Remove the pointless message “There's a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste your content within this workbook."
The message shows up if you run in the background a program that keeps a peek into the clipboard, as for example the "Skype web plugin" and other telephone programs. A possible cause can also be the software "Audials".
You can find a thread with lots of complaints and a few flimsy justifications and non-answers here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msofficeexcel-msowin10/clipboard-problem-in-excel-2016/224b2a59-8a0c-4897-baba-a481dd06e085
The message shows up with Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, using the Format Painter and only taking whole cells. It does not show up if you copy a part of a cell content.
Contrary to some Microsoft officials’ posts, the error message shows up multiple times per Excel session. Usually it shows up at the second Ctrl+C after opening an Excel instance, sometimes on the third Ctrl+C and rarely on the first Ctrl+C. And after that randomly every few usages of Ctrl+C. That can be several hundred times a day!
Not everyone is lucky as I am to identify the cause (telephone) and be also able to switch off its feature "clipboard surveillance".
There is no reasonable reason for this message at all.
1. The message is incorrect in 100% of the cases. The copying operations in Excel are not affected by the access of any third-party program to the clipboard. After clicking the message away, all insertion processes in 100% of the cases worked absolutely as expected and error-free. I've tested this with many different contents (formulas, validations, formatting, connected cells, etc.), from and into Excel.
2. The message is pointless in 100% of the cases, because it shows neither causes nor solutions. Just as helpful as a message "There's a light on in the basement."
3. If there was any case where the access of a third-party program to the cache was actually an impairment to the copying process in Excel, one would notice this anyway by missing the insertion. But the message would be as well unnecessary because it only would have reported the obvious and does not reveal any causes or solutions.
4. If the access of any third-party program on the clipboard would actually be a problem, then why don't you also ‘protect’ Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.?
This problem is discussed and complained in forums for about 4 years (since Excel 2013). Why don’t you comment out that one line of code, that calls the message? Or add a code bracket, issuing automatically “User has clicked OK”. No big work, I assume.
UweC
shared this idea
As mentioned in the answer to the post on Answers.Microsoft.com linked above, we made some improvements to Office365 users so that this error message only shows once per Excel instance. This is based on customer feedback – the design change prevents it popping up multiple successive times when the clipboard is locked. We have also considered never showing the error dialog, but there was user feedback that this message is informative and helpful in some cases.
138 comments
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Hendrick
commented
It ended up being useful for me, the pop-up shows after a few seconds of "struggling", without the pop-up you'd wonder why pasting is just so slow; I ended up finding the cause of the conflict, which is another software (yEd graph editor) which, as soon as you have something copied within yEd, Excel starts not behaving.
Of course that problem should go, but at least the pop-up makes you aware that something is wrong, now I avoid working in Excel while yEd is open and pasting works and works fast as it should. -
Anon
commented
How on earth can Microsoft possibly continue to justify this drivel - 'We have also considered never showing the error dialog, but there was user feedback that this message is informative and helpful in some cases.'. What? One person - presumably the developer who wrote this inane bit of code - said it was 'informative and helpful', and 10 million users said it was unhelpful, useless trash, so we're going to keep it in? For those of you STILL suffering with this, I've found that deleting the contents of both the Windows Temp and User Temp folders every night helps considerably.
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Mike McCormick
commented
I agree 100%. This warning is always wrong and yet it pops up constantly. Excel '16 / Win10.
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Anonymous
commented
I first experienced this issue when I recently let O365 perform an update. I have been using excel since 1988 and never come across this before. It happens if I am moving data by picking up and dropping a cell. It happens almost every time, I'm not sure why it stops for a while. Strange and very annoying. Why won't the developers sort this glitch out?
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David C
commented
I have been suffering from this as well for some years. The problem comes and goes throughout a usage session. The active cell border disappears, but I can still perform copy/cut/paste functions if I am really careful when selecting cells. Also, when the problem occurs I cannot delete a worksheet without first closing Excel completely and reopening the workbook with the sheet to be deleted.
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Adam
commented
Removing the LinkedIn connection repaired mine:
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Anonymous
commented
Please fix it- I’m using 2020 July version of O365 64bit and this issue appears when I refresh data in Power Query. It pops up every 3 seconds during a large refresh!!
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Paul Reeser
commented
I get this message when updating a Power Query. It stays locked and just keeps posting the same pop-up. It makes the file unusable. I've uncheck the Live Update, I've closed Skype.
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sarah sovereign
commented
Please, yes.
I only encounter it on my company computer, and based on this narrative, it may be due to the VPN or other internal tracking software. Home computer has a vpn of a different brand, and is also about 6-7 years older than the work computer. I'm entering, moving, and processing a lot of hand-entered data in both cases. This pop-up is probably more obtrusive than Clippy, breaking my flow and killing productivity. If home computer shows up, seriously considering switching to appl. -
James Auman
commented
I also encountered this error. I had to re-image my computer to get rid of it but i suspect it will come back. Fix or remove.
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Chris S
commented
I've had this problem with Excel 365 for months and most times it freezes the file and won't allow me to continue, but I can save the file. To recover I have to close all Excel spreadsheets and then open the file again. I have wasted hours of time from this problem in the last few months and restoring Excel does not fix it.
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Th.O.
commented
ANY program that will peek into clipboard will cause this error. It's pointless to state "did this and that, fixed it" because nobody but MS can fix it by fixing Excel.
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Anonymous
commented
Solved, while i like the fact you think you have fixed the problem. You haven't, not even closely. i almost guarantee that no one in this thread has that software running.
This is an excel problem that needs addressing by microsoft.
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Solved
commented
Solved!
Disabled web download manager running in the background (e.g. EagleGet), which is monitoring the clipboard.
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Angie Iloilo
commented
I keep getting the “There’s a problem with the clipboard, but you can still paste your content within this workbook” message in excel, even when I drag content from one cell to another, super annoying when you are a heavy excel user!!
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Anonymous
commented
Microsoft doesn't give a $h!t
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Anonymous
commented
So Microsoft have deliberately created a fault in Excel to annoy users! Wonderful!!
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Anonymous
commented
god yes please disable this stupid message
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Anonymous
commented
The suggestion to turn off live preview has been made repeatedly in this thread.
While this relieves the symptoms of this useless message, it actually turns off other features that may be desired. As such, this is not a fix, but a bit of "redirection" better suited for magicians.
Microsoft - please FIX this!!
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Anonymous
commented
While dans suggestion is good it isn't the fix :(