Solved Copy and paste in 1 Spreadsheet

Hi all, I have a spreadsheet set up as a check register. I input all the checks and deposits and when the Bank Statement comes, I check if all is correct by placing a check-mark next to the transaction.

When I put the check-mark, I copy a red check-mark and go to the cell where I want to place it and click on paste. That has worked fine for a long time. Now when I try to do that, there is a delay of about 2 seconds and then it is placed. When I try to do it again, it will not do anything and if I try for the third time it will remove the one I did place and I have to start over, and it gives me the below popup.

The statement in the popup is wrong, because I rebooted and only opened the file in question and still get the popup. Also, I have other spreadsheets that work just fine.

I am running windows 11 fully patched and office 2021

The only thing I can add is the spreadsheet is very large, it is more than 1 megabyte. Could that be it?

Thanks

I see this happen a lot when you copy once, then the second time it fails. Been seeing this for a few months now. Of course, I'm also on Insiders Preview builds of Office, so that makes sense that I've seen it for a while.

As a workaround - click in another cell, or hit the [ESC] key to cancel the original copy and then it will work. I almost always hit Escape, as that is faster for me, but most times clicking in another cell after performing the initial copy will also cancel the copy process.

You can tell when the original copy process has ended , because when it is still selected for copying and has been copied to the clipboard, it has a dotted line around the cell. Once you hit Escape (and often when you simply click in another cell), it becomes solid again, and the spreadsheet is ready to copy another cell.

I've not found a permanent solution for this yet, though.

OK, But why is this happening only on this 1 spreadsheet?

Sven1458 said:

OK, But why is this happening only on this 1 spreadsheet?

Click to expand...

Have you tried ctrl+a (select all) and copying the entire content (ctrl+c) to a new spreadsheet (ctrl+p)? Could be an option?
Don’t delete the original just in case.

I’m not going to assume your level of ability with Excel, although it looks like you know what you’re doing to have created this in the first place.
When pasting into a new spreadsheet, select the very first cell and paste.

I've used the template for check registry from the Microsoft Office downloads, never saw that issue. It was an older/simpler template, for want of a better description the newer ones seem to have more "flash" to them.

antspants, I have created an additional page within the same file and have the same problem. next I will create a new file and copy over to the new file, but don't have access to the file at this moment so it will have to wait till next week.
Thanks

OK, here is a strange one:

Using Teamviewer I downloaded the file to my laptop, I created a new file and copied some of the columns over to the new file. Tried it and it was copying my check marks just fine. So I used teamviewer to copy the new file back to the regional computer, guess what, same problem. After 2 copies of the check mark, I get the same problem and same popup. That leads me to believe that there is a problem with contents ( Coding, formulas) of that particular spreadsheet. I will try to make a new spreadsheet from scratch in hopes that this will solve the problem. I let you know if that works.

Thanks for helping.

Sven1458 said:

next I will create a new file and copy over to the new file,

Click to expand...

My apologies, I should of confirmed that. If the actual Excel workbook is buggy (it’s happened to me) creating a new spreadsheet in a totally new file might work, might not. Weird, the teamviewer copy..
Good luck when you get around to it. Let us know how you go

Sven1458 said:

The only thing I can add is the spreadsheet is very large, it is more than 1 megabyte.

Click to expand...

That shouldn't be an issue in your case with a late version of Excel, older ones yes but more than 20 or more years ago. I have an .xlsx file at 1.6MB opening in Excel 2013 no problem.

Berton said:

I've used the template for check registry from the Microsoft Office downloads, never saw that issue. It was an older/simpler template, for want of a better description the newer ones seem to have more "flash" to them.

Download free, pre-built templates - Microsoft Support

Find and download free templates to create documents like calendars, business cards, letters, greeting cards, brochures, newsletters, or resumes.

support.microsoft.com

Click to expand...

If I reinstall windows and then install Office, I cannot save to any existing Excel spreadsheet. I have to save as a new file. I should screenshot the message next time. Only started happening with Office 2021. Even with Excel sheets created with Office 2021.
Weird as, annoying bug, if it’s a bug.

antspants said:

If I reinstall windows and then install Office, I cannot save to any existing Excel spreadsheet. I have to save as a new file. I should screenshot the message next time. Only started happening with Office 2021. Even with Excel sheets created with Office 2021.
Weird as, annoying bug, if it’s a bug.

Click to expand...

That is weird, maybe Permissions or Security is set in the file/s that prevent making changes? I know that is a feature in PDF files, part of why they were created for in use with policies, contracts, etc., when sharing with a company's various remote offices.

Berton said:

That is weird, maybe Permissions or Security is set in the file/s that prevent making changes?

Click to expand...

Good point, I should look into it.

Just Noticed something: at the lower left edge of the spreadsheet, it says " ready" and next to that it says "Accessibility: Investigate."
What does that mean?

Sven1458 said:

Just Noticed something: at the lower left edge of the spreadsheet, it says " ready" and next to that it says "Accessibility: Investigate."
What does that mean?

Click to expand...

It’s basically a way for you to check how you’ve created an Office document and if/how it is accessible to those with disabilities or impairment.

(small video)

Sven1458 said:

OK, But why is this happening only on this 1 spreadsheet?

Click to expand...

It happens to me across multiple files from multiple sources - even files I've manually created for my self using my own Microsoft 365 Family subscription directly on Windows 11.

Sven1458 said:

antspants, I have created an additional page within the same file and have the same problem. next I will create a new file and copy over to the new file, but don't have access to the file at this moment so it will have to wait till next week.
Thanks

Click to expand...

Sven1458 said:

OK, here is a strange one:

Using Teamviewer I downloaded the file to my laptop, I created a new file and copied some of the columns over to the new file. Tried it and it was copying my check marks just fine. So I used teamviewer to copy the new file back to the regional computer, guess what, same problem. After 2 copies of the check mark, I get the same problem and same popup. That leads me to believe that there is a problem with contents ( Coding, formulas) of that particular spreadsheet. I will try to make a new spreadsheet from scratch in hopes that this will solve the problem. I let you know if that works.

Thanks for helping.

Click to expand...

Are you accessing the file only from the regional computer directly, or are you logging into the regional computer and using it's installed Office to do this?

I think it has more to do with clipboard settings and being logged into a Microsoft account that is sharing / saving its data, but I cannot prove it as I am always logged in to my account lol. Like I said, it happens all the time for me, I just created a spreadsheet a couple of weeks ago to track my VMs (naming scheme, etc.) and it's doing it on that - that is a local file.

However, all my local files are also automatically synced to OneDrive. I wonder if that is the actual key here? This I can test.

I just logged in to the computer with the file on and noticed that it does not say anything in the lower left corner other then “ready”. After I downloaded the file to my computer it says “accessibility” I am very confused. Where do I find settings for the clipboard?

Normally I am accessing the file from the computer that it is on, not my laptop, only for testing I access the file from my laptop. That computer is always logged in to the MS account and so is my laptop.

You think it would it help if I do “repair office” from Programs and features?

Thanks

Sven1458 said:

After I downloaded the file to my computer it says “accessibility” I am very confused.

Click to expand...

Not sure about that accessibility issue you seem to be experiencing, as my spreadsheet (which this most recently happened on) shows Good to go:

Sven1458 said:

Where do I find settings for the clipboard?

Click to expand...

I was talking about Windows Clipboard, but I'm not sure it is relevant. However, it might be. I have Windows Clipboard sharing set to disabled in Windows Settings. How about you?

Sven1458 said:

You think it would it help if I do “repair office” from Programs and features?

Click to expand...

Nope - I've tried that more than once - it still does it.

So, the idea here is that, when you select a cell, it has a colored border around it:



Then, when you copy (I use the Keyboard command CTRL + C) it has an animated dotted border:



Then when you paste, if the copied cell still has an animated border, Excel won't let you copy again.



But if you copy something else to the clipboard from another app (like I did here when taking a screenshot) the animated dotted border goes away and you can copy again. But what I do is simply click in any other cell (not the one you copied from or the one you copied to) and the animated border also disappears. Then I am able to copy another cell, or even the same one.

As I said, I've not found a fix for it, but I've only tried my own ideas surrounding it, since I work from home and it has always been my PC and my Office install that I used since it started happening, I simply thought it was a quirk of being on the Office Insiders Beta channel.

That is exactly what happens when i copy and paste.
When I click on Accessibility i get a popup. All errors are pointing to some line in the form i designed. See Below
I can click on it and it shows me what line is the problem and i click on " mark as decorative" and the remark disappears.
i have over 1000 of those. When i made a new spreadsheet i immediately marked them as decorative and now it says good to go.
I then transferred the file to the desktop using TeanViewer but i still get the same error and popup. i was hoping that this would solve the problem.

The spreadsheet i designed on my laptop works just fine, it is after i transfer it to the other computer that i get the same error.

Did you watch that video? Did you click on the green link in your screenshot that says “Read more about making documents accessible”?
When you say problem, what problem is being caused by the sheet saying that there are accessibility problems? As far as I understand it, unless you are creating this spreadsheet for people with disabilities or impairment, it’s irrelevant to your work.
Marking something as decorative, also as I understand it, is simply saying mark something with alt txt, like for an image so that the blind knows what an image is etc
You are running through two separate issues now, I think perhaps I have lost track.

Sven1458 said:

That is exactly what happens when i copy and paste.

Click to expand...

Yup. I suspect it is because of a recent Office update. Check your versions on both machines and verify they are the same.

Sven1458 said:

When I click on Accessibility i get a popup. All errors are pointing to some line in the form i designed. See Below

Click to expand...

Your Accessibility issue should not be the cause - as I showed in my screenshot, my accessibility is Good to go - aka no Accessibility issues.

Also, your particular accessibility issues are simply saying that you did not enter a description on those Connectors that you used in your spreadsheet. Those descriptions would be used by someone who was blind, for example, and has a reader reading out things to them - your connectors with descriptions would have the descriptions read aloud in such a situation.

Again, absolutely nothing to do with the copy and paste issue. And, again, I've been seeing this for months since I'm on Office Insider Preview builds. The build back then when it first started happening to me is probably now the regular build of M365 Office available to the general public.

antspants said:

When you say problem, what problem is being caused by the sheet saying that there are accessibility problems?

Click to expand...

None - he was associating the copy / paste issue with the accessibility warning, when in fact they are completely unrelated.

antspants said:

Marking something as decorative, also as I understand it, is simply saying mark something with alt txt, like for an image so that the blind knows what an image is etc
You are running through two separate issues now, I think perhaps I have lost track.

Click to expand...

Nope, you're spot on, and I hope my post covers that well enough for anyone following along to be sure.