"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
    2017-03-09T03:17:25+00:00

    Hi,

    To help you resolve your concern, we suggest that you refer to Maria Fab's replyon December 9, 2016. You can also try Niels Prins_923's suggestion on December 22, 2016 and see if it works for you.

    Feel free to contact us if you have any other questions.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-03-09T15:06:00+00:00

    The suggestions that were made were to run the OffCAT repair utility.  I installed it sometime back and have run it several times.  It says there are no problems.  Occaisionally it tells me there is an update, so I update.  When I re-run it says no problems.  Then the issue comes back.  It has been doing this for months.  OCAT does not fix it.  Updates don't fix it.  Repair doesn't fix it.  Did I miss the solution?

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-03-10T21:35:50+00:00

    Since you've already tried repairing and updating your software, and running OffCAT with no success, we recommend that you contact Microsoft Answer Desk for assistance. Click this link.

    Regards.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-03-10T21:38:39+00:00

    I'm not sure why I keep getting messages related to the Excel Clipboard problem.  As I have stated before, I solved that problem several months ago.

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