Copy and paste (and 'drag') in Excel HAVE STOPPED WORKING

Bad Hobbit 0 Reputation points
2026-09-16T11:08:53.5766667+00:00

The latest bug you've introduced to MS Office seems to be to make copy & paste and 'drag' (ie dragging down from a cell or row across one or more cells below) STOP WORKING. Cut & paste DOES work, but copying a single cell, multiple cells or a row and then trying to Insert Copied Cells or even simply paste into blank cells fails to deliver the necessary result. I can copy the text from inside a cell and then paste it a cell at a time, but if I try to paste it into multiple cells, this also fails. WHY? This worked fine up until last week, so one of your recent updates has introduced YET ANOTHER BUG into what must now be the most bug-prone suite of software in the world.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows
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  1. DaveM121 934.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-09-16T11:42:26.24+00:00

    The Paste problem and Autofill problem is widely reported in Excel as being caused by the latest Office update (KB5002914), Microsoft have now indicated they are aware of the bugs and they are working to resolve the problem and will provide a patch as soon as they have found the underlying cause of the bug.

    What is the exact version of Office installed on your PC, is that Office 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024 or Microsoft 365.

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  2. EmilyS_726 29,900 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-09-18T16:39:07.17+00:00

    Just to follow up -

    Microsoft has released a corrective update.

    If you use 2016 version, for Excel 2016, KB5002665, released September 16, 2026, specifically fixes the known KB5002914 issue that caused certain paste operations to fail silently.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/servicing/office/hotfix/excel/5002665

    One caveat: Microsoft says paste operations may still fail in workbooks containing conditional formatting. So this is a confirmed fix for the original issue, but not yet a complete resolution of every paste failure scenario.

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  3. Shane Farmer 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-21T18:05:38.91+00:00

    Can confirm that I ran into this today in Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 and I ran the update from within File->Account and the problem has been solved for me. Version 2408 (Build 17932.21000 C2R).

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  4. AI answer

    2026-09-16T11:09:10.88+00:00

    This matches a known Excel issue where paste can fail silently: the copied cells stay selected, but nothing is pasted and no error appears. Microsoft lists this as investigating for Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016.

    If the problem is specifically with Paste Special, check these items:

    1. In Excel, go to File > Options > Advanced.
    2. Under Cut, copy and paste, make sure Show Paste Options button when content is pasted is enabled.
    3. Close all web browser instances and test again.
    4. Start Excel in Safe Mode by holding CTRL while opening Excel, then click Yes when prompted.
    5. If paste works in Safe Mode, an add-in is likely causing the problem. Re-enable add-ins one at a time until the conflicting add-in is identified, then leave it disabled or uninstall it.

    If the issue started after a recent Office update and normal paste now does nothing while cut/paste still works, the current documented status is that Microsoft is investigating. Installing the latest Office updates and watching the known-issues article for changes is the supported path.

    If Excel is being used with automation or add-ins that perform clipboard operations across multiple Excel instances, avoid running those clipboard-based tasks in parallel. Microsoft’s documented workaround is to avoid clipboard APIs in parallel Excel processes, or use other APIs such as getting and setting values by array when possible.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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