Microsoft has confirmed that its September 2026 KB5002914 security update can cause copy and paste to fail silently in Excel. The problem affects Microsoft Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016, according to the company. Users first reported the issue in large numbers on Reddit and the Microsoft Q&A forums. The reports described copy-and-paste, autofill, and formula dragging all breaking after the update was installed.
Microsoft described the failure in an updated support document. The company said that when a user tries to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination does not change. No beep, error message, or other indication alerts the user that the paste did not work. Microsoft said it is researching the issue and will add more information to the support article when it becomes available.
Until a fix is released, users who are affected have reported that removing KB5002914 restores copy-and-paste functionality on their systems. Microsoft's guidance calls for opening a new Command Prompt window with the Run as administrator option and running a command that varies by Office version. For Office 2016, the command points to Oarpmany.exe in the OFFICE16 folder under Common Files and removes a specific release in patch. For Office 2019, the command uses OfficeC2RClient.exe to roll the update back to version 16.0.10417.20197. For Office 2021 and 2024, the same tool is used to roll back to version 16.0.20326.20132.
Microsoft shipped KB5002914 last week as part of its September 2026 Patch Tuesday. The update addressed a long list of remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities. The copy-and-paste defect is the latest in a series of Office and Windows problems Microsoft has worked through in recent months. In July, the company fixed an issue that stopped third-party applications from launching Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and other Office apps or opening documents on up-to-date Windows systems.
A month before that, Microsoft addressed a bug that blocked Office for the web users from opening Excel and PowerPoint files. It also fixed a separate problem that prevented Windows 365 users from downloading and installing the Office suite. On Monday, Microsoft released emergency out-of-band updates to resolve Remote Desktop Services failures tied to the September 2026 security updates, along with Hyper-V and USB audio problems on some Windows versions.
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