Fix runtime error 1004 – macro cannot be executed in Excel

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MS Excel is a very popular spreadsheet program that is used worldwide to store, organize and manipulate data. It is used for both personal and professional purposes and is available in two extensions, XLS and XLSX. But in addition to its popularity, it turns out to be corrupted and because of that, it starts giving the 1004 runtime error.

The Excel 1004 error is one of those annoying runtime errors that occur mostly when working with an Excel file. Or when you try to create a macro in an Excel document, which causes you to not be able to do anything in the workbook.

This error can cause serious problems when working with Visual Basic applications and cause the program or system to crash or, in some cases, hang for a while. This error occurs in all versions of MS Excel, such as Excel 2007/2010/2013/2016/2019.

Here, in this article, we will discuss this common execution error 1004 in Excel 2019, 2016 2013, and earlier versions.

What is the cause of execution error 1004 – macro cannot be executed in Excel

If you want to know how to properly fix the 1004 execution error in Excel, you need to understand the causes of this problem. The main reasons are as follows.

Macro name error: The macro being executed copies the original worksheet into a workbook with a specific name that you didn’t save and close before running the macro.

File conflict: When you open an Excel VBA file, it conflicts with other programs.

Too many legend entries: An Excel chart contains more legend entries than there is room to display legend entries on the chart.

Damaged Excel file: your .xls files have been corrupted, infected, or corrupted.

To resolve runtime error 1004 – macro cannot be executed in Excel



Enable the “Trust VBA project object model access” option

1. The first thing you need to do here is to open Excel Options, which is very easy.
2. Just open Microsoft Excel, then click File and select Settings.
3. Once under Settings, click on Trust Center, and then click on Trust Center Settings.
4. Immediately, you should see the Trust Options section. From there, select Macro Settings.
5. Finally, click on Trust access to the VBA project object model, then click the OK button and you’re done.

Checking for Malware

As a precautionary measure, you should also check for malware. Therefore, run an anti-virus scanner and check regularly to see if anything has appeared. If nothing appears, we recommend running a full virus scan to make sure that everything is OK.

Microsoft Defender is a great tool for this task, but if it doesn’t work for you, we recommend using a free standalone malware scanner.

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