Excel Copy / Paste not work

Question

Excel Copy / Paste not work

Phil Dzieduszko 30

Using Excel Version 2408 -Build 17932.20976. I can not copy / paste using the icons or control function. Was working fine yesterday. Two updates happened sometime yesterday; KB5126052 & KB5124008. How do I fix this?

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Answer accepted by question author

Chris-D 1,595 Independent Advisor

Hi Phil,

Thank you for sharing the details of the issue.

Microsoft has confirmed a known issue affecting Excel 2016, Excel 2019, Excel 2021, and Excel 2024 following the September 2026 Excel security update. This issue may cause the paste operation to fail without displaying an error, which is consistent with the behavior you described.

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Microsoft is currently investigating the issue. I recommend monitoring the following article for the latest information and any permanent resolution: Description of the security update for Excel 2016: September 8, 2026 (KB5002914)

As a temporary workaround, your IT administrator may consider rolling Office back to an earlier, unaffected build, if permitted by your organization’s update and security policies. Since rolling back may remove recent security fixes, this should be reviewed and performed by your IT administrator.

If you are unsure who your administrator is, please refer to: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin?

Alternatively, you may wait for Microsoft to release an updated build containing a fix. Once an update becomes available, please install the latest Office updates, restart Excel, and test the Copy and Paste functionality again.

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments below. I will be happy to help.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes" and kindly upvote it.

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Phil Dzieduszko 30 Reputation points

2026-09-12T13:20:42.6133333+00:00

Thank you, Chris
Chris-D 1,595 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-14T15:02:54.7633333+00:00

Hi Phil,

Thank you for accepting the answer. I hope the issue will be resolved soon.

Should you have any concerns or questions in the future, please do not hesitate to reach out. I will be happy to assist, and other members of the Q&A community will also do their best to provide support and guidance.

Have a wonderful day ahead.

2 additional answers

Your answer

Phil Dzieduszko 30 Reputation points

2026-09-12T13:20:42.6133333+00:00

Thank you, Chris
Chris-D 1,595 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-14T15:02:54.7633333+00:00

Hi Phil,

Thank you for accepting the answer. I hope the issue will be resolved soon.

Should you have any concerns or questions in the future, please do not hesitate to reach out. I will be happy to assist, and other members of the Q&A community will also do their best to provide support and guidance.

Have a wonderful day ahead.

Answer 1

This is a known issue due to a recent update.

Assuming you are using LTSC/Standard/Pro Plus commercial license, 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 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

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.14334.20848

For 2024

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.17932.20910

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

Answer 2

EmilyS_726 29,900 Volunteer Moderator

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.

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