What does External Data Connections have been disabled mean in Excel? Excel often needs to fetch data from other sources to perform or execute a certain function or show the data in the spreadsheet.

Quick Fixes for “Retrieving Data. Wait a Few Seconds” in Microsoft Excel Wait for a Moment and Try Again: The most immediate and sensible fix would be to give Excel a second or two to breathe.

The REFRESH RECOMMENDED error in Excel gives us the option to discard or save changes, but if the issue persists, you can follow these solutions.