Where did the personal macro workbook go?

Von Pookie

MrExcel MVP
Joined
Feb 17, 2002
Messages
13,686
I'm using Excel 2002, and the personal macro workbook has apparently vanished (or whatever seems more plausible).

I honestly don't know what happened, but I went to record a macro just now, and got the following:

"Personal Macro Workbook in the startup folder must stay open for recording."

and then "Unable to record."

:unsure:

I couldn't find anything in the knowledge base, either. Any ideas as to what's going on?
 

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Hi Pooks

Can't provide a solution but the same thing happened to me a while ago when I deleted some Class Modules and I had to set up a new personal.xls workbook again. It may have been the deletion or it may have been something else, don't know exactly. I take it that you had not done anything? Just opened XL and Personal.xls was missing.

Some board members might have a recovery solution for any lost macros you had. Hope your stuff was backed up. Not sure why these things happen but there a pain. Hope you get it sorted soon.
 
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Well, there wasn't really anything in it, I just play around with macros now and then, see what I can get it to do on my own.

But if I did do something, I'm not aware of it. How did you set up a new one?
 
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Hi Pooks

Open a workbook and save as Personal.xls to:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 10\XLStart

Close XL and re-open. Personal XLS opens as the main workbook. I got a tip from the board which uses options I recall to close the workbook and hide it. Can't be specific here I did not save the tip. Once this is done, Personal.xls loads each time XL is opened but book1 is displayed as opposed to personal.xls and you can record macros in the usual fashion.

HTH
 
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Thanks... this helped me with the same issue in Excel 2007. I saved the workbook in a slightly different folder:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\XLSTART

And used the new naming convention:
Personal.xlsx




Pretty funky stuff.
 
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I was having the same issues with my personal macro workbook. The last post was very helpful and fixed my problem. I am glad I was forwarded this link!!!! Thanks Nathan Decker!
 
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I had the same problem today...this fixed it. (Fortunately I had a fairly recent backup of my macros!) Thanks!

Cindy
 
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Here is the full answer for Excel 2007:

To re-enable an add-in (such as Personal Workbook) that has been hard disabled by Excel 2007 (because Excel detected a serious problem last time you ran Excel)

Symptom:
1) Message on trying to record macro: Personal Macro Workbook in the StartUp Folder must stay open for recording.
2) Your Personal Workbook disappeared.

In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button.
Click the Excel Options button.
In the categories pane, click Add-ins.
In the details pane, locate the add-in in the Disabled Application Add-ins list.
The Name column specifies the name of the assembly, and the Location column specifies the full path of the application manifest.

If Personal Workbook does not appear among these items, then:

In the Manage box (near bottom of scrren), select and click Disabled Items, and then click Go.
Select the disabled add-in and click Enable.
 
Last edited:
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I've had the same problem this morning and this is what I did to put it right.
My Personal Macro workbook did not show up in the Macro window, but I did Alt+F11 to open the VBA window I could see all my modules in Personal.xlam, so I searched for Personal.xlam and found it in the following folder.
C:\Users\Paul\Application Data\Microsoft\XLStart
I then copied an old Personal.xls file into the folder, hid it and closed Excel. When I closed Excel it asked if i wanted to save changes to my Personal.xls and I clicked Yes. Then I opened Excel again and there it was. I re-imported all my latest .bas files from Office12 folder and I'm running sweet again.
Using Windows Vista and Office 2007.
Hope this helps.
 
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Well.... you saved my life!!! thank you.

Here is the full answer for Excel 2007:

To re-enable an add-in (such as Personal Workbook) that has been hard disabled by Excel 2007 (because Excel detected a serious problem last time you ran Excel)

Symptom:
1) Message on trying to record macro: Personal Macro Workbook in the StartUp Folder must stay open for recording.
2) Your Personal Workbook disappeared.

In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button.
Click the Excel Options button.
In the categories pane, click Add-ins.
In the details pane, locate the add-in in the Disabled Application Add-ins list.
The Name column specifies the name of the assembly, and the Location column specifies the full path of the application manifest.

If Personal Workbook does not appear among these items, then:

In the Manage box (near bottom of scrren), select and click Disabled Items, and then click Go.
Select the disabled add-in and click Enable.
 
Upvote 0

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