[excel] How do I get rid of the "cannot empty the clipboard" error?

Right now, I'm getting it in Excel 2007, but I've gotten the same error in pretty much every version of Excel I've used since 97. The only discernable similarity is that happens on my office PC. It's never bothered me on my home PC.

In Excel 2003, I was able to mess around in the clipboard options until it went away. In 2007, though, the options seem to be seriously limited and generally useless. Google wasn't much help, either.

Good answers by Paul Simon and Steve Homer, I shut down team viewer and that did the trick. Skype or other programs may trigger the same glitch, but in this instance, I recalled the problem occurred when I tried to cut n paste a 2MB file from remote system through windows right click rather than using "File Transfer function in TV. An error message appeared, then the problem with Excel "'Cannot empty clipboard' message.

This problem occurs when you are working on a remote system. After copying and pasting a huge amount of data it shows the error. I have found the solution to this problem.

Go to remote systems task manager and perform the following task

Go to Task Manager > Processes Look for "rdpclip.exe" End that process

Your problem will be solved.

Try http://support.microsoft.com/kb/207438 which will work for 2007 if you follow v12.0 in the registry.

Are you running Skype? This has been the best solution I have found to get rid of the "cannot empty the clipboard error" in Excel 2007 & 2010. Delete the Skype add-on in IE and/or Firefox and good-bye annoying error!

In reply to rjacobs7 post on February 28, 2011

Cannot clear clipboard error - Windows 7, Excel 2010 - This error occurs nearly every time a drag and drop of cell contents is attempted. I've had this same error over the past 10 years on older computers and older versions of Windows and Office. It has now reoccurred with a new laptop running Windows 7 64 bit and Office 2010. The issue can be replicated only if a browser - IE or Firefox - is open at the same time that Excel is open. Having Word and/or Outlook open at the same time will not cause the problem to occur unless a browser is also open. This error is extremely irritating and no solutions from Microsoft or other posts on this issue resolve it.

I have a solution - at least for me! Delete the Skype add-in in IE and Firefox and the "cannot clear clipboard" error after a drag and drop goes away when IE and/or Firefox are running. Apparently some sort of memory-management issue with Skype, Office and the browsers.

check this tip. worked for here http://mobeer.blogspot.com/2009/01/excel-2007-cannot-empty-clipboard.html:

This might save somebody some time and headaches if google picks it up. I was getting a 'Cannot empty the Clipboard' error every time I moved cells around in Excel - eventually I mucked around with the settings and made it go away. Here's how; In the excel main menu (glass globe w/logo), click Excel options, then Advanced, then turn off 'Show paste options buttons'

How exciting was this as my first post of the year?

Update: I still haven't found a permanent solution but I found another thing that seems to help. In Excel 2007, from the "home" tab, the first thing on the left is the clipboard tool panel. Expand the panel to view the clipboard and in the clipboard you might find "cannot empty clipboard" as an entry. Empty the clipboard, keep the panel open for a second or two while you do a few cut and pastes/drags etc. and then the bogey seems to go away.

I call this the cable dance because back in the day I had a printer that only worked if you unplugged the cable, shook it out and plugged it back in.

If you can't find the clipboard, then close that excel sheet and reopen it again. This will solve your problem.

I have seen various answers which say when I uninstalled this or that it worked. I think that the uninstall is probably just sorting out an issue in the registry, rather it being an issue with the particular application that is being uninstalled.

I have also seen cases of people saying kill the RDP task but I don't have that and I still have the error.

I have seen cases of people saying clear the clipboard in Excel, but that doesn't work for me - nor does changing the settings in the Clipboard.

I believe that the issue is that an application has a lock on the clipboard and that application is not releasing it. The clipboard is a shared resource, so that implies that each application has to get a lock on it before changing it and then release the lock once it has completed the change, however, it looks like sometimes the lock is not released.

I found that the following cured it. Close down all MS applications including IE and Outlook. Check Task Manager processes to make sure that they are all gone.

Then restart the application where you had the Copy and Paste issue and it will probably then work.

Regards

Paul Simon

I've read lots of blogs on this subject going back to 2005!!

I'm sure that Paul Simon is right (see his submission to this thread) and it's a question of finding which program on your machine is locking the clipboard. I do not run the programs listed in various solutons suggested (eg on Microsoft website) nor am I in a networked or virtual environment so for me those aren't the locking programs (but might be for you). Similarly I don't have the RDP task going in my processes. For me the locking program is the Skype Add-in.

I am not a sophisticated user and am scared of altering my registry so didn't want to go there.

I have now been able to reproduce accurately the "cannot clear the clipboard" message by turning on and off the skype addins in internet explorer. This is easy for amateurs to do and might be one of the more common clipboard locking programs:

I first confirmed that I can turn on/off the problem in Excel by opening/closing internet explorer.

Then I disabled the skype addins:

Internet Explorer: Tools menu --> Internet Options ; Programs Tab ; Manage Add-ons button; Toolbars and Extensions selected in panel on left - scroll down to find skype add ons. Press Disable button.

NB have to restart Internet explorer before this works.

.... 4 days later.... it's still working

I got rid of the problem by unchecking the option for "Alert before overwriting cells" in Excel options. I'm using Excel 2007

I found this advice:

There are a few steps to solve your problem:

First thing to do is Clear items from the Office Clipboard. If the Microsoft Office Clipboard is not displayed in the task pane, click Office Clipboard on the Edit menu. On the Office Clipboard task pane, do one of the following: To clear all items, click Clear All .

Next thing is to switch off the clipboard show option. To do this, what you can do is to again display the Clipboard menu (select Office Clipboard from Edit Menu). And in the selection button "Options" at the bottom of the screen, select this particular option: "Collect Without Showing Office Clipboard"

and now, you are relieved of the bug.

Hope this helps.

here. I have the problem, but it's sporadic. I just tried the technique, and I don't see the problem, but since it's sporadic I won't know for a while if it's gone for good.

I copied a picture (instead of text) that I had in my excel 2007 file and that solved the problem for me. The picture copied to the (then empty) clipboard. I could then copy cells normally even after clearing the clipboard of the picture. I think a graph object should also do the trick.