Clipboard problem in Excel 2016

The error is actually pretty accurate. It's not an issue with Excel, or clipboard but actually another piece of software, PUPware or malware that is reading your clipboard data obsessively and interrupting your access to the clipboard. Find the software on your system that is reading your clipboard remove it and your issue will go away. 

"Cannot open the Clipboard"

"We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard.  Another program might be using it right now." 

Thank  you for your involvement. I think you've possibly sniffed it out. The problem, I realise, has not plagued me for a little while now. While it might have been solved by something I was trying deliberately, I suspect it was possibly because I just uninstalled some software that was annoying me in some other way.

If it  pops up again and I an identify the software I'll post it's id here.

The issue hung around for a good few years and has probably been gone now for perhaps six months or more.

I'm holding my breath.

.... and I would have a tick box

Do this without prompting, every time from now on.

Steve

Yes, that's possibly something MS could do, which would be helpful and surely they want to be helpful.

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.

Thank you for your response.

The issue is no longer there for me, gone as mysteriously as it's arrival.

Is the disable windows10 clipboard suggestion, by another commenter, valid.

It might have disappeared after I obtained new PC, or after I uninstalled something that was annoying me for some other reason, or a virus checker found it perhaps.

I'm still a little surprised regarding the tardiness XL demonstrated in helping clients solve the issue.

It didn't pop up once per session, either as you suggest and as has been mentioned below and elsewhere, it happened again and again and again.

I had decided to look around for other spreadsheet software.

Minor but numerous issues with Outlook are prompting me in a similar direction.

It could mean MS's number is coming up generally.