"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
    2017-08-16T15:10:19+00:00

    I am receiving this message multiple times in the same in the same Excel instance.  The problem goes further in that it then will not let me copy/paste or do anything else in Excel using a right hand click on the mouse.  I have to control C to get the right hand mouse options back.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-06T11:55:53+00:00

    This message pops up every single time I drag and drop the content of a cell to a different one and there is a significant delay of 20 seconds or so (not just once per Excel session). Occasionnaly, Excel actually crashes during this process. Extremely time consuming and annoying

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-09-22T16:27:50+00:00

    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.

    That's a blatant LIE! The message pops up EVERY time you try and cut/paste, NOT just once as you claim above. Typical Microsoft lies and lack of care.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-09-22T16:45:09+00:00

    PS... this only happens when you cut and paste above where you are cutting from, but works fine if you paste down below where you are cutting from.

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