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
    2017-02-15T18:44:01+00:00

    Personally I like the message telling me that I can paste within Excel.  My main problem is that this happens when I only have Excel running and no other app or programme that I can detect.  How do I determine what Excel is seeing in terms of something else denying access to the clipboard?  Is there a utility that will help me see what is locking the clipboard?

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-15T17:49:23+00:00

    Hello,

    I have another update on this error: “There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste your content within this workbook."

    Excel engineering can repro the problem and I was able to repro it myself. What is happening, is that some other app has a lock on the clipboard. Excel doesn't need the clipboard when doing a copy/paste inside Excel but it does need the clipboard if you paste outside of Excel, and the clipboard is unavailable. What you see if that if another app has a lock on the clipboard, you get the above alert and then the paste occurs inside Excel. If you try to paste outside of Excel, such as into Word or WordPad, nothing happens...nothing gets pasted.

    The same thing happens in Word and WordPad when another app has a lock on the clipboard, except that they don't raise the alert - they just silently fail - i.e. nothing happens when you paste.

    The alert is an attempt to tell the user that pasting within Excel will work, but pasting outside of Excel won't work. Last July, we made some changes to the alert. It used to say "We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard.  Another program might be using it right now." In July, we changed the message to “There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste your content within this workbook." and it was changed to only come up once per Excel instance.

    One option is to silently fail like Word, PPT, WordPad, etc. I welcome your thoughts on silently failing. I will pass them on to the Excel engineering team.

    Thanks,

    -Mike

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-02-10T17:04:40+00:00

    Thank you.

    We are looking forward to less then another 4 years of patience.

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