"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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

200+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

202 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Nathan Roberts (SN) 13,536 Reputation points Student Ambassador Volunteer Moderator
    2019-01-11T19:45:35+00:00

    Greetings, folk

    This thread is old and thus most of folk subscribed to this thread have probably moved on or found out how to resolve the problem. Thus I am going to go ahead and lock this thread and let it rest in peace. 

    As the answer points out, this will be better (as it is feedback) to post in the Excel UserVoice site where the Microsoft Engineers/developers are able to look at this. They may choose to spend Engineering resources making this possible in the future. 

    For posting, please ensure you do not put words in capitals. This means you are shouting, and it makes it harder for folk to read what you have put. As always, we should show respect for one and another. I am sure you would not shout particular words at folk, unless you wanted to cause a fight - which I am sure non of you want to do. 

    Thanks, 

    Regards,

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-01-11T19:40:45+00:00

    hahahaha.. I might be interested in working for them for the free food I hear the engineers get at some of the campuses. **lol**

    I don't have any real tips.. I've been an IT professional for over 25 years. While I now work in software dev, my old desktop analysis skills still come in handy though I'd have to give it some thought to articulate what to do in terms of steps.. **smile**

    That said, I'd suggest starting with the in the Windows notification area. That's how I found the background process for Beyond Compare that drives their Clipboard Capture feature.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2019-01-11T18:41:59+00:00

    Crystal Jones, it sounds like you should be working for Microsoft. For those of us who don't know how to track down the internal workings of software we may or may not have knowingly installed, much less how to disable features of those applications safely, can you provide a procedure or reference a resource for doing this?

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2019-01-11T16:09:22+00:00

    So how did you find out which app had "captured" clipboard?

    @Mike Maxey's post is the most useful in explaining what the hell Microsoft has done and what really causes this error "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."

    I went through ALL of the (now 20 pages worth) posts in this thread, and looked for the responses which weren't the usual "turn off preview mode" crap and found the responses which indicated/hinted what other apps others were reporting that might be using the clipboard.

    I know what apps are installed on my laptop and how they function so it didn't take long to narrow this down and (if I recall correctly) someone in one of the responses in this post may have actually called out Beyond Compare as a potential culprit. I don't remember. **shrug**

    I do know this there is no setting in Excel that fixes this. So any post in this thread which tells you to do XY or Z in Excel or MS Office is wishing upon a star.. Microsoft has made it impossible to disable this clipboard warning check in their application. So you need to find the application which is also locking the clipboard and see if they (smartly) gave you an option to disable their clipboard feature which is causing this stupid warning to fire.

    For me it was Beyond Compare which had a lock on the clipboard. Once I disabled the clipboard compare feature of the app my life was golden again.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments