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

Anonymous
2020-04-08T18:30:07+00:00

I am using the Microsoft Office 365 Business desktop app, and as of this posting am running Windows 10 version 1903 (OS Build 18362.720) on this particular laptop. This problem has been witnessed across multiple computers, Windows 10 versions, Microsoft accounts, all while using the Office 365 app.

I track a lot of data in Excel and often copy cells from it and paste them into online forms, ETC. Within the last few weeks I have started getting a pop up when I try to copy a cell that says "There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste this content within this workbook."

It does not seem to matter if the file is stored locally or not.

I have found that if I continue to press Ctrl+v 2 to 4 more times it usually at some point copies the data as it should, without the pop up, and allows me to paste it wherever I want.

I searched for an answer to what is going on and or if there is a solution, and found that people have been periodically having this problem for years, and but could not find a solution that worked despite a post on this site having over 20 pages of replies and over 1500 reports of having the same problem, before comments were locked due to the thread age.

I have tried repairing the app without success. I have tried updating Office, which did do an update but did not solve the problem. I've restarted the computer and Excel many times.

This is making use of Excel inefficient and annoying. I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before I and others I've spoken with that are experiencing the same thing, are not able to paste outside of the workbook at all. As is, I may as well just type everything again instead of bothering with the broken copy/paste feature.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-01-11T20:10:27+00:00

    Hello,

    I may be late to the game but this happens to me frequently. I am, however, pulling data from Excel and pasting into PowerPoint. When the popup, locked clipboard error, occurs, I click "Okay", re-copy then paste into Powerpoint.

    The difference is, and it may have been discussed somewhere in this thread, is that when this happens, I lose "cursor" visibility in Excel. For example, I can click into any cell and visually I do not see where I'm clicking. I can click, and highlight a section of cells but the cells do not appear as highlighted. I can press Delete and the data/text within the cells disappear, again no "cursor" or cell border, etc.

    While dealing with the disappearing cursor, I can toggle to a different worksheet and all is fine. If I toggle back and forth a few times, the erred worksheet becomes "normal" again. Once in a while, I will have to close the erred worksheet, all other open workbooks, and restart Excel.

    I typically type fast, generally only use hotkeys, and toggle between many worksheets, and windows, very fast. I'm not sure if this adds to the issue...

    Kimber

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-09-28T21:31:40+00:00

    I encountered the same problem in Office 2019 and I have  tried all the suggestions in this thread to no avail. This is definitely something Microsoft need to fix. I run Windows 10 64 bit. My memory is 32GB. I found a semi-workaround: not a fix.  I got the same warning message when I executed a copy command

    I was able to paste the copied contents in:

    (1) The same spreadsheet tab,

    (2)  An adjacent tab of the same workbook;

    (3)  Another workbook occupying the same workspace (i.e., a  workbook opened within the same instance of Excel by using File ---> Open) as the source workbook.

    Microsoft need to ascertain the whether there is a property in clipboard that defines the coverage of the clipboard. It is possible that a bug is changing the value of that property to local only.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-04-15T09:50:14+00:00

    Hi MrRogers83,

    Thanks for sharing updates with us. I feel sorry for the inconvenience this had made. To dig into the problem. We understand Issues can be replicated on different computers in different time zones when using a clipboard to paste a content into another Excel sheet.

    As you mention the pop-up error message stopped now. If issue again happen in your side you can post back any time here and we will follow up this case for you. 

    Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated.

    Best Regards,

    Waqas Muhammad

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-08T23:59:54+00:00

    Opening Excel in Safe mode did not resolve the issue. This happens with all spreadsheets opened in Excel, regardless of if they are saved on my hard drive or in Dropbox. To the best of my knowledge there were no system changes around when this issue started occurring. See attachment for product info.

    I know we are focusing on my specific case, but this is also happening currently for my wife who is using a much older version of Windows 10 (1803) for her work with a different employer. The only known constants are that it's Excel in Office 365, and the issues started around the same time. 

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-04-08T21:14:11+00:00

    Hi MrRogers83,

    Thanks for posting the question on our forum.

    According to your description, I suggest you try safe mode to identify an add-in or extension that may be causing a problem on startup.

    Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC

    If the issue still exists, could you please provide the following information for further analysis?

    1. The version of Office. (Click File>select Account)
    2. Check if all files meet the issue.
    3. When did the issue occur? Which operation have you taken before the issue occurred, such as updating OS version?

    Regards,

    Qing

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