Add-Ins Ribbon won't appear in Excel 2016

[DennisEdwards]

I have an add-in that I've used for years. It does a few generally helpful tasks. It has a menu that appears in the Add-Ins Ribbon plus some keyboard shortcuts.

It has worked fine in all versions of Excel except for Excel 2016 (Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 v16). In Excel 2016 I can't find the menu because the Add-In ribbon just doesn't appear.

However, the Add-In loads fine as all of the keyboard shortcuts work. I just can't use the menu. Irritating!

And yes, The Add-Ins Ribbon is ticked in the "Customize the Ribbon"!

I googled this a bit and I saw a couple of references to this bug, but nothing that seemed to impact on my issue (like the order I open things or removing add-ins and then adding them back, but then maybe I just didn't do it right)

 

[ZVI]

Try these steps:
1. Close all Excel windows.
2. Locate the .xla or .xlam file in File Explorer.
3. Right-click the file and then click Properties.
4. Click the General tab and then in the Security area select the Unblock check box.
5. Click Apply and then click OK.

 

[DennisEdwards]

Try these steps:
1. Close all Excel windows.
2. Locate the .xla or .xlam file in File Explorer.
3. Right-click the file and then click Properties.
4. Click the General tab and then in the Security area select the Unblock check box.
5. Click Apply and then click OK.

Brilliant. It worked. So for all of you that are googling this answer...

This is because I downloaded it out of an email from a web-based email (ie out of an email in Gmail) and Excel's security kicked in and I hadn't done the equivalent of "Enable Editing" on the file.

I presume this isn't an issue if the Add-In is installed by an installer .exe file, but it is if you send the .xlam on its own.

 

[ZVI]

Brilliant. It worked. So for all of you that are googling this answer...

This is because I downloaded it out of an email from a web-based email (ie out of an email in Gmail) and Excel's security kicked in and I hadn't done the equivalent of "Enable Editing" on the file.

I presume this isn't an issue if the Add-In is installed by an installer .exe file, but it is if you send the .xlam on its own.

Welcome to the Board, Dennis!
Yes, it is the side effect of the July security update of Excel.
The issue is files are blocked silently, hope MS will add warning message to Excel, at least they have logged the problem.
Installing via EXE can solve the problem but running that EXE as admin is required, which is not applicable to all customers.
My understanding that including Add-In file to archive, for example to ZIP, is enough to exclude blocking, because Add-In will be unzipped locally - testing is required for this method.