COPY/PASTE not working on Excel 2016

Question

COPY/PASTE not working on Excel 2016

Vincent CAZENAVE 25

Hi,

Just informing you there's some bugs disabling copy/paste on Excel STD 2016 since last Office updates from today 09/09/26.

It worked fine yesterday on all computers.

Hoping some fix coming soon for Excel 2016 users.

Have a nice day.

rvo fire and safety rvo fire and safety 0 Reputation points

2026-10-05T06:26:09.13+00:00

HOW TO USE NEW EXCEL WORD
Julie Huynh 3,770 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-10-05T14:49:19.4433333+00:00

Hi @rvo fire and safety rvo fire and safety,

Thank you for your comment. Could you please clarify what you mean by "HOW TO USE NEW EXCEL WORD"?

Are you asking how to upgrade from Excel/Word 2016 to a newer version, how to use the newer Excel and Word applications, or whether the copy/paste issue occurs in the new versions as well?

Any additional details would be appreciated so the community can better understand your question and assist you further.

Thank you for your time.

4 answers

Your answer

rvo fire and safety rvo fire and safety 0 Reputation points

2026-10-05T06:26:09.13+00:00

HOW TO USE NEW EXCEL WORD
Julie Huynh 3,770 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-10-05T14:49:19.4433333+00:00

Hi @rvo fire and safety rvo fire and safety,

Thank you for your comment. Could you please clarify what you mean by "HOW TO USE NEW EXCEL WORD"?

Are you asking how to upgrade from Excel/Word 2016 to a newer version, how to use the newer Excel and Word applications, or whether the copy/paste issue occurs in the new versions as well?

Any additional details would be appreciated so the community can better understand your question and assist you further.

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Julie Huynh 3,770 Independent Advisor

Dear Vincent CAZENAVE,

Good day! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum!

Based on your description, I understand that you want to know if there is any issue with last Office updates.

To understand the situation better and provide you with the most suitable support, could you confirm the following information:

Are all users affected after updating Windows, or only specific users?
Do applications other than Excel experience issues? For example, pasting into web browsers/Office Web, Notepad, and other Office desktop applications?
Which versions of Windows are you using? Which version did you just update to?
Have you tried reinstalling the Excel application?
Have you tried running Excel in Safe Mode? Close the application completely, press the Windows + R keys, then type 'excel /safe' and press Enter. Once Excel opens, create a new file and test again.

Over the past few days on the forum, several users have reported experiencing issues after installing the Windows update patch, and there is currently no official information from Microsoft on this matter.

I recommend you refer the following article to Go back to the previous version of Windows | Microsoft Support as a temporary solution.

Below are some community posts discussing the same issue - one thread is in Spanish, please feel free to use translation tool for your convenience.

If it resolved your issue, so it is related to Microsoft’s software update. As a user, I do not have the necessary tools or permissions to resolve it. I recommend that you could Go back to the previous version of Windows. Additionally, you can report the problem about Windows in the Feedback Hub following the steps in this article: Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app

{4D04A4A9-F7FA-43A6-8BF6-4AAB9D195646}

Additionally, please note that Office 2016 reached end of support on October 14, 2025. While the applications will continue to run, Microsoft no longer provides security updates, bug fixes, or technical support for Office 2016.

Kindly let me know when there are updates or if you need further assistance. Any updates you’re able to share would be really helpful. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing how things are going!

Thank you for your time and patience.

If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in [forum documentation] to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Vincent CAZENAVE 25 Reputation points

2026-09-09T12:47:08.9433333+00:00

Hi,

Just informing you there's some bugs disabling copy/paste on Excel STD 2016 since last Office updates from today 09/09/26.

It worked fine yesterday on all computers.

Hoping some fix coming soon for Excel 2016 users.

Have a nice day.
Terry Roth 10 Reputation points

2026-09-09T14:22:12.24+00:00

Julie, MS broke the copy paste feature in these latest updates. We are not asking if it is broken, it is broken.
Nicholas Thompson 5 Reputation points

2026-09-09T19:58:53.0233333+00:00

We are having the same issues with a network of 459 workstations. We are finding Copy/Paste does not work, Draging cells does not work, copying worksheets does not work. Cutting works fine. The version affected is 16.0.5569.1003.
Emiel B 10 Reputation points

2026-09-10T11:01:24.42+00:00

Why do we all bother in mentioning it here if nobody from microsoft is in here, or nobody as the ability/authority to do something about it?
Julie Huynh 3,770 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-10T14:55:08.06+00:00

Dear all @Vincent CAZENAVE, @Emiel B, @R String09, @Terry Roth,

Since many users have experienced this issue recently, I recommend going back to the previous version of Windows for the copy/paste to work again. (For reference: How to uninstall a Windows Update)

Please also report the problem about Windows in the Feedback Hub following the steps in this article: Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app

Additionally, please be noted that Office 2016 reached end of support on October 14, 2025. While the applications will continue to run, Microsoft no longer provides security updates, bug fixes, or technical support for Office 2016.

Thank you for your kindness and understanding!
Emiel B 10 Reputation points

2026-09-10T15:00:50.9433333+00:00

If Microsoft no longer provides security updates and/or bug fixes, why did we get a (broken) update in the first place?
Terry Roth 10 Reputation points

2026-09-10T15:07:44.29+00:00

Another problem is, at least for my machines, you can not use the usual uninstall option from the update page. I had to track down the uninstall power shell script from Emiel B's post off of reddit. :-( But at least that script does appear to work to fix the issue at least temporarily until the next update. I turned updates off for as long as I could to make sure it doesn't try to reinstall until a proper fix can be released from MS.
Julie Huynh 3,770 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-11T08:44:07.4966667+00:00

Dear @Vincent CAZENAVE, @Emiel B, Please refer to this article Description of the security update for Excel 2016: September 08, 2026 (KB5002914) about this issue.

As of now, kindly go back to the previous version of Windows for the copy/paste to work again. (For reference: How to uninstall a Windows Update)

Please note that this is a community forum where users help one another. I do not have the ability to investigate, modify, or resolve product issues caused by product updates.

I appreciate your patience while Microsoft reviews the issue and provides further guidance.

Answer 2

Dear @Vincent CAZENAVE, and other users,

Microsoft updated 5002665 for Microsoft Excel 2016 that was released on September 16, 2026.

This update fixes the known issue in KB5002914 that causes certain paste operations to fail silently.

In this update, there is a known issue that you should be aware of:

If the workbook contains conditional formatting, paste operations might continue to fail.
Workaround:
- If the paste operation fails, users can try the following Paste Special options:
- On the Home tab, select the Paste dropdown list, and then select Paste Special.
- In the Paste Special window, select one of the following options:
  - Formulas
  - Formulas & Number Formatting
  - Values
  - Values & Number Formatting
  - Link

Microsoft is researching the issue and will post more information in this article when the information becomes available.

You can refer the article September 16, 2026, update for Excel 2016 (KB5002665) for more details.

Answer 3

Tomáš Přenosil 0

I can confirm this issue on Excel 2016 64-bit, build 16.0.5569.1003 (MSI).

Copy/Paste within Excel and AutoFill were not working after the September 2026 update KB5002914.

Paste Special (Values, Formulas and Formatting) still worked. Copying from Excel to Word/Notepad also worked.

I removed KB5002914 using the Oarpmany.exe command provided in this thread. Both Copy/Paste and AutoFill immediately started working again.

This confirms that uninstalling KB5002914 resolves the issue on my installation.

EmilyS_726 30,360 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-12T04:37:29.1766667+00:00
This is a known issue due to a recent update. See article https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/servicing/office/hotfix/excel/5002914

For now, two options as workaround.

Please type cmd in the search on the taskbar. Don't press enter key yet. Instead, choose "run as administrator" to launch Command Prompt.

Then run this command (for Office 2016)

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

For 2019

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.10417.20197

For 2021 and 2024

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.20326.20132

The command is to remove the latest update, which is causing this issue.

Or

Use Ctrl+X (cut), then use Ctrl+Z to re-add the data, then use Ctrl+V after that. this can be a workaround.
Terry Roth 10 Reputation points

2026-09-14T11:49:05.35+00:00

For those of you who are running 32 bit versions, change the path to point to C:\Program Files (x86) from C:\Program Files. :-) Legacy apps are a pain sometimes.
Julie Huynh 3,770 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-14T15:23:51.5033333+00:00

Hi Terry,

Great, thank you for your update.
Julie Huynh 3,770 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-15T12:07:49.5233333+00:00

Hi,

Thank you for your helpful information.

I'm glad that the issue is resolved.

Wishing you a great day ahead!
EmilyS_726 30,360 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-18T16:41:38.9466667+00:00

Just to follow up -

Microsoft has released a corrective update.

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.

Answer 4

Senthil kumar 2,580

Hi @Vincent CAZENAVE

copy paste issue facing in excel or windows also. if in windows this is not a excel issue. better restore your windows and try.

Vincent CAZENAVE 25 Reputation points

2026-09-09T12:00:24.94+00:00

I dont really need answers, im just informing you there's some bugs disabling copy/paste on Excel STD 2016 since last Office updates from 09/09/26.

It worked fine yesterday on all computers.

Have a nice day.
R String09 10 Reputation points

2026-09-09T18:51:26.89+00:00

This is an issue with Excel 2021 LTSC as well. All the PCs in our environment with Office 2021 LTSC are effected by this and all worked fine yesterday. Please fix this bug asap as it's definitely a result of the patch roll out yesterday and is causing a lot of issues.

Btw... Word works fine for copy and paste. Only specific to Excel as far as I can tell.

Thanks and have a nice day!
Bulldog 4,765 Reputation points

2026-09-09T20:32:46.1033333+00:00

If in fact it's a bug, it won't be fixed. Office 2016 is not supported. Support officially ended on October 14, 2025.
Emiel B 10 Reputation points

2026-09-10T10:59:04.08+00:00

Update KB5002914 is the problem.

Someone at microsoft care to speed things up to get a fixed version out asap?

https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/1wbjfqx/excel_2016_update_bug/
Choudhary Umar 0 Reputation points

2026-10-05T06:36:03.8+00:00

Hi, I’ve noticed similar issues with copy/paste in Excel after recent Office updates. It may be related to the latest update rather than the Excel file itself.

You could try restarting Excel and checking the recently installed Office updates. If the issue continues, testing Excel in Safe Mode may also help identify whether an add-in is causing the problem.

Hopefully Microsoft releases a fix soon for Excel 2016 users.
Terry Roth 10 Reputation points

2026-10-05T11:42:30.72+00:00

Please see Julie's answer above. Follow this article she had posted above:

You can refer the article September 16, 2026, update for Excel 2016 (KB5002665) for more details.

It has the fix file for at least 2016 version.