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How to disable or stop auto fill feature in Excel?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

In Excel, Auto Fill feature is useful for us to fill a list of same values or a series of sequential values. Normally, it is visible at the bottom-right corner of a selection, but sometimes, you want to turn off it to avoid some accidents as following screenshot shown. Have you any ideas to stop applying this dragging and dropping feature in Excel?

enable autofill arrow disable autofill
Enable Auto Fill feature   Disable Auto Fill feature

Disable or stop auto fill feature with Options function

Disable or stop auto fill feature with VBA code

arrow blue right bubble Disable or stop auto fill feature with Options function

Get into the Options dialog box to turn off the auto fill feature, you can do as follows:

1. Click File > Options in Excel 2010/2013, or click Office button > Excel Options in Excel 2007.

2. In the Excel Options dialog box, click Advanced from the left pane, and uncheck Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop option under Editing options section in the right pane, see screenshot:

uncheck enable fill handle option

3. Then click OK button to finish the setting, and you can’t apply the fill handle feature from now on.

arrow blue right bubble Disable or stop auto fill feature with VBA code

Here is also a simple VBA code can help you to disable the auto fill feature.

1. Hold down the Alt + F11 keys in Excel, and it opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Then click Insert > Module, and paste the following macro in the Module Window.

VBA code: Disable the auto fill feature in Excel

Sub Disable_Cell_Drag_Drop()
Application.CellDragAndDrop = False
End Sub

3. Then press F5 key to run this code, and the dragging and dropping feature is disabled now.

Note: If you want to enable the auto fill again, please use the following code:

VBA code: Enable the auto fill feature in Excel

Sub Disable_Cell_Drag_Drop()
Application.CellDragAndDrop = True
End Sub

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