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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

62 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2021-09-17T15:38:20+00:00

    I have had this problem at home (Pro Plus 2019) and at work (O365) with or without Add-ins enabled. Mine occurs whenever I attempt to use the special paste function. I mouse over the options to find the correct one such as formula/format/etc. and it generates the error and Excel stops showing cell selections; it's like driving on a dark road without lines.

    It's certainly not related to having a subpar system, graphics card or running on virtualized devices as it's easy to reproduce with 9th & 11th gen i5/i7's, modern AMD/nVidia and integrated Intel graphics with a physical Windows 10 install (occurring for a few years and I'm currently using build 19043.1237).

    I have disabled it but it's ridiculous that there is a bug like this that has been around for so long with no resolution or acknowledgement when I have had no issue reproducing the problem.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2021-08-31T10:35:39+00:00

    This problem began for me after adding an add-in. I have deleted the add-in (even deleted it from the recycle bin) and did both of the below options changes and STILL have the problem.

    Open Excel >File>option>General>under User Interface Options un-check Enable Live Preview 

    did not help.

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

    Help! Super annoying. Any updates on this issue sine April?

    thanks

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2021-08-08T23:06:21+00:00

    Jennifer,

    Sorry I can't help because after installing Microsoft 365 on this PC the problem returned but I turned off "live preview" and it solved the problem with the exception for the 1st Excel sheet I opened for the day.

    Thanks, Chuck

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2021-08-05T20:58:04+00:00

    Hi. Been using Excel 365 for a while now without any issue. This probably started a few weeks ago and it's driving me insane.

    It doesn't happen once a day. It happens every single time I drag cells to another position.

    Copy and pasting the cells works fine.

    But every single time I drag and drop cells, I get the warning:

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

    The hilarious thing is, that it still performs the drag/drop after a second.

    The fact that it does this EVERY SINGLE TIME, with a two second delay before showing me the error, is what's driving me nuts.

    I have tried:

    • disabling Live Preview
    • disabling LinkedIn features
    • making sure clipboard history is OFF (it is)
    • turning off the Adobe COM add-in

    Nothing has fixed this.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2021-07-21T18:50:51+00:00

    If you're still monitoring this thread, can you try dragging a range of cells to another part of the worksheet? I'm still getting the error when I do that. Probably not the biggest of issues, but it's still there which is annoying.

    And by dragging, I mean highlighting a range of cells and clicking the border to drag the cells to another area. I'm sure you understood, just wanting to make sure we're on the same page :)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments