Clipboard problem in Excel 2016

Issue is when I try to drag and drop content from cell to another--having trouble re-producing problem now to give yo exact error message, but experienced it ten times earlier today.  Eventually the content will move to a new cell.  

However,

Annoyance is that it spins, disrupts flow; launches an error window; requires clicking "OK," then spins; and then moves the content.  

Straight copy and paste has never been an issue.

Rhyme or reason for error seems missing with regard to particular files.  Sometimes in new files; sometimes not.  Sometimes in legacy files; sometimes not.  

Within one document in one sitting, it will work, and then not work without any clear indicator as to why.  Three moves fine.  Two moves error.  Ten moves fine.  Five moves error.  Random.

Tried launching workbooks from Excel.  Tried launching from Windows Explorer (File Manager), and consistently unclear what provokes the issue.

Running Windows 10.  Subscribed to Office 365.  Figured this was a good thing.

Never had problem on Windows 7 with Office 2007.

Office 2007 was installed alongside Office 365.  Removed Office 2007, and problem persists.

Thank you for reaching in to help....  but progress feels slo-o-o-w  Despite that, I am still glad someone seems to be trying.  Thanks again  

have a moderator call me sometime

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

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

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.