By default, Google Sheets recalculates formulas whenever a change is made. However, if you're using custom functions or scripts, you might need to trigger a recalculation manually. This can usually be done by editing a cell or by making a change that affects the formula's outcome.
Edit or Refresh the Cell: Simply editing a cell that's part of a formula or directly linked to the calculation can force a recalculation. This can be as simple as adding and then removing a space.
Copy-Paste: You can copy the formula from a cell and then paste it back into the same cell to force a recalculation.
For example, if you have a formula like =SUM(A1:A10), and you want to force it to recalculate, you can simply modify the content of one of the cells within the range A1:A10. Even adding a space to a text cell and removing it will trigger a recalculation.
If you're trying to update a range that is imported from another sheet, sometimes recalculating the IMPORTRANGE function is necessary. You can do this by adjusting any parameter in the function, forcing Google Sheets to refresh the imported data.
Assume you're importing data with =IMPORTRANGE("spreadsheetURL", "sheet1!A1:C10"). To force this to refresh, you can slightly modify the range, like changing it to "sheet1!A1:C9" and then back to "sheet1!A1:C10".
This is as simple as hitting the browser's refresh button or pressing F5 (or Cmd+R on Mac). This method forces the entire spreadsheet to reload from the server, updating all data and calculations.
We hope that this article has helped you and given you a better understanding of how to force Google Sheets to recalculate. If you enjoyed this article, you might also like our articles on how to create a Google Sheets variable and how to work out a Google Sheets suggestion mode.
