Error: Cannot Empty Clipboard

Hi srej,
I see the same error on my Excel 2000 at home and Excel 2002 here at work. Usually, it occurs when I have an overlapping range (e.g. pasting A1:D5 to B1:E5). As long as I acknowledge the error message, it allows me to proceed.
Brad

byundt,

thanks for responding, but I think my error is a little different.  The error message pops up even if I just copy one cell or even the format of a cell and it will not allow me to paste even after I click "OK" on the error message.  It's like it never makes it to the clipboard.

Hi,

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.

Cheers
P.K.

Hi

In case my above solution does not work, why dont you try an earlier solution given in the below linK:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/10053878/Can't-empty-clipboard-error-in-Excel-97.html

Hope this helps

Cheers
P.K.

P.K.
The Edit menu in Excel 2000 does not expose the Clipboard object. I suspect you are using Excel 2002 or 2003.
Brad

Yea, you can just use View > Toolbars > Clipboard to show the clipboard, but I don't see the options you are talking about ("Collect Without Showing Office Clipboard").  If you know how to do this on Excel 2000 please let me know so I can test it.

found a macro to empty the clipboard. not sure if it is for use of you.

Public Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32" ( _
ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
Public Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long

Sub ClearClipboard()
    OpenClipboard (0&)
    EmptyClipboard
    CloseClipboard
End Sub

regards,
Jeroen

Hi all

Just found a good way in attempting to solve my own "Cannot empty the clipboard" error.

In all probability, when you have Getright or Flashget software installed in your machine, it is likely to cause this error. Open that software, and just uncheck the option "Monitor the clipboard", and come back to excel. Now it should be ok.

Just thought of sharing this with all of you.

Cheers
P.K.

Thanks PK for sharing this. never thought about 3rd party software causing suchs problems also.

I am experiencing this problem too. In my situation it is being caused on the host PC by terminal services (remote desktop). Host is running Windows XP service pack 2.  Excel: Excel 2000 ver 9.0.3821 SR-1.
RB

I had this problem and the errors have now stopped. When I opened Excel, I was prompted to save or delete 'recovered files'. If I deferred dealing with this, and chose 'I wish to view these files later' I got the error. Cleardown these recovered files at Excel startup, by either saving or deleting them. This sorted the problem for me immediately. Hope this helps,

LoveToSpod

Just as a note for anybody who comes across this thread, I was able to solve the same problem using roos01's code. Obviously had to type it by hand since copy-paste won't work when the clipboard is faulty! Once it was in, ran the macro and presto, the clipboard was working again.

Thanks!

-Bob

I had this same issue with Excel 2007.  Entered in Roos01 macro suggestion in this thread by hand, and it worked like a charm.  Thanks.

wow, I had to log in and thank roos01 for that macro. I dont know if its going to solve it forever but it works like a charm for now. I was looking for this solution at all the wrong places.

Thanks.

ANOTHER SOLUTION
If you happen to use any kind of remote control software, it can be the cause of this error as well.  The issue stems from the ability of these products to cut/copy/paste between the remote machine clipboard and the local machine clipboard.  I have heard of the problem occurring in VNC and I personally have experienced it using DameWare Mini Remote Control.  Shutting down all remote sessions allows Excel to function normally again.