Clipboard problem in Excel 2016

Anonymous
2016-04-16T23:39:19+00:00

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.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-02-28T16:18:02+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2018-06-18T14:55:50+00:00

    Have installed "Clipboard" on this Dell laptop. Will let you know if it solved the problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-05-23T15:56:23+00:00

    In my case the main culprit was a great little background program called ZeroSpellCheck.  I still intermittently get the problem in Excel but not nearly as often.  Still very annoying message - and for what purpose?

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-05-23T14:19:56+00:00

    I have the same issue.  

    It happens constantly when you drag and drop items in excel.  i.e. highlight an entire column or row and try and drag it.

    I also have the issue that it also pops up when you "undo" a move.

    After about 20 times, excel freezes.  You can still drag the scroll bar and move the sheet up and down, but you can't access any cell anymore.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-05-22T18:57:26+00:00

    I am running Excel 2016/Win10 and had a similar prob. What seems to have solved it is the windows clipboard program was switched to an app (not sure what the difference is) but i had to download the new clipboard "app" off the MS-Store website - it's free. I don't know if it would be applicable to Win7 but you may want to look into that. Also not sure why the clipboard wasn't automatically updated or switched out as it should have been. Since then, no issues.

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