Shortcuts app taking a long time to open one specific Excel file

Two of my shortcuts started acting weird... taking a full minute to open one small Excel file (less than 1MB). Let me break it down a bit...


Running an iMac M4, 24GB memory, Golden Gate 27.0.1. All software apps are up to date.


Two of my shortcuts open my Daily Planner file in Excel. The Excel file is located in My Documents on the main hard drive (not on my external drives, not in the Cloud). One shortcut opens this file alone. The other shortcut opens this file, along with another Excel file of the same size, stored in the exact same location. This shortcut also opens my mail, weather, and a few other items. Both of these shortcuts opened everything pretty fast until yesterday. Now, the Daily Planner file hangs for about a full minute before opening. With the shortcut that opens multiple files, everything else loads right away INCLUDING the other Excel file stored in the same location... but the Daily Planner just hangs for a minute.


If I go into Finder, I can click on the Daily Planner and it opens instantly.


I deleted both shortcuts, started from scratch... the same thing still happens. Did the reboot thing, no difference. Made sure Shortcuts has full disc access in settings, it still does.


Any thoughts?

iMac (M4, 2024)

Posted on Oct 10, 2026 7:38 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 12, 2026 7:15 AM

I did both steps. No change at all. But duplicating the spreadsheet got me to thinking "What changed in this planner the other day?" I mean it's a simple spreadsheet that I put together laid out like a desktop calendar would be laid out with boxes large enough to add simple text, day by day, month by month, for the past three years (one tab for each year). I constantly add reminders, appointments, birthdays, etc.; plus I save all of the info simply so I can remember events that I need to keep track of, or business meetings with clients so I know when I'm due to initiate another one.


Then it hit me... I made a small screenshot (only 70kb) of an upcoming event, and pasted it into one of the date boxes instead of typing in the details like I normally do. I've literally done this dozens of times as a quick addition if I'm busy, and typically within a week I delete the screenshot and type in the text instead... (because it looks more consistent, and my OCD bugs me if I don't delete the screenshot - lol). So anyway, I deleted this 70kb screenshot pasted into November 12th, and typed in the text instead. Now the sheet opens instantly through either shortcut.


I have no idea why a screenshot off of the same iMac that I always use would cause the problem. So today I tested it with a new screenshot, saved, and it still opens instantly. Something about that one individual screenshot. Go figure.


Thank you for all of the suggestions! I really appreciate it, especially because it got me looking in the right direction.

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 12, 2026 7:15 AM in response to 6x6

I did both steps. No change at all. But duplicating the spreadsheet got me to thinking "What changed in this planner the other day?" I mean it's a simple spreadsheet that I put together laid out like a desktop calendar would be laid out with boxes large enough to add simple text, day by day, month by month, for the past three years (one tab for each year). I constantly add reminders, appointments, birthdays, etc.; plus I save all of the info simply so I can remember events that I need to keep track of, or business meetings with clients so I know when I'm due to initiate another one.


Then it hit me... I made a small screenshot (only 70kb) of an upcoming event, and pasted it into one of the date boxes instead of typing in the details like I normally do. I've literally done this dozens of times as a quick addition if I'm busy, and typically within a week I delete the screenshot and type in the text instead... (because it looks more consistent, and my OCD bugs me if I don't delete the screenshot - lol). So anyway, I deleted this 70kb screenshot pasted into November 12th, and typed in the text instead. Now the sheet opens instantly through either shortcut.


I have no idea why a screenshot off of the same iMac that I always use would cause the problem. So today I tested it with a new screenshot, saved, and it still opens instantly. Something about that one individual screenshot. Go figure.


Thank you for all of the suggestions! I really appreciate it, especially because it got me looking in the right direction.

Oct 11, 2026 7:13 AM in response to gsyrba

I'm thinking of two things you could try:


  1. Make a copy of the Daily Planner Excel file and use the copy in the shortcut that opens a single file. I'm wondering if macOS is performing security checks on the original file. On my end, XProtect (the Apple anti malware) was updated on 10/10/2026.
  2. Make a copy of your multiple action shortcuts, prune one action, test the shortcut and repeat the pruning/testing until you detect the shortcut is slowing down. I'm not sure what this will tell us but I'm curious.

Oct 11, 2026 6:58 AM in response to 6x6

So after shutting down, starting up in Safe Mode (and verifying that I was in safe mode), leaving the Mac idle for roughly 30 minutes, I shut it down, and restarted in normal mode. It didn't change a thing.


Once again I tried deleting both shortcuts, rebuilt them starting from scratch - same results. The one shortcut that opens multiple files (including another excel file of the same size, in the same folder on the main drive) opened the other file almost instantly, but the Daily Planner took about a full minute to open. And once again, going to Finder > My Documents > Daily Planner... then it opened instantly.

Shortcuts app taking a long time to open one specific Excel file

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