Microsoft fixes broken Excel copy and paste for all Office users
Microsoft fixed Excel copy-and-paste failures caused by September 2026 Office security updates.
Microsoft fixed a known issue in which September 2026 security updates, including KB5002914, broke copy-and-paste, autofill, and formula dragging in Excel. Excel 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024, plus Excel Online in Office Online Server, could leave the destination unchanged with no error message. Affected users must manually install KB5002665 for Excel 2016 and specified builds for Office LTSC 2019, 2021, and 2024. Microsoft warned that paste may still fail when a workbook uses conditional formatting and suggested Paste Special as a temporary workaround.
- September 2026 updates, including KB5002914, broke Excel paste and autofill.
- Excel 2016 through 2024 and Excel Online could fail paste silently.
- Fixes are KB5002665 and specified Office LTSC builds, installed manually.
- Conditional formatting can still fail; Paste Special is a workaround.
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Microsoft has fixed a known issue that causes copy-and-paste failures for Excel users after installing the September 2026 security updates.
The bug was confirmed following a wave of customer reports on Reddit and the Microsoft Q&A forums that this month's updates (including the KB5002914 security update) break copy-and-paste, autofill, and formula dragging in Excel.
"In Microsoft Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016, as well as Excel Online in Office Online Server, the paste operation might fail silently," Microsoft explains in a support document updated on Friday.
"Although users try to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination is unmodified. When this issue occurs, users receive no indication of the failure, such as an error message or alert with sound."
To fix this known issue, affected users must manually download and install updates for Excel 2016 (KB5002665), Office LTSC 2019 (Build 10417.20208), Office LTSC 2021 (Build 14334.20918), and Office LTSC 2024 (Build 17932.21000).
Temporary workaround for some scenarios
However, it also warned that paste operations might continue to fail if the workbook contains conditional formatting.
In these cases, Microsoft advised impacted customers to try the "Paste Special" option as a temporary workaround until a permanent solution for this specific scenario is also available.
To do that, they have to click "Paste Special" in the "Paste" drop-down after opening the "Home" tab, then choose what to paste using the Ctrl+Alt+V keyboard shortcut among Formula, Formula and number formats, Values, Values and number formats, or Paste Link.
Earlier this year, in June, Microsoft fixed another issue that blocked Windows 365 users from downloading the Office suite and another one that blocked Office for the web users from opening Excel and PowerPoint documents.
One month later, it also resolved an issue that prevented third-party apps from launching Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access and from opening documents on Windows systems.
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