Excel will not paste

Question

I have used excel forever. Now my spreadsheet will not copy from one worksheet to another at all. I have always clicked inthe top left corner of the worksheet, right clicked copy, go to next worksheet, right click, hit paste so everything copies. It will not do it at all. I have Windows 11, MS365, using excel and word from 2016 version. Can anyone tell me how to fix this issue??

Answer 1

This is a known issue due to a recent update.

https://support.microsoft.com/servicing/office/hotfix/excel/5002914

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 to roll back to the last working version. Make sure you copy the entire command, including the quotation mark at the beginning of the command.

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

Answer 2

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 3

Try these checks in order:

1. In Excel, go to File > Options > Advanced. Under Cut, copy and paste, make sure Show Paste Options button when content is pasted is checked.
2. Test whether Paste Special is working. If Paste Special is missing or not working, close all web browsers and try again.
3. Start Excel in Safe Mode to check for an add-in conflict:
   • Find the Excel icon.
   • Press and hold Ctrl and double-click Excel.
   • Select Yes when asked to start in Safe Mode.
   • If copy/paste works in Safe Mode, enable add-ins one at a time until the conflicting add-in is found, then leave it disabled or uninstall it.
4. If the problem happens when copying between two separate Excel windows, open both worksheets in the same Excel instance. Excel cannot use its full internal Paste Special functionality across multiple Excel instances.
5. If paste still does nothing and the copied range stays selected with no error, this matches a known Excel issue where paste can fail silently in Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016. Microsoft is investigating.
6. If the goal is to copy an entire worksheet to another workbook in Excel for the web, right-click Move or Copy is not available there. Use this workaround instead:
   • Select all data in the worksheet.
   • Press Ctrl+C.
   • Open the other workbook and add a blank worksheet with +.
   • Select the first cell and press Ctrl+V.
   • Note: conditional formatting is lost with this method.

If hidden or filtered rows or columns are involved, use Home > Find & Select > Go To Special > Visible cells only before copying.

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• Paste Special option is missing or not working in Microsoft Office
• You cannot paste any attributes into a workbook in another instance of Excel
• The paste operation might fail in Excel
• Move or copy worksheets or worksheet data
• Move or copy cells, rows, and columns