How to Check Who Modified an Excel Spreadsheet

Shared Excel spreadsheets make collaborating on projects quick and easy. To that end, Excel has features that can help when things go wrong (information removed) and right (valuable information added) when multiple people have write access to a worksheet. Its Track Changes feature highlights any changed cell and provides details about who made the change.

In this article, we will see how to view tracked changes in a shared Excel spreadsheet on various devices.

How to Check Who Modified an Excel File on PC

To see who made changes, when, and where on an Excel spreadsheet, follow these steps in Excel on your PC:

1. Open the Excel application.
   
2. From the main menu, tap “Review,” “Track Changes,” then “Highlight Changes.”
   
3. Do one of the following to select the changes you want to see.
   

To see all tracked changes:

• Check the “When” box. In the “When” list, select “All”. Make sure the “Who” and “Where” boxes are unchecked.
  

To see changes made after a particular date:

• Check the “When” box. In the “When” list, select “Since date”. Type the earliest date from which you want to see changes.
  

To see changes made by a specific person:

• Check the “Who” box. In the "Who" list, select the user's name.
  

To see changes made to a specific range of cells:

• Check the “Where” box. Type the spreadsheet cell reference.
  
• Hover your mouse pointer over the cell[s] to view the details of its modification.
  

How to Check Who Modified an Excel File in Office365

To see which user modified a spreadsheet, when, and which cell[s], follow these steps through Office365:

1. Sign in to office.com.
   
2. Click the Microsoft 365 app launcher, then select "Excel".
   
3. From the main menu, select 'Review', 'Track changes' and then 'Highlight changes'.
   
4. Run one of the following commands to select the changes you want to see.
   

To view all tracked changes:

• Check the “When” box. In the “When” list, choose “All”. Make sure the "Who" and "Where" checkboxes are not selected.
  

To view changes made after a certain date:

• Check the “When” box. In the “When” list, choose “Since date”. Enter the earliest date from which you want to see the changes.
  

To view changes made by a specific person:

• Check the “Who” box. In the "Who" list, select the user's name.
  

To view changes made to a specific range of cells:

• Check the “Where” box. Type the spreadsheet cell reference.
  
• Hover your mouse pointer over the cell[s] to view the details of its modification.
  

How to Check Who Modified an Excel File on an iPhone

Once you have installed the Excel app for iOS on your iPhone, you can use Excel as if you were using the desktop version. To see which user edited a worksheet, when, and which cell[s] they edited, follow these steps through Excel for iOS:

1. Install the Excel for iOS app from the App Store.
2. Open Excel.
3. From the main menu, tap “Review,” “Track Changes,” then “Highlight Changes.”
4. To select the changes you want to see, do one of the following.

To see all tracked changes:

• Check the “When” box. In the “When” list, select “All”. Make sure the “Who” and “Where” boxes are unchecked.

To view changes made after a certain date:

• Tap the “When” checkbox. In the “When” list, choose “Since date”. Type the earliest date from which you want to see changes.

To see changes made by a specific person:

• Check the “Who” box. In the "Who" list, choose the user's name.

To view changes made to a specific range of cells:

• Tap the “Where” checkbox. Type the spreadsheet cell reference.
• Hover your pointer over the cell[s] to see the details of the change.

How to Check Who Modified an Excel File on Android

Follow these steps to see who edited an Excel spreadsheet using your Android device:

1. Visit the Google Play Store to install the Excel for Android app.
2. Open Excel.
3. From the main menu, tap “Review,” “Track Changes,” then “Highlight Changes.”
4. Select one of the following options to see the changes you are interested in.

To view all tracked changes:

• Tap the “When” checkbox. In the “When” list, tap “All”. Make sure the “Who” and “Where” boxes are unchecked.

To view changes made after a particular date:

• Check the “When” box. In the “When” list, tap “Since date”. Type the earliest date from which you want to see changes.

To view changes made by a specific person:

• Check the “Who” box. In the "Who" list, tap the user's name.

To view changes made to a specific range of cells:

• Check the “Where” box. Type the spreadsheet cell reference.
• Hover your pointer over the cell[s] to view the details of the change.

Once you choose what you want to see, the applicable cells are highlighted with a blue border. Hover your pointer over the cell for more details.

Find out who made what change in Excel spreadsheets

Excel's change tracking feature for shared worksheets lets you see where changes were made, when they were made, and by which user. This is useful in a team scenario when you need to question a change or praise someone for making a useful change. It's also handy to know when you've made changes and want to revisit them at a later date.

What challenges have you encountered when sharing spreadsheets? Does Excel offer features to mitigate them? Let us know in the "Comments" section.