How to Fix “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” Error in Microsoft Excel

You might not know this, but of all the things that enjoy a monopoly in their respective categories, Microsoft Office’s suite of services is among the most popular. For decades, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and the inevitable champ, Microsoft Excel, have remained irreplaceable among the masses. Running into a significant problem in any of these services is indeed nerve-chilling.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Excel often faces one such grueling issue that pretty much halts your workflow. Yes, we are referring to the infamous “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” error that prevents you from copying and pasting text from an online Excel file. If you are fed up too, fret not; this guide elaborates on eight effective fixes to tackle the “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” error in Microsoft Excel.

What is “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” Error in Microsoft Excel and Why Does It Occur

You must be wondering why a service of Microsoft Excel’s calibur would run into such an elementary shortcoming. If we consider Microsoft Excel’s past before the online boom, it was primarily built as an offline-only spreadsheet software, such as for maintaining databases and organizing large data sets. Online and Excel were words that were never placed together until Microsoft launched the online version of Microsoft Excel.

The error mainly occurs due to syncing issues between the online and offline versions of Microsoft Excel. Every time you make a change in the web version of Microsoft Excel, the data stored in online databases gets updated accordingly. Similarly, when you try to copy or cut something, the process goes through a validation process, which may occasionally fail, thereby resulting in an error message. There could be a few other reasons for this, which you can fix using the methods below.

Additionally, the issue may have been caused due to a software glitch at Microsoft’s end. Other possible reasons include random network slowdowns or working with a corrupt/unsupported file. If your file consists of a large amount of data sets, it could result in a system slowdown, causing the error message to show up.

Quick Fixes for “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” in Microsoft Excel

1. Wait for a Moment and Try Again: The most immediate and sensible fix would be to give Excel a second or two to breathe. The error message should go away in most cases if you wait for a moment and try again.
2. Reload Website: Provided you have saved the document you are working on, reloading the website should fix the issue almost instantly. Otherwise, if you have nothing important to lose, consider reloading the website and trying again.
3. Check Your Internet Connection: Needless to say, since Microsoft Excel’s online version requires an active internet connection to stay synced, you should cross-check if your internet is working fine. If not, switch to a working network or reconnect and try it.
4. Clear Website Cookies and Site Data: You might already know that websites store cookies to remember your site settings and for other personalized data. Cookies are often known to interfere with the normal functioning of a site, but thankfully, clearing them fixes most cookies-related issues in a flash. Here is how to clear cache and cookies for a specific site on Chrome.

Disable Unwanted Browser Extensions

Browser extensions are indeed fun to use and, in most cases, elevate the usage experience. With a plethora of browser extensions available to try out, you may have an extension or two that could be causing the “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” error message to pop up in Microsoft Excel.

It’s difficult to pinpoint and identify the faulty extension, so the best bet would be to get rid of any unwanted browser extension altogether. You can disable the suspected and enable it afterward to check if the problem was really caused by it. Regardless, here is how you can remove a browser extension.

1. In any Chromium-based browser, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Opera, open extensions or visit here.
2. Identify the unwanted applications from the list of extensions installed in your browser.
3. Disable or Remove the extension as per your requirement.
   

Save an Offline Copy of the Excel File

Since Microsoft built Word, PowerPoint, and Excel with offline use in mind, it only makes sense to save an offline copy of the file and work on it. Thankfully, Excel for Web allows seamless saving of a copy of the file to your desktop, from where you can continue working on it in the Excel app. To do so –

1. In the Excel file you are working on, select the File option from the top section.
2. Hover your cursor over Create a Copy and select Download a Copy.
3. The Excel file will get saved to your PC with a .xlsx extension, which can be opened in any spreadsheet app, including Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, and more.
   

Use an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Tool

If all you want to do is copy text or numbers from an Excel file, OCR or optical character recognition might come in clutch. An OCR tool in the form of an app or browser extension allows you to scan a selected area and extract text from it. It’s a copy-paste operation, sometimes even faster than selecting and copying the text.

There are various OCR apps available for both Windows and Mac. For Windows, you can make use of Microsoft PowerToys‘ native OCR tool, and for Mac, you can install one of the many popular screenshot apps that also have the functionality built-in. A few such apps are CleanShot X and Shottr. If you are more into browser extensions, give Awesome Screen Recorder & Screenshot a try.

Switch Browsers

While this should be the last resort, you should consider switching to a different browser if your current one isn’t cutting. As it may seem so, Microsoft recommends a set of browsers that serve best for using the web versions of Microsoft Office and 365 apps. They include Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.

If you use any other browser and are unable to fix the “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” issue in Microsoft Excel, try switching to one of the recommended browsers mentioned above.

Don’t Let Microsoft Excel Haunt You Again

Microsoft Excel is an unparalleled app and is needed by millions around the world. Although not a significant complication, “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” can be tackled easily. We recommend trying the quick fixes first, as they often work, and you won’t lose valuable data in most cases. In other cases, we suggest saving an offline copy of the file and using the Microsoft Excel app, as it works best.