Issue with Excel 2016 - copy and paste cells

Elisabetta Storelli 20 Reputation points
2026-09-09T12:06:30.7466667+00:00

Hi,

I have a issue on a PC where Microsoft Office 2016 is installed. From today, then I try to copy and a paste a cell, it doesn't work. If I try to copy text from Word to Excel, it works. So, the issue is linked only to copy a cell and paste it. I've already tried to run excel in safe mode, restart the PC, re-install Excel but nothing works.

Some advices?

Kind regards,
Betta

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Windows

9 answers

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  1. Saad Jalal 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-11T06:58:05.6733333+00:00

    I fixed the issue using the following way. The issue is mainly because of the update KB5002914 and you can fix the issue in such way:

    Go to:

    Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features → View installed updates

    Find:

    Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 (KB5002914)

    Right-click → Uninstall → restart Windows.

    Then immediately test:

    Excel → Ctrl+C → another Excel cell → Ctrl+V

    If normal paste starts working again, we've essentially confirmed the cause.

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  2. Michelle Nguyen 1,340 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-09-09T15:06:18.55+00:00

    Please note that Microsoft Office 2016 reached End of Support on October 14, 2025. After this date, Microsoft no longer provides security updates, bug fixes, technical support, or time zone updates for this product.

    Hi @Elisabetta Storelli

    A few tests will pin down exactly which mechanism it is, then point to the right fix:

    -Test Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V in Notepad, outside Excel entirelyOpen Notepad, type some text, select it, and try Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V. If this ALSO fails, the interception is happening system-wide (not Excel-specific), confirming something outside Office is eating these two keystrokes. If it works fine in Notepad, the problem is narrower than and more likely tied to something specific about Excel's clipboard payload.

    -Confirm right-click and ribbon copy/paste both workRight-click a cell > Copy, then right-click a target cell > Paste. Separately, try the Copy/Paste buttons on the Home ribbon. If both of these succeed while only the keyboard shortcut fails, that all but confirms a hotkey conflict rather than a broken copy/paste engine.

    -Turn off Windows Clipboard History (Win+V) and re-test: Settings > System > Clipboard, and turn Clipboard History off. Restart the PC and retest.

    -Test Excel under a different Windows user profile on the same PC: Since reinstalling Excel and restarting didn't help, it's worth ruling out anything specific to this Windows user profile (a leftover macro, a corrupted setting) versus the machine as a whole. If a different Windows account on the same PC copy/pastes fine in Excel, the fix is profile-specific (recreating the profile or hunting for a stray macro/startup item) rather than a system-wide one.

    -Ask IT about any recently deployed security/DLP policy: Since this is flagged as a business PC, ask IT whether any endpoint protection, DLP (data loss prevention), or clipboard-monitoring policy was deployed around today's date. You may want to check with your IT department about rolling back to the previous Windows version and see if that helps.

    Please refer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/updates-lifecycle/how-to-uninstall-a-windows-update

    Please let me know more details.

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  3. Scott Alber 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-12T02:35:43.1866667+00:00

    I have Windows 11 and this worked for me on Excel 2016 Office Pro. I got this tip from asking Google AI " How to uninstall an Excel 2016 update?" It then asked what update I was trying to uninstall and I typed "Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 (KB5002914) 64-Bit Edition. Windows 11 did several updates on 9/10/2026. This one was specifically for Excel. After the update, I was unable to do a standard copy and paste."

    SOLUTION:

    Run CMD from the Start

    Once in the Cmd window run this and then reboot the computer. After you reboot computer, you will want to disable updates for Office or else Windows will "Fix" Excel again and, in the process, break copy and paste.

    "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\Oarpmany.exe" /removereleaseinpatch "{90160000-0012-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}" "{27882596-A8ED-4382-9C71-6CD2DD19F732}" "1033" "0"

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  4. WEI CAO 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-10T06:00:44.8233333+00:00

    The quick way to solve the issue is to uninstall office 2016 and reinstall it. It works for me.

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