1st troubleshooting
1. Open the Excel sheet and go the File menu. In the File menu, click on Options.
2. An Excel Options dialog box will appear. Go to the Advanced tab and scroll down to the General area. Over there check Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).
3. Restart Excel.
2nd troubleshooting, if you are using Google Drive
Google Drive was my issue resulting in the “waiting for OLE action” error. I tried disabling add-ins, but that wasn’t the issue in my case. I probably shouldn’t pass the buck on this one, but it should be brought to the attention of the respective MS and Google Product development teams.
Error: “Microsoft excel waiting for another application to complete an OLE action.”
Cause: Certain Excel files are being stored on Google Drive or Google File Stream.
Solution: Moving the files to a local drive or desktop (i.e. the hard drive).
3rd troubleshooting
Have you tried to open workbooks in safe mode of Excel?
To run Excel in safe mode, you could hold on Ctrl key and double click Excel icon, and then choose “Yes”.
If this issue no longer occurs in safe mode, I also suggest you locate to
C:\Users\<User Name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART,
temporarily remove the files and subfolders in the startup item folder.