Office Settings & Configuration

How to Fix the Excel or Office Clipboard Full Error

Steve K Sep 28, 2026 872 views

Question details

The user is encountering a persistent 'Clipboard is full' error message in Excel or Office, which does not go away even after clicking 'Clear All' in the Clipboard pane.

How to Fix the Excel or Office Clipboard Full Error

Product: Microsoft Excel / Office
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Copying data between sheets or documents when the system or Office clipboard reaches its maximum capacity or gets locked.
Observed behavior: The 'Clipboard is full' warning keeps popping up repeatedly, and the built-in 'Clear All' function fails to resolve the issue, requiring changes to system or administrator settings.

Before you start

Save all your open documents and close any non-essential background applications, especially those that monitor or manage the system clipboard, such as download managers or screen capture tools.

Solution 1Recommended

Clear the Office Clipboard and Restart Applications

The first and easiest method is to manually clear the clipboard history from within the Office application and perform a fresh restart to free up locked memory.

Open the Clipboard Pane

Navigate to the 'Home' tab in your Excel or Word ribbon. Click the dialog box launcher (the small diagonal arrow) located in the bottom-right corner of the 'Clipboard' group.

Clear All Clipboard Data

In the Clipboard task pane that opens on the left, click the 'Clear All' button at the top to delete all saved copied items.

Restart the Office Application

Save your current work and close all Microsoft Office applications completely. Reopen your document to check if the clipboard full error has stopped appearing.

Clear the Office Clipboard and Restart Applications

Quick Tip: To prevent the clipboard pane from popping up automatically in the future, click 'Options' at the bottom of the pane and uncheck 'Show Office Clipboard Automatically'.

Solution 2

Adjust Administrator or Windows Policy Settings

If clearing the clipboard does not work, third-party software or system-level administrative policies may be locking your clipboard access.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the 'Clipboard is full' error happen in Excel?

This error generally occurs when you copy too many large items (like high-resolution images or extensive data ranges) and the allocated memory for the Office Clipboard, which holds up to 24 items, is completely exhausted or locked by another app.

How do I stop the clipboard pane from popping up automatically?

Open the Clipboard pane by clicking the arrow in the Home tab's Clipboard group. Click on 'Options' at the bottom of the pane, and uncheck 'Show Office Clipboard Automatically' and 'Show Office Clipboard When Ctrl+C Pressed Twice'.

Can background apps cause the Office clipboard to freeze?

Yes. Background applications such as remote desktop clients, download managers, or screen capture tools can lock the Windows system clipboard. This prevents Office from clearing it properly, resulting in the persistent 'full' error.

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