Issue with Excel 2016 - copy and paste cells

Elisabetta Storelli 10 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

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  1. Roland 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-10T07:50:47.88+00:00

    Of course, this is about the KB5002914 update. While it can easily be uninstalled on Windows 10, it's not possible on Windows 11. The workaround is to copy the excel.exe file from a Windows 10 machine that has either uninstalled this update or from any Windows 10 or 11 computer that hasn't downloaded it yet. Then, you need to replace the original .exe file on the affected computer. Just to be safe, pause updates for two weeks. This method works.

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  2. 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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  3. MGmirkin 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-10T00:11:06.2433333+00:00

    It's likely KB5002914 Excel security update. It broke copy/paste in Excel, and also select+drag to fill/extend [which I use all the time at work, so having it "break" for no good reason was a real bummer today, and had to spend several hours diagnosing and trying to figure out WTF happened].

    Suspected an update broke shit, and lo and behold, after rolling back to a restore point and show/hide-ing KB5002914 [using the old deprecated show/hide tool to hide it], and installing the rest of the updates that were queue'd [without re-installing the busted one], the problem is resolved.

    They need to fix KB5002914, the Excel "security" patch.

    And, of course, in M$'s infinite wisdom you can no longer just "uninstall" the patch from the "uninstall updates" screen, like you used to be able to, due to their seeming insistence that "every [update] is sacred." So, it seems like a rollback / hide / rerun all the other updates was the only obvious fix I could find in short order to get back up and running and finish my work. Maybe someone has some more technical way to nix it without having to do the rollback / hide / re-update rigamarole? Dunno.

    Hopefully they make patching it a priority, since they broke it.

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  4. Michelle Nguyen 1,180 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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  5. Elisabetta Storelli 10 Reputation points
    2026-09-09T12:17:24.7733333+00:00

    After new tests, I've seen that ONLY the copy/paste action made by CTRL+C / CTRL+V is not working... Some advices?

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