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
    2016-04-18T23:08:26+00:00

    Some more details....

    I fully uninstalled Office and re-installed.  I opened a single spreadsheet and had no problem.  I then open a second excel window (a *.csv file) and the problem as described above begins.  The problem persists even after the csv file is closed.

    ...

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-04-18T22:06:28+00:00

    I did as instructed, although your instructions for starting in safe mode did not quite work for me.  excel/safe in the run resulted in an error, but I got it into safe mode some other way.  No add-ins were enabled.

    I repaired Office per your second link.  The problem persists.

    Any other ideas?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-04-17T02:37:56+00:00

    Hi Aaron,

     Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

    I know how this concerns you, let me help you to resolve this issue.

    Let's start Excel in safe mode as mentioned in the following article and verify the result:

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/why-cant-i-start-my-office-2013-application-HA104011864.aspx

    If excel works as expected in safe mode, disable the add-ins by following steps mentioned below and determine the problem causing add-in:

    a) Click on File menu, click Options, Add-ins, Go button besides Manage: Com-in Add.

    b) Check if there are add-ins listed, clear the checkbox.

    c) Close the Office program and restart it.

    d) Disable each add-in one at a time, restart the Excel, and repeat the above procedure. If the issue reappears again, it will help you to determine which add-in is causing this issue.

    If issue still persists, repair the Office suite, restart your computer and then try working with the Office applications.

    Refer to the following article for instructions on repairing the Office suite.

    https://support.office.com/en-US/Article/Repair-an-Office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b 

    Keep us posted on the status of the issue and I’ll be glad to assist you further.

    Thank you.

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