Microsoft confirms Excel copy-and-paste bug after KB5002914 update

Microsoft has confirmed that copy and paste may fail silently for some Excel users after installing the September 2026 security update KB5002914.

Reports from customers on Reddit and the Microsoft Q&A forum indicate that KB5002914 prevents copy and paste, autofill, and formula dragging from working in Excel.

“When a user attempts to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination remains unchanged,” Microsoft says in an updated support document.

“When this issue occurs, users will not receive any information indicating the failure, such as a beep or error message. Microsoft is investigating this issue and will post more information in this article as it becomes available.”

Which Excel versions are affected?

According to a Microsoft service alert seen by BleepingComputer, the issue affects Microsoft Excel 2024, Excel 2021, Excel 2019, and Excel 2016. Microsoft says the problem was caused by a regression in the code included in a recent service update.

“Development and validation of separate fixes for each affected version is underway. Estimated resolution timelines will be communicated as they become available.”

How to restore Excel copy and paste

While Microsoft works on a permanent fix, affected Excel users have reported that uninstalling or rolling back KB5002914 restores copy-and-paste functionality on affected systems.

To do this, open a new Command Prompt window using the Run as administrator option, then run the command for your version of Office:

Office 2016:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\Oarpmany.exe" /removereleaseinpatch "{90160000-0012-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}" "{27882596-A8ED-4382-9C71-6CD2DD19F732}" "1033" "0"

Office 2019:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.10417.20197

Office 2021 & 2024:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.20326.20132

KB5002914 caused other Office-related problems

Microsoft released the KB5002914 security update last week as part of the September 2026 Patch Tuesday release, which addressed a long list of remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities.

In July, Microsoft fixed another issue that prevented third-party applications from launching Microsoft Office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access or opening documents on modern Windows systems.

A month ago, Microsoft also addressed a bug that prevented Office for the web users from opening Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as another issue that blocked Windows 365 users from downloading and installing the Office suite.

On Monday, Microsoft released an emergency out-of-band update to resolve Remote Desktop Services failures caused by the September 2026 security update, along with Hyper-V and USB audio issues on some Windows versions.

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