Excel Online pasting incorrect values when using Paste Values from Desktop Excel

Question

Our team uses desktop Excel workbooks to generate data that is then copied into an Excel workbook stored in Microsoft 365 and edited through Excel for the web.

Since this week, multiple users have experienced an issue where copying a cell from Desktop Excel and pasting Values Only into Excel Online does not retain the displayed value from the source workbook.

As an example:

• Desktop Excel Cell A1 contains an XLOOKUP formula.
• The displayed result is "CAT".
• When the cell is copied and pasted as Values into Excel Online, the destination cell displays "0" instead of "CAT".

This behaviour affects multiple users and was not occurring before this week.

Environment:

• Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise
• Excel Desktop (Windows)
• Excel for the Web
• Files stored in both SharePoint/OneDrive

Questions:

1. Has there been a recent change or regression in Excel for the Web affecting Paste Values behaviour?
2. Are there any known issues involving XLOOKUP results being altered when pasted into Excel Online?
3. Is there a service health advisory or update related to this behaviour? Our team uses desktop Excel workbooks to generate data that is then copied into an Excel workbook stored in Onedrive/SharePoint sites and edited through Excel for the web.

Answer 1

I can second this. I use CONCATENATE in several cells. When pasting into a sharepoint shared sheet, values only or even ctrl+shift+V yields the same as the OP. Dates as 1/0/1900, some values as 0, and some cells #value!

Nothing has changed on our side. There are no leading spaces and no formatting changes that return those.

These sheets worked fine until last week. Pasting into the source file works fine. Pasting into the sharepoint file in the browser yields these new results.

Answer 2

Hi @James Spilsbury, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

I understand the concern, especially since this workflow has been functioning correctly previously and the issue is now affecting multiple users. 

At this time, I'm not aware of any publicly documented Excel for the web service health advisory specifically describing a regression where Paste Values converts an XLOOKUP result such as "CAT" into 0 when copying from Excel Desktop to Excel for the web. I also could not find a Microsoft-published known issue that specifically ties this behavior to the XLOOKUP function. However, the behavior you described is not expected, as Paste Values should normally paste the displayed result rather than alter it.  

To help narrow down whether this is a service-side issue, a workbook-specific issue, or a recent client update, could you please provide the following information? 

1. What version and build of Excel Desktop are affected? (File > Account > About Excel) 
2. Does the issue occur when:  
   • Copying from one desktop workbook to another desktop workbook? 
   • Copying from Excel Desktop to a brand-new workbook in Excel for the web? 
3. Which browsers have been tested (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc.)? 
4. Is the source XLOOKUP returning:  
   • Text values only? 
   • Numeric values? 
5. If you copy the source cell and paste it into Notepad or another plain-text editor first, does the expected value ("CAT") appear? 
6. Does the problem occur with all workbooks, or only specific files stored in SharePoint/OneDrive? 
7. When the destination cell shows 0, what is the cell format in Excel for the web (General, Text, Number, Custom, etc.)? 

If you can share the Excel Desktop version/build, browser details, and whether the issue can be reproduced in a newly created workbook, that will help determine whether this is a recent regression or a workbook-specific behavior.

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