Stop a Macro from Running in Excel

How to stop a macro from running after it has started.

This method uses the keyboard and has nothing to do with the programming of the macro.

If the Macro is simply in a continuous loop or is running for too long you can use one of these keyboard shortcuts to kill it:

Esc hit the Escape key.

Ctrl + Break hit Ctrl key and then the break key, which is also the pause key. On some keyboards you may have to use another key if the break or pause key doesn't exist; this is particularly true if you are using a laptop; in that case, you will need to find out what the break or pause key is on your keyboard.

Ctrl + Alt + Del If Excel freezes and you can't do anything, you can either wait a long time, maybe the macro just needs some time, or hit Ctrl + Alt + Del, go to the Task Manager, go to the Applications tab, and select the Excel application and hit the button End Task.

When you use Esc or Ctrl + Break to end the execution of the macro, you will see this window:

Hit End to stop the macro from running and return to Excel.

Hit Debug to go to the macro in the VBA editor window and see where the code stopped in an effort to fix the problem.

Hit Continue to continue the execution of the macro.

Notes

Download the Excel workbook that accompanies this tutorial if you want a simple macro that will loop forever until you cancel it. This way you can test this situation in Excel.

Here is the simple macro I used to test this: