Clipboard problem in Excel 2016

Thank you Freya for at least confirming that the issue is acknowledged and the team is trying to find a solution.

As far as replicating the issue is concerned.  This morning I tried again.

Windows 10 64 bit fully patched.  Excel from Office 365 HomeRetPrem V16.0.7070.2022

Open Outlook.  (No other programmes running other than a few background processes)

Open Excel to blank worksheet

Select cell, click Ctrl C to copy

With mouse drag copied cell to adjacent cell and release

Error message  as below appears.

 

Close Outlook and repeat above process

No error message appears.

I admit this does not happen 100% of the time.  I then reopened Outlook and repeated the copy and past of a blank cell and no error occurred the first time but it did a short while later after Outlook had run "Send and receive" a couple of times. 

I never had this problem when using Office 2013.  It only started using Office 2016 (via O365).

One key point is that although you get various error messages, the actual copy to clipboard always seems to succeed in spite of the message.  Once you click "OK" on the message, you can always paste whatever you copied without any issues.  It is not the copy function that seems to be failing, it is the generation of the false and misleading message that is the real problem.

I hope this is of some help?

Regards, Chris

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

This problem seem to be cropping up frequently and there are many threads all over the web outlining the issue.  I find it hard to understand why MS does not seem to openly recognise the issue and get it sorted.  Particularly when it is caused by their own programmes?

I can replicate the problem 100% of the time by taking the steps outlined in mark_aok's comment.  if I then close Outlook the problem disappears.  I can't be certain that other programmes won't cause the same error but closing Outlook seems to solve it for me.  Not a good solution as Outlook is normally open and running 100% of the time I am logged on. I am running Outlook 2016 from O365HomePremRetail (all updates installed) on Win 10 64 bit.

If you can't sort it for all programmes, please MS for goodness sake stop your own programmes from causing the issue!  How about a public statement from the programme developers on this forum?

Hi all,

I'm also seeing this issue.

In my environment (Windows 7 Enterprise Build 7601 SP1 + Excel 2016 from Office 365 ProPlus 16.0.6741.2048) the issue is 100% reproducible:

1. Open Excel 2016
2. Select a cell
3. Drag cell to another cell
4. "We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard. Another program might be using it right now." Error

It turns out (at least in my case) the issue is due to a conflict with a program called RealVNC VNC Viewer that I use for screen sharing. When I unchecked the Share clipboard option in VNC Viewer the issue was immediately fixed, I didn't even need to restart Excel, see VNC Viewer screenshot below:

Note that there are apparently several programs that seem to cause this issue...more info at this thread - http://eforexcel.com/wp/article-21-clipboard-error-in-excel-we-couldnt-free-up-space-on-the-clipboard/

Hope that helps,

Mark