Somewhere inside the September 2026 Office updates, Microsoft shot itself in the foot again. Excel decided that copying and pasting cells was no longer part of its job :)
The bug is simple. Press Ctrl+C. Select another cell. Press Ctrl+V. Nothing happens. The copied cells keep their moving border. The target cell stays empty. Excel shows no error and gives no warning. Very Windows: quiet, confident, and completely unhelpful.
Microsoft has confirmed the problem in KB5002914. It can affect Excel 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024. AutoFill, formula dragging, and number series can also fail.
Maybe a future Office update will bring back copy and paste. Or maybe Microsoft will call it Excel Copy/Paste Plus, add an AI button, and sell it as a new feature. Until then, here is how to fix the real problem.
The good news: the failure is recoverable.
This article covers Windows perpetual/volume Office installations. Test on one machine first, especially if you manage a fleet.
Symptoms of issue
The affected machine usually has all or most of these symptoms:
Copying and pasting inside Excel fails silently
Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V works in Notepad or other applications
The copied Excel cells remain selected, but the destination does not change
Dragging the fill handle does not extend 1, 2, 3, 4... correctly
Dragging formulas or copying ranges can produce incorrect or missing results
This distinction matters. If copying fails everywhere, investigate the keyboard, clipboard service, RDP redirection, endpoint protection, or a third-party clipboard manager. If it fails only in Excel, this Office regression is a strong candidate.
Confirm the Office installation type
Run PowerShell as Administrator:
$paths = @(
'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration',
'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration'
)
$paths | Where-Object { Test-Path $_ } | ForEach-Object {
Get-ItemProperty $_ |
Select-Object ProductReleaseIds, VersionToReport, Platform, ClientFolder
}
Typical output:
ProductReleaseIds : Standard2021Volume
VersionToReport : 16.0.14334.20914
Platform : x64
If this returns nothing, the Office installation may be MSI-based. Check installed products instead:
Get-ItemProperty `
'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*',
'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' `
-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -match 'Microsoft Office|Microsoft 365' } |
Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion
Recovery option 1: Office 2016 MSI
For the MSI edition of Office 2016, the offending Excel security update is KB5002914. Its removal restored normal copy/paste behaviour in affected installations.
First verify that the update is present in installed programs, or that EXCEL.EXE is the affected build. Then remove KB5002914 by using Settings → Apps → Installed apps (or Control Panel → Programs and Features → View installed updates).
After removal, reboot and test Excel again.
Do not blindly uninstall Windows cumulative updates. KB5002914 is the Office/Excel update; it is not the same thing as a Windows LCU.
Recovery option 2: Click-to-Run Office 2019, 2021, or 2024
Click-to-Run Office does not let you uninstall one individual Office patch. The usual remedy is to move the entire Office installation to the last known-good build.
The following target builds were the pre-incident Volume Licensed builds:
Product:
Office 2019 Volume - 16.0.10417.20197
Office LTSC 2021 Volume - 16.0.14334.20848
Office LTSC 2024 Volume - 16.0.17932.20910
Microsoft documents the supported Office Deployment Tool (ODT) method for reverting Click-to-Run Office. If you are managing a large environment, use ODT, Group Policy, or your endpoint-management platform rather than improvising a different build number at 2 AM. Future-you deserves at least that much respect.
A practical automation script
For small and medium environments, I published a PowerShell helper that:
- detects Office 2019/2021/2024 Volume Click-to-Run editions;
- detects the Office 2016 MSI case;
- sets the appropriate approved target build for Click-to-Run;
- starts the installed Office Click-to-Run client;
- waits for the expected build and stops on unsupported products.
GitHUB Repository: Excel-CopyPaste-Issue-Fixer
Replace that URL with your real repository URL before publishing this post.
Run it from an elevated PowerShell window:
powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File '.\Excel-CopyPaste-Issue-Fixer.ps1'
-ExecutionPolicy Bypass applies only to that PowerShell process. It does not permanently loosen the machine's execution-policy setting.
Stop the bad update from returning
Fixing one PC is pleasant. Fixing it again the next morning because the same package redeployed is performance art.
In your patch-management product, temporarily exclude the exact package that upgraded the affected Office family. Search for the version/build reported by the affected endpoint and create an Ignore/Exclude rule for that package. Examples from this incident include:
- KB5002914 for Office 2016 MSI;
- Office 2019 package containing build 10417.20207;
- Office 2021 package containing build 14334.20906 or the later affected deployment build observed in your estate;
- Office 2024 package containing build 17932.20976
Use the exact package name shown in your own patch console, not only the examples above. Packaging labels vary between patch vendors.
Keep the exclusion temporary. This was a security update, and rolling back means accepting a security trade-off until Microsoft publishes a corrected update. Monitor the official KB and Office release notes, test the replacement on a pilot machine, then remove the exclusion.
Verification checklist
After the rollback and reboot:
- Confirm the Office build:
(Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration').VersionToReport
In Excel, type 1 and 2 in adjacent cells, select both, and drag the fill handle down.
Copy a cell containing a formula and paste it elsewhere.
Copy/paste a range within the same worksheet and into another workbook.
Confirm that Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V still works in Notepad, because at this point we are allowed one boring control test.
References
- Microsoft: KB5002914 — Excel security update and known issue
- Microsoft: Revert to an earlier version of Office
- Microsoft: Office security update release notes
Until there is an official repair package, rollback plus a temporary patch exclusion is the least glamorous, most effective answer. Which is, admittedly, a very Windows way to solve a Windows problem.
