16 Ways to Fix Copy and Paste Not Working in Windows 10

User Case: My Copy and Paste Is Not Working in Windows 10

"When I was using Excel, I found that copy and paste suddenly did not work. Although I could paste the corresponding values in the clipboard, it did not help me in my work. Then I found that copy and paste also did not work in Gmail, Word, Firefox, and other applications one after another. I'm not sure if it's a problem with Windows because I'm using the CMD tool to clear my clipboard history with no luck. Can anyone offer some professional advice? I am in a hurry to solve this problem."

Copy and paste is one of the most basic functions of Windows system, it has existed in the original Windows version, and this function is needed in both work and life. If there is a problem with the copy and paste function, in addition to the inability to copy and paste text as described in the case above, there will also be a problem with files not being transferred, which is very common in some users' feedback.

In order for your work efficiency not to be affected, it is recommended to solve the problem of text or files not being transferred by copy and paste as soon as possible. But before that, it is recommended that you understand the reasons why copy and paste does not work in Windows 10 so that you can better solve the problem.

Causes of Copy and Paste Not Working in Windows 10

When you don't know how to fix the Windows clipboard not working problem, consider starting with the cause. Here are the common causes of this problem.

• Windows 10 version is outdated
• Drivers are out of date
• Disk error or bad track
• Conflicts with Microsoft Office Add-ins
• Third-party anti-virus software blocks
• System files are corrupted or lost
• Computer virus attack
• Specific applications are faulty

16 Ways to Fix Copy and Paste Not Working in Windows 10

Fix my copy and paste not working in Windows 10? You can refer to the following 14 methods which can help you fix this problem as soon as possible. Before you start, you can check the keyboard link first. If there is a problem with the keyboard link, then it may also cause the problem of not being able to copy and paste in Windows 10.

In addition to using the Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V shortcuts, you can also copy and paste directly with the mouse to avoid the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10 caused by the keyboard.

Method 1. Restart the Computer and File Explorer

Restarting your computer can solve many problems. Therefore, when you encounter problems with copy and paste not working in Windows 10, you can try restarting your computer first and then try restarting File Explorer to solve the problem.

1. Tap the Start button on the leftmost side of the taskbar, tap the Power button in the expanded menu, and then select Restart.
2. Wait for the computer to restart and then try to copy and paste again.
3. If copy and paste still doesn't work, use Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
4. Right-click on Windows Explorer and select Restart in the expanded menu.

Method 2. Update Windows 10

Every Windows 10 update fixes some bugs that might fix the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10, and it's a worthwhile try anyway.

1. Use Windows + I to open Windows Settings, and click Update & Security.
2. In the Windows Update tab, confirm whether Windows 10 feature updates are available in the right panel, if so, please click Download and Install.
3. If there is no Windows 10 feature update available, please tap the Check for updates button.

4. After the Windows 10 feature update has finished downloading, restart your computer and wait for the update to complete.

Method 3. Update the Driver

When the keyboard driver has not been updated for a long time or is not compatible with the current Windows 10 version, it may cause the problem that copy and paste does not work in Windows 10. For this reason, you need to update the driver in time.

1. Right-click the Start button on the leftmost side of the taskbar and select Device Manager in the expanded menu.
2. Find and expand Keywords, right-click the keyboard you are currently using and select Update driver.

3. Select Search automatically for drivers and wait for the process to complete. If you find any available driver updates, please follow the prompts to update.

Method 4. Use CHKDSK Tool to Check the Disk

When there are errors or bad tracks on the disk, it may cause problems with copy and paste not working in Windows 10. Therefore, you need to check and repair the disk using the CHKDSK tool.

1. Use Windows + S to open the search box, type cmd and select Run as administrator.
2. In the command prompt character window, type chkdsk C: /f and press Enter to execute the command. Please replace C in the above command with the drive letter of the disk where the system is installed.

3. Press the Y button again to confirm the check at the next system reboot and restart your computer.

Method 5. Disable Send to Bluetooth Add-ins

Many Microsoft Office users install Send to Bluetooth add-in. But from the feedback collected from users, this add-in may cause the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10. Therefore, you need to disable this add-in, the following steps are for Microsoft Word as an example.

1. Open Microsoft Word and tap File at the top left.
2. Then tap Other at the bottom of the left menu, and tap Options.
3. In the Word Options window, switch to the Add-ins tab in the left panel. Find the Manage section in the right panel, switch to COM Add-ins, tap the Go button.
4. Uncheck the Send to Bluetooth check box, and tap OK button.

Method 6. Re-run Rdpclip.Exe

The rdpclip.exe file is called Remote Desktop Clipboard and allows the local computer and the remote computer to share clipboards. When there is a problem with this file, it may cause problems with copy and paste not working in Windows 10, at which point you can try running it again.

1. Use Ctrl + Shift + ESC to open Task Manager and switch to the Details tab at the top.
2. Find rdpclip.exe in the list below, right-click on it and select End task in the expanded menu.

3. Tap File in the upper left corner and select Run new task.
4. In the Create New Job window, type rdpclip.exe and click the OK button.

Note📝: If you do not find the rdpclip.exe handler in the Task Manager, then you can open it in Windows Explorer.

1. Use Windows + E to open the File Explorer and navigate to Local Disk C:/Windows/System32.
2. Find rdpclip.exe in System32. you can also click the search box in the upper right corner, type rdpclip, you can also find rdpclip.exe.
3. Right-click rdpclip.exe, select Run as administrator.

Method 7. Create A New User Account

1. Use Windows + I to open Windows Settings, and tap Accounts.
2. Switch to the Other users tab and tap Add someone else to this PC in the right panel.
3. Select Users in the left panel of the new window, tap More Actions in the right panel, and select New User.
4. In the New User window, enter the User name, Password and Confirm password, and click the Create button.

5. Restart your computer and switch to the newly created user account in the Windows login screen.

Method 8. Check and Disable Third-Party Anti-Virus Software

Although Windows Defender built into Windows 10 already has powerful antivirus features, many users are still accustomed to installing third-party antivirus software. In some cases, third-party antivirus software may block some features and cause some additional problems, such as the issue of copy and paste not working in Windows 10. In this case, you need to check and disable the third-party anti-virus software.

1. Tap the arrow in the notification area on the right side of the taskbar and find the third-party antivirus software.
2. Right-click it and select Exit in the expanded menu.
3. Use Ctrl + Shift + ESC to open Task Manager and switch to the Startup tab.
4. Find the third-party anti-virus software and tap the Disable button in the lower right corner.

Method 9. Check and Reinstall Specific Applications

Sometimes, the issue of copy and paste not working in Windows 10 exists only for specific applications and you need to check to confirm which applications experience this issue and reinstall those applications.

1. Check Microsoft Word, Excel, Paint and Webroot Security applications to make sure there are no copy and paste problems that do not work.
2. If this problem exists, please use Windows + R to open the execution window, type control and press Enter.
3. Tap Programs, then Programs and Features, and find the problematic application in the list.
4. Right-click on these applications, select Uninstall and follow the steps to uninstall them.

5. Go to the official website of these uninstalled applications from your browser again, download and install them again.

Method 10. Clear the History of the Clipboard

When the clipboard history is full, it will cause the copy function to fail and cause the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10. Therefore, you need to use the CMD tool to clear the clipboard history.

1. Use Windows + S to open the search box, type cmd and select Run as administrator.
2. In the Command Prompt window, type cmd/c "echo off | clip" and press Enter.

Method 15 Implementation of SFC and DISM

System File Checker (SFC) is mainly used to repair system files, and Deployment Image Service and Management tool (DISM) is mainly used to repair system images, these two tools together can help you solve the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10.

1. Use Windows + S to open the search box, type cmd and select Run as adminiatrator.
2. In the Command Prompt window, type sfc /scannow and press Enter.

3. Enter the following commands in turn, and press Enter to execute the commands respectively.

• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Method 11. Perform Windows Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting is a built-in utility in Windows 10 that can help you solve many problems. So, when you encounter problems with copy and paste not working in Windows 10, you can try to use Troubleshooter to unlock it.

1. Use Windows + S to open the search box, type Troubleshoot and press the Enter key.
2. Click Additional troubleshooters, and find Keyboard in the new window, and click Run the troubleshooter button.

3. Wait for the tool to detect the problem automatically, if there is a problem detected, please click the Repair button.

Method 12. Repair Internet Explorer

1. Use Windows + R to open the Execute window, type control and press Enter.
2. Click Programs, then click Programs and Features, and find Microsoft Internet Explorer.
3. Right-click Internet Explorer and select Change.
4. In the new window, select Repair Internet Explorer.

Method 13. Modify the Registry Editor

You can also fix the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10 by modifying the registry editor. However, since this method is more dangerous, it is recommended to make a system backup before starting the operation so that you can restore your system in time in case of any problems with your computer.

1. Use Windows + R to open the Execute window, type regedit and press Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Clipboard.
3. Find IsCloudAndHistoryFeatureAvailable in the right panel, and tap and double-click this button.
4. In the edit window, change the numeric data to 1 and confirm that the base is Hexadecimal, then tap the OK button.

Method 14. Scan and Remove Viruses

1. Use Windows + S to open the search box and type in Windows Security.
2. In the Windows Security window, click Virus & threat protection.
3. In the Current threats section, tap Scan options, select Full scan, and tap the Scan now button.

Method 15. Reset this PC

1. Use Windows + I to open Windows Settings and click Update & Security.
2. Switch to the Recovery tab in the left panel, find Reset this PC in the right panel, and tap the Get started button.

3. In the Reset this PC window, select the Keep my files option and follow the prompts to reset it.

Note📝: The system will install the drivers automatically when the network is clear, but sometimes there are errors. Therefore, you can install these drivers manually if necessary.

Method 16. Using Third-Party Clipboard Applications

If all the above methods do not help you to solve the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10, then you can also use third-party clipboard applications such as Comfort Clipboard Pro, CLIPBOARD MASTER, DITTO, etc. instead, which can effectively avoid this problem.

Faster Way to Transfer Large Files or Large Volumes of Files

The problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10 will seriously affect your experience and cause your work to stop. So you need to use the 16 methods provided in this article to fix it and get the copy and paste function back to normal as soon as possible.

Please note that if you encounter the problem of not being able to transfer files on Copy & Paste, and you need to transfer large or large files, then we recommend you to use AOMEI Backupper Standard's File Sync feature, which not only can effectively avoid the problem of not being able to transfer files on Copy & Paste, but also can save more time and effort.

AOMEI Backupper Standard, a free and professional file synchronization software, has the following advantages:

💥 The compatibility is very good. You can use this software for file synchronization on Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, etc.
💥 Allows you to synchronize files or folders between two directories. You can choose to sync files to an external hard drive, USB drive, or cloud storage. If you have a work team and want to share an archive to other team members, you can also choose to sync the file to a network location, using the shared folder as the destination location.
💥 You can enable the regular auto-sync function, just set the auto-sync schedule in advance to automatically sync files on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to prevent various problems caused by forgetting to sync files.

Next, we will introduce you the operation steps of file sync in detail with Windows 10 as an example.

1. Run AOMEI Backupper Standard, tap the Sync tab on the left, and select Basic Sync in the right panel.

2. Tap the Add Folder button and select the folder you want to synchronize. In addition, you can tap the pencil icon in the upper left corner to modify the name of this task to distinguish it from other tasks.

3. Set the sync destination to another drive and tap the Start Sync button.

Tip: Before you start syncing, you can tap the Options and Schedule Sync button in the bottom left corner.
Options: You can enable email notifications that will notify you when a sync job is completed. In addition, you can check the box to synchronize deletion jobs from the source directory to the target directory and to verify the integrity of the target directory archive during synchronization.
Schedule Sync. You can enable timed sync and set daily, weekly, monthly auto-sync for free. And when upgrading to the Pro version, you can also choose to auto-sync on event triggers and USB plug in.

4. In the Basic Sync process, you can click the underlined statement to view the detailed process of synchronization. Wait for this process to complete, and then click Finish button.

In addition to basic synchronization, AOMEI Backupper has other features that may be of interest to you.

• The software offers a file backup feature that helps to keep files safe as it can back up important files and folders to other disks or devices by compressing file cases and can only be viewed and modified by restoring them.
• If you create an AOMEI account, you are able to backup files to AOMEI Cloud. It offers you 1TB free storage for 15 days after you sign up for an AOMEI account.
• If you upgrade to the Pro version, you can also use the Live Sync, Mirror Sync and Bi-directional Sync features to make the archive synchronization process easier and save you further time.
• If you upgrade to Pro version, you can also use the System Clone feature to copy or transfer your current computer's Windows system to an SSD or other disk and ensure a secure boot.

Summary

If you are baffled by the problem of copy and paste not working in Windows 10, please read this article in detail to understand the exact cause and fix it with the 16 methods provided in this article to ensure the copy and paste function will be back to normal as soon as possible.

Since Windows 10's built-in copy and paste speed is slow, it will take a lot of time when you want to transfer large files or a large number of files, so we recommend you to use AOMEI Backupper Standard for file synchronization to save the time of file transfer. AOMEI Backupper Standard offers you a free and professional file synchronization service, and it is easy to use, even if you are a beginner, you can easily synchronize all your files to other locations.