How do I get rid of the “cannot empty the clipboar

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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