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
    2017-01-10T13:33:38+00:00

    Message i receive very real very annoying

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-08T12:16:11+00:00

    I have this problem also.   Totally impossible to work with Excel at the moment.

    Have tried safe mode - no difference.

    We urgently need a fix for this Microsoft.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-08T16:09:55+00:00

    Hi Freya,

    why do you have this post still marked as THE answer?

    Maybe it has been an answer at the time, but obviously (see all following comments) not a helpful one. The marking as an answer (i.e. helpful) misdirects the readers who don't have the time to search all the 74 replies for a possible solution.

    And why didn't you react to my answer from January 4th, 2017?

    That is - as far as I can tell -  the most complete and helpful comment on the still unsolved topic.

    Thank you in advance.

    Uwe

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-02-08T21:35:35+00:00

    Hello,

    I want to get some additional information, if you don't mind. This is supposed to be fixed and it sounds like it isn't. This thread discusses 2 different errors:

    1. "We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard. Another program might be using it right now."
    2. "There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste your content within this workbook."

    For #1, it means that another app has control of the clipboard and won't let go, so Excel, or any other app, cannot use the clipboard. For this one, when it happens, could you go into Word, open a document, select a page of text and try to copy and then paste into the same document or a new document in Word? Do you get a similar error?

    I would expect that if the clipboard is truly unavailable, it would be unavailable to all apps and you would get a similar error in Word. If you don't get an error in Word when performing this test, then that indicates the issue is specific to Excel.

    As an extra test, when you get the error, start PPT and see if you can copy content from PPT and then paste it into the same presentation or a new presentation. 

    For #2, This message means that something is wrong with the clipboard and Excel won't be able to paste data outside of Excel. However, you can still paste inside Excel because it has internal cell references which will allow the paste to work.

    So, I would expect that if the clipboard is messed up, Word and PPT wouldn't be able to use it either. So, try a similar test. When this error happens, could you go into Word, open a document, select a page of text and try to copy and then paste into the same document or a new document in Word? Do you get a similar error? Try copying from Word and pasting into PPT.

    Lastly, if you have a file and some steps that always reproduce the problem, let me know and I will have one of our moderators contact you via a private message so we can get the file and create an in-house repro of the problem and get it fixed.

    Thanks for your help with this,

    Mike

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