Find links (external references) in a workbook

Linking to other workbooks is a very common task in Excel, but sometimes you might find yourself with a workbook that has links you can’t find even though Excel tells you they exist. There is no automatic way to find all external references that are used in a workbook, however, there are several manual methods you can use to find them. You need to look in formulas, defined names, objects (like text boxes or shapes), chart titles, and chart data series.

Any Excel workbook you’ve linked to will have that workbook’s filename in the link with its .xl* file extension (like .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm), so a recommended method is to look for all references to the .xl partial file extension. If you’re linking to another source, you’ll need to determine the best search term to use.

Find links used in formulas

Press Ctrl+F to launch the Find and Replace dialog.
Click Options.
In the Find what box, enter .xl.
In the Within box, click Workbook.
In the Look in box, click Formulas.
Click Find All.
In the list box that is displayed, look in the Formula column for formulas that contain .xl. In this case, Excel found multiple instances of Budget Master.xlsx.
To select the cell with an external reference, click the cell address link for that row in the list box.