Microsoft Fixes Broken Copy-Paste for Excel 2016
Microsoft has addressed an issue in Excel 2016 that caused copy-and-paste operations to fail silently after installing the September security update, KB5002914. The company attributed the problem to a code regression and released an update, KB5002665, which fixes the bug for MSI-based versions of Office 2016.
The issue, first reported by customers, caused paste operations to fail without any indication in Excel Online and in versions of Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016. A temporary workaround involving the use of Paste Special is available for affected users, but uninstalling the KB5002914 update removes a long list of security patches that address vulnerabilities related to remote code execution and information disclosure.
The fix only applies to MSI-based Excel 2016 and not to Click-to-Run versions, including Office 365 Home. Microsoft has not officially confirmed a fix for Excel Online or for the 2019, 2021, and 2024 versions, despite users reporting that the September 12 updates cured the problem.