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
    2018-03-29T09:45:07+00:00

    I still get this message every time I perform a copy operation. Latest version as always.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-04-16T18:47:48+00:00

    I have the same issei, however it happens when performing succesivsu pastes after a copy.  No other apps are open or using the clip board, so i think this is a bug in excel.  Also, when this happens, i lose highlights over the copied area, so you can only guess where you are pasteing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-04-25T18:45:32+00:00

    May have a solution.

    Hello people, I have been frustrated for some time with this as well. Well, today when I was yet again looking up causes, I was taken to the Microsoft site to download the "NEW" clipboard which is now an app you need to download and install (about 1 min). So far, everything seems to cut/paste as usual between Excel and Word. Maybe a previous Win10 update removed the old clipboard??

    Hope this helps.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-05-02T22:39:14+00:00

    I reset the factory settings on my laptop and now I can copy/paste in excel.

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