There's a quiet frustration that builds when you've done everything right, formatted your dates, trimmed them down to a clean month-year view, and the pivot table still treats every day like its own stubborn column. The user who asked about pivot table dates still showing days is living that exact headache, and the answer isn't another formatting tweak. The issue isn't what the cells *look* like; it's what the pivot table *thinks* they are. When you change a date's display format to "mmm/yyyy," you've only changed the costume. The underlying value is still a full date, complete with the day attached, and pivot tables group by the actual data type, not the visual mask you've applied.
This is a classic case of confusing appearance with structure, and it's a trap that catches plenty of spreadsheet users who are otherwise doing everything right. The fix is straightforward, but it requires a deliberate step that many people skip: you have to create a separate column with a formula that extracts just the month and year as a true text or date value, then group by that. Something like `=TEXT(A2,"mmm/yyyy")` or `=DATE(YEAR(A2),MONTH(A2),1)` forces the pivot table to see only the month, not the day. The user's screenshots show they're already in the formula tab, so they're close, they just need to make that structural change rather than relying on formatting alone.
What this boils down to is a lesson about how pivot tables actually process data. They don't care about your formatting preferences. They care about the raw values sitting in the cells. If you want month-level grouping, you have to give the pivot table month-level data. That means adding a helper column, not just changing how the date displays. It's an extra step, but it's the difference between fighting the tool and working with it. The moment you internalize that, you stop blaming the spreadsheet and start solving the problem.
So if you're staring at a pivot table that refuses to group by month, resist the urge to re-format the date column again. That path leads only to more frustration. Instead, step back and ask yourself what the pivot table is actually seeing. Then build the column that gives it exactly what it needs. It's a five-minute fix once you know the rule: display formatting is for human eyes, but pivot tables need structural clarity. That's the whole trick, and it's one you'll carry with you long after this particular headache fades.