Clipboard problem in Excel 2016

Anonymous

I am running Excel 2016 on a Windows 10 Machine.

When I copy a cell (or cut a cell, or move a cell) I get one of two error messages:

"Cannot open the Clipboard"

"We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard. Another program might be using it right now."

I am then able to successfully paste what Excel told me it could not copy. To restate for clarity...Excel throws error messages, but I am able to successfully copy and paste.

The problem is that it throws the error messages every single time I try and copy or cut or whatever.

Things I have tried:

I've ensured all other programs are not running (or using the clip board)

I've cleared the %temp% folder

I've cleared the Clipboard within Excel

Word does not have this problem...

Please help.

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Anonymous

Hello,

I have an update on this error dialog: “There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste your content within this workbook."

When Excel shows this dialog after a copy (CTRL+C) action, it means that another app has a lock on the system clipboard. In this situation you can still paste within Excel. However you cannot paste to another app like Word or Outlook which uses the clipboard.

Last year we made some improvements to Office365 users so that this error message only shows once per Excel instance. This is based on customer feedback - the design change prevents it popping up multiple successive times when the clipboard is locked. We have also considered never showing the error dialog, but there was user feedback that this message is informative and helpful in some cases.

We hope this helps shed some light on this error message. For any design suggestions or new ideas on improving the Excel copy-paste experience, please post to Excel UserVoice.

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255 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-07-27T18:10:46+00:00

Hi, we are working on getting the changed behavior (to only show the error once) released. I don't have a date for you yet. I will let you know as soon as we have it available.

However, you are the only report I've heard of it causing a wait to paste or a crash. I think the other reports were just that you had to click past the message. I'll ask a support representative to come help with troubleshooting.

Freya

Office Newsroom
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Anonymous

2016-07-27T11:48:59+00:00

I have previously thought that this problem was confined to Excel but yesterday I experienced the same issue using Publisher 2016.
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Anonymous

2016-07-27T11:41:57+00:00

I know that the team are busy but is there an update on this? Our system runs on 2012 R2 and since the 2016 upgrade pasting into Excel generally results in a 20 second - 2 minute wait or just crashing out of Excel. Our main business activity is through Excel 2016 and so this is a nightmare
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Anonymous

2016-07-07T20:52:28+00:00

Hi Chris,

I’ve checked with the Excel team and there is more than just one issue which leads to this message. The problem where an outside application does not release the Clipboard will remain. However, we can make it much less annoying. We are working on a new and clearer message that will be displayed just once, instead of on each attempt to copy.

We'd love to get more information about the Microsoft programs that cause this problem. Can you please tell us specifically how to repro that? We will absolutely investigate that further.

Freya

Office Newsroom
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