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
    2017-02-15T18:45:06+00:00

    Hi Mike,

    I am not seeing the issue as you describe it above.  I type "Test" into an Excel cell, then move it to another cell.  I get the message, "There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can....blah, blah."  I might then move the "Test" contents five times successfully but on the sixth move, get the message again.  Move the cell several more times, then get the message again.  Copy the cell and attempt to paste the contents into Word and "Test" pastes normally.  So I am confused.

    If there is an issue with the clipboard, that should be addressed.  Every application I am using is a Microsoft product, except Google Chrome.  I am not explicitly using the clipboard in Chrome but I don't know what is going on "underneath" if you know what I mean.  The real fix is to not allow the clipboard to be commandeered by a program.

    I guess a message is better than silently failing to perform the action, but one and only one message should be displayed.  Fixing the clipboard problem is the real solution.

    For my test, the programs open are Office 365 Excel, Word, and Outlook, and File Explorer on Window 7.

    Thanks for taking time with this.  I can't believe there isn't a bigger furor as it is pretty frustrating.  Just ask UweHa.

    Regards,

    Gary

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-26T08:56:04+00:00

    This is an absolute horror. I am copy/pasting some cells using Excel clipboard within Excel, cell by cell, and I am using "Paste All" function. Whenever I download a spreadsheet from Google Analytics, "Paste All" function starts malfunctioning. It does not paste all cells. It means that again some program or process in interfering in clipboard, which should not be allowed of course. I am using Mozilla Firefox for this purpose because Microsoft Edge frequently freezes my PC so I need to shut it down (another "great work" from Microsoft engineers).

    So it could be a Firefox, Flash, Java or any other number of processes that is causing this.

    This never happened in Windows 7.

    We all already concluded in this thread that the problem is in Microsoft Excel, which allows other programs/processes to mess up with Excel clipboard while user is working with it. I wonder why it takes so long for Microsoft to solve this issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-26T15:48:09+00:00

    Yes it is dreadful.

    Why has it gone on for so long? Why is it not fixed?

    I will tell you.

    NO ONE AT MICROSOFT ACTUALLY GIVES A DAMN ABOUT THIS ISSUE.

    All their concern is just meaningless bull.

    Steve

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-02-27T17:17:27+00:00

    My problem was also fixed by disabling clipboard use in a VNC viewer (a different one from the one shown, but the same idea). I've re-enabled the option, and the problem hasn't come back in Excel, even after closing Excel down and restarting it.

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