If you’ve been following my blog in recent months you are aware that Microsoft is now blocking macros downloaded from external sources (e-mails, internet, …). If you aren’t aware then I urge you to review:

Microsoft Office is About to Block ALL Macros & VBA Code

If you haven’t already heard, beginning with Microsoft Office version 2203 (for the Current Channel), set to release in early April 2022, Office will disable all VBA code in files from the Internet.  Here’s the breakdown by Office Update Channel Update channel Version Date Current Channel (Preview) Version 2203 April 2022 Current Channel To be…

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Now, I wrote about unblocking the macro so you could use the files again, refer to:

but recently a fellow MVP brought up a weird error when they tried to unblock a file and I thought I’d post the information here for all to benefit from.

Nature of the Problem

After checking the Unblock property and clicking on the Okay button, we would receive a series of error dialogs:

and ultimately the file ins’t unblocked.

The Fix

So what’s the solution then?!

Actually, it is very simple, at least in my experience.

Open the file properties dialog by right-clicking on the file, selecting Properties from the context-menu and ensuring the file is NOT read-only, so make sure the Read-only checkbox is unchecked.

then check the checkbox to Unblock the file.  That’s it.

And yes, Microsoft could most certainly make their error message make sense, but who are we kidding, that will never happen!