Re-Enabling a Disabled OfficeConnect COM Add-in

If Excel disabled Workday OfficeConnect after a crash or stall, the ribbon tab disappears and reinstalling doesn’t help — re-enable it from Excel’s Disabled Items list.
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When Excel crashes or hangs while Workday OfficeConnect is running, Excel sometimes responds by disabling the add-in to prevent future crashes. The next time you open Excel, the OfficeConnect tab is gone — and reinstalling OfficeConnect doesn’t bring it back.

The fix is to re-enable it from Excel’s Disabled Items list. This article walks through it.

If your OfficeConnect tab is missing for a different reason (never installed, install corrupted, JavaScript add-in on Mac), see also Task Pane Not Displaying and Install for End Users.

Symptom

  • The OfficeConnect tab no longer appears in Excel’s ribbon
  • Reinstalling OfficeConnect doesn’t restore the tab
  • Excel was recently force-closed, crashed, or stalled with OfficeConnect open

What you’ll see

  • Excel ribbon shows Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View, Help — but no OfficeConnect tab
  • File → Options → Add-ins lists OfficeConnect under Disabled Application Add-ins at the bottom

Root cause

When a COM add-in causes Excel to hang or crash, Excel’s reliability protection automatically disables it. The add-in stays installed, but isn’t loaded on subsequent Excel starts.

Fix — Windows

1
Open Excel Options In Excel, click File → Options.
2
Go to the Add-ins section In the left navigation, click Add-ins. You’ll see lists of Active, Inactive, and Disabled Application Add-ins.
3
Open the Disabled Items dialog

At the bottom of the Add-ins page, find the Manage dropdown. Select Disabled Items and click Go.

The Disabled Items dialog opens.

4
Find OfficeConnect in the list You’ll see one or more entries. Look for one whose name starts with Adaptive Insights OfficeConnect or Workday OfficeConnect (the exact name varies by version).
5
Select it and click Enable

Click the OfficeConnect entry to highlight it, then click Enable.

If the dialog closes silently — good, it worked.

6
Restart Excel Close Excel completely (all open workbooks) and reopen it. The OfficeConnect tab should reappear in the ribbon.

If Enable doesn’t bring it back

Excel re-disables add-ins that crash on the next startup. If you enabled and Excel disabled it again, you’re hitting an underlying crash.

7
Make sure you're on a supported OfficeConnect version See Check & Update Your Version.
8
Check for add-in conflicts OfficeConnect has known conflicts with think-cell, Bloomberg, Macabacus, and Power Pivot. See Troubleshoot → Add-in Conflicts (coming soon).
9
Try Safe Mode Hold Ctrl while clicking Excel to start in Safe Mode. If the OfficeConnect tab appears, the crash is caused by another add-in or a workbook auto-load script.
10
Reset the add-in registration As an Admin, repair the OfficeConnect install via Control Panel → Programs and Features. See Install for Admins.
11
Capture logs and contact Workday support See Troubleshoot → Capture Logs for Workday Support (coming soon).

Mac

The Disabled Items mechanism is Windows-specific (it’s tied to COM add-ins). On Mac, OfficeConnect runs as a JavaScript add-in and doesn’t get “disabled” the same way. If your OfficeConnect tab is missing on Mac:

1
Open Insert → Add-ins in Excel for Mac In Excel for Mac, go to Insert → Add-ins to view your installed add-ins.
2
Verify OfficeConnect is listed as active Check that OfficeConnect appears in the add-ins list and shows as active.
3
Re-enable if listed but inactive If OfficeConnect appears but is inactive, click it to re-enable it.

See OfficeConnect on Mac for the full Mac troubleshooting flow.

Prevent it from happening again

  • Don’t force-close Excel. Always use File → Close or File → Exit. Force-quit while OfficeConnect is mid-refresh is the most common trigger.
  • Save large workbooks before refreshing. A refresh that takes 30+ seconds is much more likely to be force-closed by an impatient user.
  • Tune performance. See Optimize Performance to keep refresh times under 10 seconds so users don’t reach for force-quit.

Result

OfficeConnect is back in the ribbon, and Excel will load it normally on next startup.

Next steps

Last modified May 19, 2026: Rename 'Get Started' section to 'Wiki' site-wide (6ebea16d)