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
    2019-08-08T19:28:47+00:00

    Clearly, Microsoft does not care about this, or even considers it a problem. (BTW, my workaround only works some of the time. Mostly, I'm dealing with the stupid reappearing dialog box every time I cut or copy. If I know I'm going to be doing and lot of cutting or copying, I just use LibreOffice Calc.)

    Maybe a developer can find a way to bypass this frustrating problem with a clever add-on. (At the very least, I'd like to know what program is hogging the clipboard to make Excel complain about this so fervently. Anyone know a utility that can do this?)

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-08-08T19:18:15+00:00

    .... and I would have a tick box

    Do this without prompting, every time from now on.

    Steve

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-08-08T19:15:16+00:00

    Yeah, I've been following this thread for a good few years now as well.

    Hey, Microsoft, what does that statement tell you?

    If I was programming Excel, my work around would be ....

    Excel: Another application is using the clipboard and causing a problem. Do you want us to get the clipboard function back for you. It might cause a problem in the other application YES/NO

    User: YES (go ahead and fix the problem for me, so i can get on with my work. I really don't care about the other application, and it will not be the end of the world if it is terminated).

    Steve

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-08-08T18:50:08+00:00

    yep--i just replied to another comment with the sentiment that Windows 7 with Office 2010 was better...

    This issue continues to occur on a brand new machine with brand new OS and fresh Office 365 Professional install...

    Looking forward to "3" showing up as &--that'll be great

    I don't get how all these people on the thread find odd-ball "clipboard being used by other application" issues, but it's never the same issue...  They come up with bizarre work-arounds to deal with issues that would have no reason to exist on my relatively simple machine...

    I suppose my continued use of Excel--constantly hitting "OK" when it tells me there's a problem--could be seen as a reflection on the human ability to ignore or attempt to side-step a major problem even as warnings pop up multiple times a day.  ugh

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