Microsoft has released a fix for a known issue that caused copy-and-paste failures for some Excel users after they installed the September 2026 KB5002914 security update. The problem, which Microsoft described as a code regression, affected Excel Online and the Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016 versions. Customers reported the trouble in waves on the Microsoft Q&A forums and Reddit. Microsoft confirmed the issue earlier this week.
According to Microsoft, paste operations failed silently. The content a user tried to paste never reached its destination, the source text stayed selected, and no beep or error message appeared to signal the failure. Reports from users said the update also broke autofill and formula dragging. The company has now shipped update KB5002665 to address the copy-and-paste problem, but the fix only resolves it for Excel 2016 users.
Microsoft said the mitigation applies solely to the Microsoft Installer, or .msi, edition of Office 2016. It does not cover Office 2016 Click-to-Run editions, such as Microsoft Office 365 Home. A support document released on Wednesday states that the update fixes the known issue in KB5002914 that causes certain paste operations to fail silently. Microsoft also said it is aware of some user scenarios impacted by conditional formatting and recommends customers follow its guidance.
Until a permanent solution ships for all affected Excel versions, Microsoft advises impacted customers to use the Paste Special option. Users can select Paste Special from the Paste drop-down on the Home tab, or use the Ctrl+Alt+V keyboard shortcut, and then choose what to paste. The available choices include Formula, Formula and number formats, Values, Values and number formats, and Paste Link.
Affected users have also reported that uninstalling the KB5002914 security update restores copy-and-paste functionality on impacted systems. Microsoft cautioned that removing the update also strips out a long list of patches for remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities. The removal requires opening a Command Prompt window with the Run as administrator option and running a command that differs by Office version.
For Office 2016, the command targets Oarpmany.exe in the OFFICE16 shared folder with a removereleaseinpatch flag. For Office 2019, the command runs OfficeC2RClient.exe with an update user flag pointing to version 16.0.10417.20197. For Office 2021 and 2024, the same client is used with version 16.0.20326.20132. The source article notes that Microsoft fixed several unrelated Office issues earlier this year, including one in June that blocked Windows 365 users from downloading and installing the Office suite.
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