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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.
A family of Microsoft spreadsheet software with tools for analyzing, charting, and communicating data.
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.
Hi JWM16,
Thanks for sharing and contribute experience here and it will help for other members in this community.
Best Regards,
Waqas Muhammad
I had a similar problem quite recently after upgrading to Office 365 Pro Business. After a paste (or two) of a cell or cell range, I would receive the infernal message, after which selection of cells or ranges was completely disabled. I remained able to edit the contents of a cell by double-clicking. This occurred with any workbook, even a new blank workbook.
Repair did not fix it. Safe mode did not prevent it.
What the culprit finally turned to be was a COM add-in. Try disabling all COM add-ins (if any are installed.)
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
I am skeptical of this being the cause/solution. If this was really the cause, how has this never been an issue before? Why did multiple people I know suddenly start having the issue at the same time on different computers using different accounts? Why did our copy issues seemingly stop at the same time as well?
I noticed today that I've not seen the pop up once, so I started checking around with people and they noticed as well that the issue has stopped basically over night.
I don't think this is the sort of issue that you can explain away with a very old forum post copy/paste. It's also clearly not system related since the people around me are experiencing it at the same time despite different versions of Windows on different computers. The constant is Office 365.
Like I said though, something changed and it's stopped at least for the time being. I'll check back in if it starts happening again.
Hi MrRogers83,
Thanks for sharing updates with us. It seems issue happen to all Excel file.
Apparently, this happens when some other program on the computer "locks up" the keyboard.
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.
A potential fix that has worked for some people is to follow these steps:
Open Excel >File>option>General>under User Interface Options un-check Enable Live Preview and see the result.
Meanwhile, here I found some UserVoice and we suggest you please vote on this particular UserVoice entry or FIX There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste your content within this workbook so that the related team can see that this is a highly requested for Excel users. This idea is also mentioned by many members. Microsoft uses the feedback to prioritize new feature programming. If the product developers have some updates about the feedback, they will post the updated information there directly.
Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated.
Best Regards,
Waqas Muhammad