Why Does Windows 10/11 Copy and Paste Stop Working After A While?

I did find one "fix" that isn't really a fix at all, but at least it prevents one from having to log out.

1. If you hit Win+E to open an explorer window, Explorer will either crash or not crash. If it doesn't crash, open Task Manager, find Explorer, right-click, and select restart. If it does crash, proceed right to step 2! Otherwise, the manual restart of Explorer should start the crash loops.
2. At this point, hitting Win+E will likely cause Explorer to crash in a loop. Just keep tapping Win+E and have Explorer crash 4 or 5 times in a row, when you start seeing Explorer windows pop up en masse, stop, and try copy paste. It should work again at this point.

Kinda hilarious that crashing Explorer over and over fixes the problem, but does also reinforce that it is likely a Windows bug.

I've since given up thinking it is any of my third-party software, moved on to hardware troubleshooting for a few to see if old USB 2 input devices were causing the issue by making it trigger something, as often when logging back in, the start menu would flicker open/closed a few times like someone was hammering the Windows key. After discovering the above reproducible steps to fix copy/paste though, I don't think it is third-party software, nor the old USB hardware. With or without the hardware the bug still manifested daily.

When installing anything that has shell extensions I avoid installing them since W11 has butchered the use of the context menu, so I highly doubt it's any third-party apps interacting with Explorer, but anything's possible.

What an absolutely dumb problem. Linux is looking nicer every day.

Seems the bug itself is getting worse now. They recently pushed Copilot onto this build. (Promptly shut it off.) Recently installed/enabled OneDrive. Otherwise system has been unchanged.

I now regularly see copy/paste fail 1/3 the way through the day. One moment it's working, the next it isn't.

W11 Pro version 23H2 OS build 22631.3155 with WFEP 1000.22684.1000.0

At least in one of one attempt, force-quitting and then crashing explorer via win+e still works to fix it without logging out or rebooting.

Any update? I'm experiencing same/similar issues; mostly noticed on the day's first use when I leave the computer overnight. I suspected "memory leak" in EDGE as I don't think it's a problem if I shutdown EDGE before I let it idle but I haven't been thorough in looking at that. My reliable "fixes" are logout or rebot. Both these indicate the Windows environment and as I am typically authenticated to multiple Windows USERID in my sessions to me again point back to EDGE. I might try and live with Chrome for a day and see if it makes a difference.

My windows version: Windows 11 Home 23H2 OS build 22631.3227 WFEP 1000.22687.1000.0

In our case, the copy (clipboard) issue is specifically related to a custom WPF app, and may be related to a Visual Studio update in conjunction with the 23H2 build. Further, it is only happening randomly and for a small subset of the population. Maddening and we've done a wide array of troubleshooting tasks, even replacing mice/keyboard combos. The TeraCopy test did not offer a resolution, uninstalling and reinstalling the custom app did not offer a resolution, and reviewing Task Manager during a copy operation provided no clues as to other conflicts or processes involved.

As of today 2/29/2024, still working with Level 3. The P/C was in a broke state with copy/paste not working. Level 3 logged on and dumped several logs for their engineering department to review. They will contact me next week after their review of the logs. Level 3 uninstalled Norton virus protection and was told not to use VPN. The problem still occurred after 3 days of no issues. It might run for days or hours who knows. They need more people to open tickets on the issue because when I asked if anybody else reported the issue, they said no. I'm running Windows 11, Version 23H2 OS Build 22631.3155, along with Microsoft Office Home Student 2021 Version 2402 (Build 17328.20108)