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

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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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202 additional answers

Anonymous

2018-10-12T16:29:24+00:00

The "culprit" is Excel behaving in a manner that it shouldn't..

When everything else is ruled out, only the true cause will be left. So AV might well be causing it as working in support I have seen it affect things it really should not or you would never suspect it for. I am no Microsoft apologist believe me, their products not only keep me in a job but they also infuriate me at the same time!

I appreciate that it may be worth trying to find a workaround (such as disabling an otherwise Microsoft-approved antivirus program) but we should be clear that this problem is with Excel. No matter how some other software is behaving on your computer, Excel is doing something wrong here.

I read that Microsoft did not take user complaints seriously when the Windows 10 October release "cleaned up" by deleting files from their personal folders because the complaints did not get enough "votes". Unfortunately, I don't even see where we get to vote on this. Meanwhile, Excel keeps getting new versions with the same old bugs.
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Anonymous

2018-10-12T13:52:44+00:00

The "culprit" is Excel behaving in a manner that it shouldn't..

When everything else is ruled out, only the true cause will be left. So AV might well be causing it as working in support I have seen it affect things it really should not or you would never suspect it for. I am no Microsoft apologist believe me, their products not only keep me in a job but they also infuriate me at the same time!
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Anonymous

2018-10-12T13:46:39+00:00

No, I do not use Trend Micro but do experience the problem. Although, my experience does not seem to be as egregious as some have reported.
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Anonymous

2018-10-12T13:43:00+00:00

The "culprit" is Excel behaving in a manner that it shouldn't..
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