Warning messages when XLSForm spreadsheet opens in Excel

Question

For some of my surveys, when I open the XLSForm spreadsheet via the button on Survey123 Connect, I get a warning message that states "This workbook contains links to one or more external sources that could be unsafe."  When I click on the "Update" button, I get another warning message that states "We can't update some of the links in your workbook right now."  When I click on the "Edit Links..." button I get a dialog window that shows old Excel files that have nothing to do with my current survey form.  None of the buttons to fix this issue solve my problem.  I have no idea how these long gone spreadsheets ended up referenced in my new survey.  When I start building a new survey, I use the "New Survey" button in Survey123 Connect - I do not copy/paste old surveys to start with.  I am using Microsoft Excel 2016 and Survey123 Connect version 2.1.9.  Has anyone else seen this issue and do you have any ideas to a solution for my problem?

Thank you for your time,

Joe

JoeFlannery · Answer

Tom:

Yes, when I fixed the offending cells in my form, as described above, my warning messages disappeared.

tomhughson · Answer

Hi Joe, did you adequately resolve this issue? I am now getting the same problem when I use old survey spreadsheets to start a new survey. It hadn't previously caused this problem so I am unclear as to what has changed. Thanks, Tom

JoeFlannery · Answer

I discovered how to solve my problem (see screen capture notes below).  I think that my problem was caused by doing a Copy/Paste from one survey form to a new survey form to save time.  This broke the "type" field Source information coming from the "types" tab in the workbook.  This may be the cause of my survey not working in the Survey123 Web page, too.  I'll republish my survey and see what happens there.