Microsoft Fixes Excel Copy-and-Paste Bug Caused by September 2026 Update

Microsoft has fixed a known issue that caused copy-and-paste operations to fail for some Excel users after installing the September 2026 security update KB5002914.

Customers reported through the Microsoft Q&A Forum and Reddit that KB5002914 caused copy and paste, autofill, and formula-dragging features to stop working in Excel.

Excel paste operations failed silently

“When a user attempts to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination remains unchanged,” Microsoft said in its support documentation.

Microsoft also confirmed the issue in a service alert, blaming a code regression. When the bug occurred, users did not receive an error message, warning, or even a beep indicating that the paste operation had failed.

The issue affected Excel 2024, Excel 2021, Excel 2019, and Excel 2016. However, Microsoft’s initial hotfix resolves the problem only for Excel 2016 users.

KB5002665 fixes the issue for Office 2016 MSI editions

Microsoft released update KB5002665 to address the problem in Microsoft Installer (.msi)-based editions of Office 2016.

“This update fixes a known issue in KB5002914 that causes certain paste operations to fail silently,” Microsoft says in its support document.

The fix does not apply to Click-to-Run editions of Office 2016, including Microsoft Office 365 Home. Microsoft also said that some user scenarios involving conditional formatting remain under review and encouraged customers to follow its guidance.

Microsoft recommends Paste Special as a workaround

Until a permanent solution is available for all affected Excel versions, Microsoft advised users to try the Paste Special option.

To use it, open the Home tab, select the Paste dropdown, and choose Paste Special. Users can also press Ctrl+Alt+V to select whether to paste formulas, formulas and number formats, values, values and number formats, or links.

Uninstalling KB5002914 restores Excel copy and paste

Affected Excel users have also reported that uninstalling the KB5002914 security update restores copy-and-paste functionality on impacted systems.

However, removing the update also removes a long list of patches for remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities. Users should therefore consider the security risks before uninstalling it.

To remove the update, open a Command Prompt window with administrator privileges and run the command corresponding to your Office version:

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

Microsoft previously addressed another issue in June that prevented Windows 365 users from downloading and installing the Office suite. It also fixed a separate problem that stopped Office on the web users from opening Excel and PowerPoint files.

In July, Microsoft fixed an issue in modern Windows systems that prevented third-party applications from launching Microsoft Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, or opening related documents. The issue was documented in the Windows 11 KB5101649 release notes.

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