Conditional Formatting - Excel keeps adding cells in the Applies To field when I use Conditional Formatting

Question

I have used Conditional Formatting to change the color of another cell. My formula reads =$E3="OT" and in the Applies to field it read $BF$21 I used this in multiple fields in multiple files to change the formatting of up to 200 cells on a sheet with 10 rules per field. It all worked beautifully.

Today, I opened several of these files and when something didn't work right I checked the rules and in the Applies To field, instead of it reading $BF$21 it now reads $BF$21,$AB$44,$AK$46,$AR$40

Where did all these other fields come from? Why would Excel do this? It is all over my sheets in random fields - not all but the problem is in every file?

Answer 1

Most likely it's because of this problem (includes an accepted answer). Chances are your post is a duplicate of the same issue.