Excel Copy Paste Bug: Is Your Office Version Fixed Yet?

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Microsoft has partly fixed their Excel copy paste bug in some versions of Office but left others broken or with an incomplete fix. Microsoft’s documentation is more than a little confusing but it seems most versions of Excel have been fixed. Microsoft 365 was never affected. Confused? Here is the full list so you can check your version in under a minute and decide whether to roll back, wait or work around it.

The Microsoft Excel copy/paste bug troubled many users and the company’s response was both slow and fragmented.  So Office Watch decided to make a summary page showing which versions of Office are affected, partly fixed or completely fixed.

Microsoft’s September 2026 security update broke Excel’s copy and paste for users across Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2024, including the LTSC versions. Update KB5002914, released on September 8, 2026 silently kills paste operations with no error message and no warning, creating a serious data integrity risk.

See Excel Copy and Paste Broken by Microsoft’s Own Security Update — How to Fix It

It took about two weeks for Microsoft to fix the bug.

Last updated: 23 September 2026

The issue is now fixed in all versions

According to Microsoft “The issue is now fixed in all versions.” but their documentation isn’t entirely clear.

They say these versions of Office have been fixed.

  • Office LTSC 2024 was fixed in Build 17932.21000.
  • Office LTSC 2021 was fixed in Build 14334.20918.
  • Office LTSC 2019 was fixed in Build 10417.20211.
  • Office 2016 was fixed in the latest version of KB 5002665.
  • Office Online Server was fixed in KB 4461632.

Only the LTSC versions of Office are mentioned, not the more common Office 2024/2021/2019 releases. Usually the standard and LTSC releases are listed separately but in this case customers are supposed to assume the company is referring to both.

Partial workaround

If you can’t update your Excel there’s a Microsoft’s workaround comes with a downside the company does not mention.

They say that you can bypass their bug by using Paste Special with Formulas, Formulas & Number Formatting, Values, Values & Number Formatting, or Paste Link.

Excel Paste Special dialog box showing options for pasting content and operations. : Office-Watch.com

Microsoft ‘forgets’ the downsides of their supposed workaround. Paste Special strips important details from what you copied and is slow. Paste Special with Values loses your formulas. Paste Special with Formulas loses cell formatting. Anyone doing this many times a day is losing real time and might not paste everything that’s needed.

Keyboard shortcut worth memorizing while this lasts: Ctrl+Alt+V opens Paste Special directly.

Copy/paste in Excel was never affected

  • Microsoft 365 for Windows was never affected.
  • Excel for Mac (any version) was never affected.

If you have not read the original coverage, Excel Copy and Paste Broken by Microsoft’s Own Security Update has the exact commands to remove the patch on both MSI and Click to Run installs, plus the build numbers to roll back to. The bug arrived as part of a much larger batch, and September 2026 Patch Tuesday: 20 Critical Office Bugs to Fix Now covers what else landed on your PC that day.

Rolling back only helps if you know what you are rolling back. Is my Microsoft Office .MSI or Click to Run takes about thirty seconds and decides which set of instructions applies to you.

Once you are back on a working build, Office will happily reinstall the broken one within days unless you stop it. Two ways to stop Office automatic updates shows both methods, and Microsoft Office Updates: A No-Win Scenario and How to Stay Safe makes the case for simply waiting a week before you accept any Office patch.

Stuck on a locked down work PC with Paste Special as your only option? It is worth learning properly. Excel Paste Special with math operations shows the tricks most people never discover, and New Paste Values keyboard shortcut for Excel covers the faster shortcuts that save you a trip to the dialog box. If conditional formatting is the reason your paste still fails, Excel Conditional Formatting, beyond the presets explains what those rules actually do to a worksheet.

Whether you get a fix at all now depends on which version you own. Office 2016 Still Gets Security Updates: Check If Yours Qualifies and Office 2019 Is Still Getting Security Updates, But Only for Some both explain the awkward truth that Microsoft is patching some customers and quietly ignoring others.