet program that is a part of Microsoft’s Office suite which includes a set of programs that are used to achieve some basic office tasks. Excel has become the industry standard in the previous decades and retains its position because of a simple and easy to use interface. However, quite recently, a lot of reports have been coming in where users are unable to find the scroll bar that is available for every spreadsheet.

What Prevents Scroll Bar from being Visible?

After receiving numerous reports from multiple users, we decided to investigate the issue and came up with a set of solutions that fixed it for most of our users. Also, we looked into the reasons due to which it is triggered and listed them as follows.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the nature of the issue, we will move on towards the solutions. Make sure to implement these in the specific order in which they are presented to avoid conflict.

Solution 1: Enabling Scroll Bar

There is an option to disable the scroll bar in Excel which hides it permanently until the option is enabled. Therefore, in this step, we will be enabling the Scroll bar from the settings. For that:

1. Open Excel and launch the spreadsheet for which the scroll is missing.
2. Click on the “File Tab” and select “Options“.

   

3. Click on the “Advanced Category” and select the “Display options for this workbook” button.

   

4. Select both the “Show Horizontal Scroll bar” and the “Show Vertical Scroll Bar” options.

   

5. Click on “OK” to save your changes and check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 2: Maximize the Scroll Bar

If the scroll bar has been minimized in order to show a maximum number of cells, it will be hidden until the process is reversed. Therefore, in this step, we will be maximizing the scroll bar. For that:

1. Launch Excel and open the spreadsheet for which the scroll is missing.
2. On the lower right side, check to see if there are “Three horizontal Dots” next to the “Add” button.
3. If the dots are present it means that the scroll bar has been minimized.
4. Click and hold the “Three Horizontal Dots” and drag left to show the scroll bar once again.

   

5. Check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 3: Arranging Tiles

There seems to be a glitch with some versions of the program where the scroll bar might go missing if the tiles aren’t arranged. Therefore, in this step, we will be arranging the tiles. For that:

1. Click on the “View” tab and select the “Arrange All” option.

   

2. Click on “Tiled” and select “OK” to save your changes.

   

3. Check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 4: Resizing the File Window

In some cases, Excel might be configured to display the cells instead of the scroll bar in order to conserve screen space. Therefore, in this step, we will be configuring it to show the scroll bar. For that:

1. Click on the “File Name” on the top of excel and drag it to the left until you see if the right corner of the file.
2. Click on the “Right Border” and drag it to the left side until both the right and left corners are visible on your window.
3. Click on the “Full Screen” option and check to see if the scroll bar is displayed.