Microsoft Broke Excel Copy and Paste, Now the Fix Is Finally Here

Microsoft has released fixes for an Excel bug that caused copy-and-paste operations to fail after installing the September 2026 security updates.

The issue appeared after updates including KB5002914 and also affected autofill and formula dragging in some Excel versions.

Microsoft releases fixes for affected Excel versions

Microsoft says the problem affects Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016, along with Excel Online in Office Online Server.

When the bug occurs, Excel can fail to paste content without showing an error. The source cells remain selected, while the destination stays unchanged.

Microsoft has now released fixes for the affected Office versions. Users need to install the appropriate update manually:

• Office 2016: KB5002665
• Office LTSC 2019: Build 10417.20208
• Office LTSC 2021: Build 14334.20918
• Office LTSC 2024: Build 17932.21000

Microsoft provides the Office 2016 update directly, while users can get the newer LTSC builds through the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Conditional formatting can still break copy and paste

The fix does not completely resolve the problem in every case.

Microsoft warns that Office 2016 and Office LTSC 2019 users may still experience paste failures when workbooks contain conditional formatting.

A permanent fix for that specific scenario is not yet available. Microsoft recommends using Paste Special as a temporary workaround.

In other news, Microsoft is retiring its companion apps and Grok is coming to Microsoft Office.

Via BleepingComputer