Many times when working in the Excel following errors may be encountered –
> We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard. Another program might be using it right now
> The clipboard cannot be emptied. Another program might be using the clipboard
Below are the steps which you can undertake to solve this particular problem –
1. In most of the cases, Skype plug-in installed in browsers was found to be a problem. Hence, close all instances of IE, Firefox, Chrome and other browsers if Skype plug-in is installed and see if problem disappears. If it disappears, you will have to either keep all instances of browers closed or you will have to disable Skype plug-in in browers
2. GetRight /Flashgot are known applications which cause this kind of troubles. You will have to open the options in these applications and uncheck ""Monitor the Clipboard"". Windows snipping tool also sometimes cause the above problem. Open Snipping tool > Options > Uncheck "Always copy snips to the clipboard". MS Outlook is another known culprit. Shut down MS Outlook and see whether it impacts. TWimber (source –http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_365hp-excel/excel-error-we-couldnt-free-up-space-on-the/0ebf3553-996b-44e1-87b3-3b72bad5f09e) lists down following applications which can cause conflict with Excel for clipboard –
Bing Desktop (fixed?)
ZoneAlarm
MS Internet Explorer 11
MS Outlook
Google Earth
Google Earth Pro
NetGear Genie
Chrome
NoteTab
ZA Extreme Security 13.3.209
TightVNC
Jabra Direct
Skitch
Dropbox
Skype
Teamviewer
Ask Toolbar
MultiMon Taskbar
Real VNC Server
Download Accelerators (As per input of Arunas)
Free Download Manager
M8 Clipboard (Freeclip)
ArcView
Quantum GIS (QGIS)
MapWindow
You need to look for other applications also as the above list is not exhaustive. The above list is of those applications which are usual culprit.
3. If above are not the case, it is time for some detective work. Start your Task Manager by CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or by CTRL+ALT+DELETE and choose Start Task Manager (or right click on Windows Task Bar and choose Start Task Manager). Look into Processes tab. Remote Desktop applications are known culprit. You can try locating rdpclip.exe and kill it. Also look for other applications as listed above in point 2. If these are not part of processes tab, then you have to do detective work. Now kill the processes one by one and monitor whether the problem has disappeared or not. After killing the process, restart your Excel to determine if problem has disappeared or not. This way you will be able to locate the culprit process / application.
4. Type msconfig.exe in search program/files box above Windows icon (bottom left), look into Services tab and check ""Hide all Microsoft Services"" to hide Microsoft Services from the list. You can disable / enable services one by one as in step 2 and monitor whether the problem has disappeared or not. After disbling a service, restart your Excel to determine if problem has disappeared or not. This way you will be able to locate the culprit service. If you don't prefer msconfig.exe route, you can click on Services tab on Task Manager (in step 2). At the bottom, you will notice Services button. This button can be clicked to reach to all Services. Here, also you can stop and start services to locate culprit service.
A good discussion is at following link – http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-excel/the-clipboard-cannot-be-emptied-in-excel/4b367423-6c7b-4fc7-9203-23c866255d60
Check here https://flipboard.com/@dspirou/pc-troubleshooting-e2sgdchqy There is a solution posted that works to all versions (I have Win10 and Excel 2016 and also worked)
Thanks for this. I have been plagued for a few months with this Excel problem. In the past disabling Skype plugins or closing Skype worked, but not this time. I actually skipped down to #4 and unchecked all things that I did not need in startup…needed to do that anyway to speed up startup. Anyway, I had Able2Extract, icloud, itunes, and a couple other things that had been loaded into startup when I began to use a new program. After they were gone, I rebooted and before opening any additional programs, I tried copying and pasting several times then opened an app trying excel in between opening each app. Looks like that solved my problem. I would put the #4 before #3.
After reading the list of applications which can cause conflict with Excel for clipboard I first switched off Outlook, but it didn't help. Then I crawled the list and tried exiting the Download Accelerator – it helped!
I want to stress, that most of links, searching for help with this issue didn't even guide to the right direction (most of the are blaming Bing Desktop (which is first in the list), then multiple claims that disabling ZoneAlarm also helped, but most of people were complaining that neither Bing or ZA is installed and issue still occur. So this post with a list of multiple apps to check is probably best guidance – at least one can try multiple options to find out which one would work.
One thing is true – Excel issue with Clipboard can be caused my very different applications, hence there is no single best answer. Try the list and be creative (my Download Accelerator was not the same as in the list, but this clue helped me!).
Thanks for your input. I will update the post with your answer. (Free download Manager is in the list which is one of the download accelerators)
thnx 4 help i have done my problem after disabling snipping tool
I was having the same problem and getting the same error msg in Excel 2016, Win 10 (64). I wasn't even using the clipboard, all I was doing was moving some cells to another cell, and every move of one cell got the error msg which I had to clear every time! Clearing the clipboard did not help, but shutting off Outlook solved the problem. Obviously, most users cannot leave Outlook shut off for long. I am going to run the Outlook Repair Tool "scanpst.exe" as it often fixes Outlook problems. You will have to find where the scanpst.exe file is on your computer, and you must run it and do repairs several times until you get a msg that only minor inconsistencies are left.
Try disabling WMIC on startup. worked for me
startup menu clearing helped. Thanks for idea !
Finally a solution! I had this problem for years, I even got used to it. Hit enter after every copy/paste or cell move in order to respond to the error message.I was so quick at it that the message sometimes didn't appear (but the problem was there, because you could notice the slow reaction to the move or c/v).
MS didn't do much about it, while it is definitely an Excel problem, other MS products work fine.
For the first time in your article I see a list of possible programs causing this issue, and there it was: Zonealarm.
I stopped ZA and the problem was gone. Unbelievable! I never expected ZA to be of any influence to this Excel problem.
THANKS!
Rudi