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
    2021-02-19T02:10:39+00:00

    I too am annoyed that Microsoft has not fixed this problem.

    However I recommend you try Ron.roads's solution, it worked for me (so far so good, anyway)

    Open Excel > File > Options > General>under Linkedln Features un-check "Enable Linkedln features in my Office applications"

    It sounds like you may have a different issue going on than me though--for me it was just the infernal dialogue box and subsequently being able to paste only within the worksheet. The cursor thing, etc were not happening to me. But still maybe worth a try, since it's safe to assume you are probably not using these "LinkedIn features" anyway. (I bet there are like 8 people total on this planet using that)

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-19T02:05:26+00:00

    This is the solution that ended up working for me. (So far so good, anyway)

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-15T18:41:56+00:00

    I read through all the messages since April 2018. I'm having this problem using Office 365 (just renewed my subscription in January). I tried James Severn's solution, but it didn't work. Now after experiencing this copy/paste issue, the spreadsheet does not show where my cursor is located. However, if I double click, then I can see the cursor but the cell is not highlighted. Hitting escape does make the dreaded message disappear, but the problem still exists next time I copy and paste in the same spreadsheet. I am annoyed that Microsoft hasn't fixed this problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-01-30T17:00:46+00:00

    When is this problem going to be fixed?  Been happening for years now and only seems to be getting worse.  None of the suggestions given have worked for me.  I dont have any external 'add ins' ??

    Only way I can operate excel is in safe mode which still gives the error message but does allow me to continue working in the spreadsheet.  Otherwise the only way is to close excel and reopen the file.  Once I try to copy data the error message pops up then I am unable to highlight any more cells in that sheet until I restart excel.

    This is crazy

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-01-17T14:09:34+00:00

    I think I've spotted where the problem can originate within Excel.  I refer specifically to MrRogers83's original problem, not other points people have raised.  I can generate it within Excel and resolve it (for the moment) in Excel.  I'm using Excel 2019 on Windows 10.

    ...

    I'd think that Microsoft could resolve this by ensuring that the clipboard is always freed (equivalent to pressing Escape) whenever Excel is shut down.  A check on how Clipboard history interacts with this seems advisable too.

    Awesome research! thank you. Hitting escape also clears the error when dragging a cell to another location. Hopefully this is fixed on an update, who wants to hit escape all the time?

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