title: Ghost/Phantom Workbooks/sheets appear in VBA Project list alongside legitimate sheets
body: <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/GINlG.png" alt="List of legitimate sheets and Phantom WorkSheets/Workbooks"></p>
  
  <p><strong>(edited a day later - see end)</strong></p>
  
  <p>Not sure what's happening here but it's occurring in a few workbooks I'm working with. Over time additional "Phantom" worksheets (or workbooks) appear as shown in the picture. Sheet13, Sheet14, Sheet15 etc are Phantoms and I have no idea how to get rid of them.</p>
  
  <p>What I've tried so far:</p>
  
  <p>1) Searching Google/Stackoverflow no joy but could be a terminology problem</p>
  
  <p>2) Created SUBS to loop through ALL worksheets and workbooks but the only things it finds are the single workbook and the legitimate worksheets. </p>
  
  <p>3) Creating code within one of the phantoms, which is possible. I created a simple SUB on workbook open within Sheet13 to return the name of the sheet or workbook, but no matter what code is there I get</p>
  
  <pre><code>Run Time Error '429':
  ActiveX component can't create object
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>4) Changing properties on the phantoms. The properties for each phantom exactly mirror each other and mirror ThisWorkbook. If I make a change to one, say KeepChangeHistory to False, this is mirrored in ALL phantoms and ThisWorkbook. If I make the change back to True in another phantom, again ALL phantoms and ThisWorkbook are updated.</p>
  
  <p>5) Checked links (greyed out). Tried F5 -> special -> objects "No Objects found". </p>
  
  <p>I've basically tried everything I can think of and searched the internet over the past week before posting this here, as a last resort. </p>
  
  <p>Does anyone have ANY idea what could be causing this (I'm leaning towards some bad object handling somewhere), but also HOW to remove them completely so the only things listed are the actual, real, worksheets?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for reading.</p>
  
  <p><strong>edit</strong></p>
  
  <p>It affects more than just this workbook (it's happening in 3 different workbooks), it is also getting worse over time. I have saved archived versions of all workbooks. If I go back a month, there are 2 "phantoms", if I go back 2 weeks there are 8 "phantoms" and if I look at one from just last week there are 13 "phantoms". This is one of the reasons I'm assume some poor object handling, likely related to ThisWorkbook is going on. Anyway, I'm going to take Rory's advice and create a new Workbook with NO phantoms and try and figure it out from there. Just want to thank Rory and Mark for taking the time to respond with ideas, it is appreciated.</p>