unable to copy paste in Excel

Suresh Jena 0 Reputation points
2026-09-23T06:57:53.5566667+00:00

Randomly face this issue in both 2019 or 2021.reinstall office ,reset excel ,repaired online but these are the temporary solution .

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Other
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  1. Suresh Jena 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-23T07:27:40.5333333+00:00

    This is happening in single excel sheet

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  2. DaveM121 936.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-09-23T07:33:21.8733333+00:00

    This is a widely reported problem with the copy and paste functionality in Excel, Microsoft have indicated they are working to resolve the problem and they will release a patch for the problem as soon as they have found the underlying cause of the problem.

    In the meantime, many people indicate if you copy a cell, then rather than pasting, use Paste Special, and on the resulting dialog box, select to past either data or formula and that should work until Microsoft have resolved the problem.

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  3. AI answer

    2026-09-23T06:58:09.3566667+00:00

    This matches a known Excel issue where paste can fail silently in Excel 2019 and 2021. A reinstall, reset, or online repair can appear to help temporarily, but the documented fix is to update Excel to a build that contains the correction.

    • Excel 2021 LTSC: fixed in Build 14334.20918.
    • Excel 2019 LTSC: mitigated in Build 10417.20208.
    • For Excel 2019 and Excel 2016, paste can still fail in workbooks that contain conditional formatting.

    Practical steps:

    1. Check the Excel version/build
      • In Excel, go to File > Account.
      • Check the build number under About Excel.
      • If the build is older than the fixed/mitigated build, install the latest Office updates.
    2. Use the documented workaround when paste fails
      • Go to Home > Paste > Paste Special.
      • Try one of these options: Formula, Formula and number formats, Values, Values and number formats, or Paste Link.
      • This is the official workaround for the silent paste failure issue.
    3. If copying between two Excel windows, make sure both workbooks are in the same Excel instance
      • When two separate Excel instances are running, Excel cannot use its internal copy functionality for attribute pasting.
      • Open both workbooks in the same Excel instance and try again.
    4. If the affected workbook has conditional formatting
      • Be aware that paste may still fail in Excel 2019 even after the mitigation.
      • In that case, Paste Special options such as Values or Formulas are the supported workaround.

    If this issue is happening “randomly,” the most likely pattern from the documented cases is:

    • an affected Excel build, or
    • a workbook with conditional formatting, or
    • copying across separate Excel instances.

    References:

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

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