"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
    2017-11-07T07:54:08+00:00

    Is there any update on this issue?

    Excel generates this message a few times a day on my system. I have read through this whole thread and pinpointed my issue down to the clipboard being locked by another program - possibly internet explorer. I do copy and paste a lot from excel into Microsoft Edge and online interfaces.

    How do you unlock the clipboard without restarting laptop? This is causing so many issues when trying to work. Please help!

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-10-29T22:47:19+00:00

    Negative. I still have the issue. So annoying.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-10-27T20:15:49+00:00

    For some unknown reason, this issue has been resolved for several months now.  Could Microsoft have finally fixed it?  Unsure, but none of the fixes I tried on my own worked.  Suddenly, it's fixed.  maybe temporary, but I'll take it!  Such an annoying problem!

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-10-27T15:48:12+00:00

    I am still getting this error message in Excel v. 1709 (Build 8528.2139).  It happens when Enable Live Preview is off.  It happens every time (not just once) when I drag and drop (but not cut and paste or CTRL.C CTRL.V).  It only occurs when Outlook is open. I run the Configuration Analyser regularly.

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