[Excel VBA] How to Open a Workbook Without Showing the “Update Links” Message

When you try to open a workbook containing references to other Excel files using VBA, you might encounter a message saying, “This workbook contains links to one or more external sources.” This prompt causes the macro to pause, waiting for user input, which makes full automation impossible.

In this article, I will explain how to use the UpdateLinks argument of the Workbooks.Open method to suppress this confirmation message and open the workbook smoothly.

What is the UpdateLinks Argument?

The UpdateLinks argument is a setting that tells VBA how to handle external reference links when opening a workbook. You can control Excel’s behavior by specifying a value for this argument.

For automation purposes, specifying UpdateLinks:=0 is the most common and reliable method.

The Completed VBA Code

Below is the VBA code that sets the UpdateLinks argument to 0 to open a workbook containing links without any messages.

Sub OpenBookWithoutUpdatingLinks()

    ' Declare variables
    Dim filePath As String
    Dim bookWithLinks As Workbook

    ' Specify the path of the workbook you want to open
    filePath = ThisWorkbook.Path & "\Linked_DataSource.xlsx"

    ' Check if the file exists just in case
    If Dir(filePath) = "" Then
        MsgBox "The specified file was not found: " & filePath, vbExclamation
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' --- Open the workbook with UpdateLinks set to 0 ---
    ' This prevents the "Update Links" message from appearing
    Set bookWithLinks = Workbooks.Open( _
        Filename:=filePath, _
        UpdateLinks:=0) ' 0 = Do not update links

    ' Manipulate the opened workbook
    MsgBox "Opened '" & bookWithLinks.Name & "' without updating links."

    ' Close the workbook as cleanup
    bookWithLinks.Close SaveChanges:=False

    ' Release object variables
    Set bookWithLinks = Nothing

End Sub

Explanation of Key Points

The Core: UpdateLinks:=0

Set bookWithLinks = Workbooks.Open( _
    Filename:=filePath, _
    UpdateLinks:=0)

Everything in this code comes down to explicitly stating UpdateLinks:=0 in the Workbooks.Open method arguments.

By adding this single line, Excel opens the specified workbook without showing any confirmation messages to the user and without performing the time-consuming update process.

Why is this setting useful?

1. Achieving Full AutomationSince no dialogs appear requiring user operation, you can execute processes (like night batches) to the end without human intervention.
2. Speeding Up ProcessingIf the linked files are large or located on a slow network drive, updating links can take a very long time. UpdateLinks:=0 skips this update process, allowing the workbook to open quickly.
3. Maintaining ValuesThis is useful when you want to proceed using the old data (the values from the last time the file was saved) and prevent the links from automatically updating to new values.

Summary

The golden rule when handling workbooks with external reference links in VBA is to add the UpdateLinks:=0 argument to the Workbooks.Open method.

Workbooks.Open Filename:="...", UpdateLinks:=0

This prevents macro interruptions caused by confirmation messages and allows for faster, more stable automation. This is an essential technique to remember when automating file opening processes.