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
    2016-05-20T21:52:35+00:00

    Thank you for letting us know that this issue is being treated seriously.  By way of further information, I have this week taken delivery of a new computer installed with an OEM version of Windows 10 Home 64 bit (previously I was running (Pro).  One of the first things that I did was to install Office 2016 (32 bit) and then ensure everything was up to date in both Windows 10 and Office.  Immediately on starting to use Excel on my files I encountered the clipboard error message.

    I have shown below two of these messages which occurred this evening when trying to copy a blank cell in a new empty workbook. If I open a copy of Word at the same time, copy and paste work perfectly.  It does not seem to be a clipboard issue as such as cut and paste work perfectly in other programmes., just something that effects Excel only as far as I am concerned.  Good luck with reproducing and tracking down the issue.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=51ccb21c-522b-44f5-a920-8b5d2a2fbc5b)

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=ef484929-d293-4b08-92dd-b33d15a0dce3)

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-05T19:40:16+00:00

    Hi all,

    I'm also seeing this issue.

    In my environment (Windows 7 Enterprise Build 7601 SP1 + Excel 2016 from Office 365 ProPlus 16.0.6741.2048) the issue is 100% reproducible:

    1. Open Excel 2016
    2. Select a cell
    3. Drag cell to another cell
    4. "We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard. Another program might be using it right now." Error

    It turns out (at least in my case) the issue is due to a conflict with a program called RealVNC VNC Viewer that I use for screen sharing. When I unchecked the Share clipboard option in VNC Viewer the issue was immediately fixed, I didn't even need to restart Excel, see VNC Viewer screenshot below:

    Note that there are apparently several programs that seem to cause this issue...more info at this thread - http://eforexcel.com/wp/article-21-clipboard-error-in-excel-we-couldnt-free-up-space-on-the-clipboard/

    Hope that helps,

    Mark

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-08T17:35:29+00:00

    Thank you, it absolutely helps! I'll let the team know.

    Once we release the fix, I'll let you know that as well.

    Freya

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-08T07:01:32+00:00

    Thank you Freya for at least confirming that the issue is acknowledged and the team is trying to find a solution.

    As far as replicating the issue is concerned.  This morning I tried again.

    Windows 10 64 bit fully patched.  Excel from Office 365 HomeRetPrem V16.0.7070.2022

    Open Outlook.  (No other programmes running other than a few background processes)

    Open Excel to blank worksheet

    Select cell, click Ctrl C to copy

    With mouse drag copied cell to adjacent cell and release

    Error message  as below appears.

     ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=214a2ae3-b6fa-4292-afa0-0c4e1ebd6f39)

    Close Outlook and repeat above process

    No error message appears.

    I admit this does not happen 100% of the time.  I then reopened Outlook and repeated the copy and past of a blank cell and no error occurred the first time but it did a short while later after Outlook had run "Send and receive" a couple of times. 

    I never had this problem when using Office 2013.  It only started using Office 2016 (via O365).

    One key point is that although you get various error messages, the actual copy to clipboard always seems to succeed in spite of the message.  Once you click "OK" on the message, you can always paste whatever you copied without any issues.  It is not the copy function that seems to be failing, it is the generation of the false and misleading message that is the real problem.

    I hope this is of some help?

    Regards, Chris

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