"there's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste this content within this workbook"

Anonymous
2016-11-17T14:55:36+00:00

Perhaps someone could direct to a discussion where this has been tackled, but I keep getting this error "there's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still past this content within this workbook " with simple cut/copy and paste actions in Excel.  The error box pops up and an alert sounds (which is super annoying) after every paste.  I can still perform the actions however my selection is not highlighted and I can't be sure that I have selected the correct information until I do a paste in the same, or another, worksheet. I have Excel 2016 in Office 365 on a machine running Windows 10.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-02-28T16:18:43+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
    2016-11-21T01:24:47+00:00

    Hi Pedro,

    To address your concern with MS Excel, we suggest that you repair it. Check this link for the steps.

    Let us know how it goes.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-07-10T14:08:44+00:00

    Sorry Phillip. This is useless information.

    The problem is:

    1. Excel does not exhibit a problem with the clipboard.
    2. Update Office apps to 2017
    3. intermittently get the problem being reported.

    Microsoft has yet to provide any information as to the following questions:

    1. what on earth is a lock on the clipboard? Why is an application "locking" it and how do I prevent applications from locking the clipboard? (I can not even imagine a scenario where this is useful and I have a vivid imagination.)
    2. how do I determine which application is "locking the clipboard"?
    3. assuming I was able to determine which application is "locking the clipboard", what are the resolutions, given that there is no answer to #1?
    4. what is the explanation for the intermittent nature of the symptom? If an application is locking the clipboard, why can I still copy/paste? Even to another application?
    5. my organization forced me to upgrade to 2017 and there is no backwards path, regardless of the fact that 2017 Excel is by far, the buggiest release *ever*. So given that, and given that there is no answer to #2, how is a user expected to provide any troubleshooting steps? The solutions proposed above are not troubleshooting steps, they are wild guesses that appear to produce a positive result without any obvious causal chain.

    A feature is something that I want or need, that provides useful functionality that improves the usability of the application. At best, a feature "does no damage".

    A bug is something that produces unwanted behavior which either prevents a user from accomplishing a purpose or otherwise interferes with the usability of the application.

    Using these definitions, "some other apps has a lock on the clipboard" is obviously a bug.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-27T13:24:40+00:00

    Hi JohnRod,

    This problem doesn't exist in other Office applications.

    I have tried running Excel in Safe Mode and the problem persists.

    Cheers

    Pedro

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-11-23T11:01:22+00:00

    I found this happened when the spreadsheet was opened, but editing had not been enabled. Enabling editing made it go away.

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