Issue with 32bit Office 2016 Pro update 2026-09-09

Ctrl-C a cell in Excel 2016 will not Paste to another cell ... the only way this works is opening the clipboard side bar and clicking on the paste item to paste ... the ctrl-v, right click paste or paste from the home menu bar are all doing nothing but clearing the clipboard item to paste (paste icon greys out) AND the cell or group of cells retains the dashed box ... did a reboot ... repair ... opened in safemode ... renamed the excel regedit key (excel created a new one) same issue all round ... this issue started today (I use excel extensively on a daily basis) ... looked at the update history and there was a huge release for office 2016 pro yesterday ok on the 9th because its now the 11th wee hours of the nightowl morning.

I found this in Google AI, try the last method highlighted in red:

Why is my Ctrl+V not working in Excel?


To fix Ctrl+V not working in Excel, restart Excel or clear your system clipboard by pressing the Windows Key + V and selecting Clear All.

Common Fixes for Ctrl+V in Excel:

Exit Edit Mode
Check if you are currently editing a cell's text directly. Press Enter or Escape to exit edit mode, then try pasting again.

Clear Clipboard History
Press Windows Key + V to open the Windows clipboard menu. Click Clear all to remove corrupted temporary data.

Disable Conflicting Add-ins
Go to File > Options > Add-ins. Select COM Add-ins from the drop-down menu and click Go. Uncheck active add-ins to see if a plugin is blocking your shortcuts.

Uncheck DDE Setting
Go to File > Options > Advanced.Scroll down to the General section. Uncheck Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).