"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
    2018-12-12T13:06:20+00:00

    This problem has persisted for years and Microsoft has neglected to fix it.  Pathetic!

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-11-20T17:18:09+00:00

    The bug can be caused by a 3rd party software which monitors the clipboard.

    In my case, it was Beyondcompare's 'Clipboard compare' option. Turning this off fixed the problem for me.

    This of course is only a workaround and Microsoft still needs to fix the bug in the first place!

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-05-24T21:39:21+00:00

    Open Excel. Open a workbook. Try to copy/paste a cell and get this.

    "There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still past your content withing this workbook."

    Green outline of box is gone.

    Will come back sometimes if I stay in workbook. Most of the time it will not come back.

    But most of the time I have to close/reopen workbook to get icon back.

    This has been going on now for over 6 months.

    I found a "clear clipboard" and have been using that. But that only lasts about 3 times of doing copy/paste.

    When is Microsoft going to fix this??

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-04-17T20:00:41+00:00

    Sorry, Mike. This answer is useless. It is useless on several fronts. First it does not address the main issue, that cut and paste *almost* works. (I say almost because what happens is the GUI gets all confused and highlighting the cells one is working with, fails). Secondly, the answer does not provide any information on how to prevent the issue. What is the problem with the clipboard? What can I do so that there is no problem? Why is there a problem with the clipboard now and not before now? Why does it almost work? What the heck is going on with the GUI? Does Microsoft view this as a bug and if not, why not? Is there a plan to provide an update that does not have this bug?

    Those answers would have been useful...

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