Microsoft’s Excel Paste Fix Leaves Most Versions Waiting

Microsoft has patched a silent Excel copy-and-paste failure on MSI Office 2016, eight days after a security update broke it. The repair is KB5002665, dated September 16, 2026. It does not cover Click-to-Run Office 2016, and Microsoft still has not named a fixed build for retail Excel 2019, 2021, or 2024.

The original pack, KB5002914, shipped on September 8, 2026 and closed Excel remote code execution and information disclosure flaws. Users then found paste, autofill, and formula dragging dead, with no beep and no error.

KB5002914 Broke Paste Without a Beep

Microsoft later said the paste break was a code regression. In Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016, and in Excel Online in Office Online Server, a paste can fail while looking as if nothing happened. The source cell stays selected. The destination does not change.

Although users try to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination is unmodified. When this issue occurs, users receive no indication of the failure, such as an error message or alert with sound.

Microsoft, Excel known-issues page

That silence is what made help desks light up. A freeze at least stops the job. A quiet miss lets someone close a workbook thinking a range moved when it never did. Users on Microsoft Q&A also described autofill and drag-fill dying on the same machines after the September 8 pack.

Microsoft added the defect to the KB5002914 notes on September 10, 2026. The company pointed people at Paste Special and, for some installs, at ripping the security update back out.

Office LTSC 2024 Is Fixed, Retail 2024 Is Not

On September 18, 2026, Microsoft updated its Excel known-issues page. The paste operations might fail silently notice still applies to Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016. The status block underneath is narrower than that list.

EXCEL PASTE STATUS BY BUILD

Fixed, in Microsoft’s wording, means Office LTSC 2024 at build 17932.21000 and Office LTSC 2021 at build 14334.20918. Mitigated means Office LTSC 2019 at build 10417.20208 and Office 2016 with KB5002665. On both mitigated lines, paste can still fail when the workbook uses conditional formatting.

Retail Excel 2024, 2021, and 2019 sit in the “Applies To” line and do not appear in either status list. Some users say later September builds restored paste on those SKUs. Microsoft has not written a build number next to them. Volume LTSC, the long-term channel companies buy for stability, got the named repairs first.

The MSI Hotfix Leaves Click-to-Run 2016 Out

The September 16 update for Excel 2016 is the only package Microsoft titled as a paste repair. The support note is blunt. The Download Center file is for the Microsoft Installer edition of Office 2016. It does not apply to Office 2016 Click-to-Run editions, and the example Microsoft gives is Microsoft Office 365 Home, the old Click-to-Run branding, not current Microsoft 365 Apps.

That split matters in shops that still mix perpetual Office 2016. MSI volume installs, the kind IT used to image onto PCs from a disc or network share, can take KB5002665. Click-to-Run 2016 cannot. Microsoft 365 Apps never appear on the known-issues list at all, which is why a lot of subscription desks never saw a ticket.

Even on MSI Excel 2016, the hotfix is incomplete. If the sheet uses conditional formatting, paste can keep failing after KB5002665. Microsoft says it is researching that leftover and will add more detail when it has some. Until then, the same Paste Special path it offered for the original bug is the fallback.

Support for Office 2016 Ended in October 2025

Office 2016 reached the end of support on October 14, 2025. Microsoft’s public line at the time was that there would be no extension and no extended security updates. The product would keep opening files. It would not keep getting fixes.

Then the servicing pages changed tone. On the MSI Office updates page, Microsoft now says it may, at its sole discretion, updates to Office 2016 after October 2025. Those extra packs have been landing on MSI Office 2016, not on the Click-to-Run flavour most home copies use.

Support for Office 2016 ended on October 14, 2025. However, at Microsoft’s sole discretion, we may choose to issue one or more updates to Office 2016 after October 14, 2025.

Microsoft, Office MSI release notes

THE PASTE BUG CALENDAR

1. October 14, 2025: Support for Office 2016 ends.
2. September 8, 2026: KB5002914 ships and closes Excel security flaws.
3. September 10, 2026: Microsoft lists silent paste failure as a known issue.
4. September 16, 2026: KB5002665 lands for MSI Excel 2016, 11 months after end of support.
5. September 18, 2026: The known-issues page names LTSC 2024 and LTSC 2021 as fixed, and LTSC 2019 and Office 2016 as mitigated.

So the one Excel 2016 paste hotfix Microsoft put a KB number on arrived for a product it had already retired, on the installer model it still chooses to touch. Click-to-Run 2016, named in the same support article as out of scope, does not get that file.

Rolling Back Reopens 29 Excel Flaws

KB5002914 was not a quality-of-life patch. Microsoft’s Excel 2016 security note lists 29 CVE advisories. The summary at the top calls them remote code execution and information disclosure issues. The update replaces the earlier Excel 2016 security pack 5002886.

One of those entries, CVE-2026-81399, is a buffer over-read in Microsoft Excel that can disclose information locally, scored 5.5 Medium. Others on the same list are written up as heap overflows, use-after-free, and integer overflow bugs that let an attacker run code if a user opens a crafted workbook. That is the usual Excel mail-and-open path, not a theoretical API issue.

WHAT A ROLLBACK GIVES UP

• The count: KB5002914 lists 29 Excel CVE advisories on the September 8, 2026 security page.
• The classes: Microsoft groups them as remote code execution and information disclosure.
• The replacement: The pack supersedes Excel 2016 security update 5002886.
• The catch for IT: Uninstalling it to restore paste also removes those closures until a later build is confirmed.

Help threads filled with commands to strip the patch. MSI Office 2016 can remove KB5002914 through the Office patch tool. Click-to-Run copies cannot drop one Office patch; they have to step the whole suite back to an older build. People did both, because paste is daily work and a security bulletin is not.

That is a bad bargain if the sheet you needed to paste was itself the file someone mailed you. The same update that broke Ctrl+V was the one that hardened Excel against a poisoned workbook. Keeping the broken clipboard and using Paste Special is the option that does not reopen those 29 items.

Why a Silent Paste Failure Is Worse Than a Crash

Excel crashing after a patch is obvious. This bug is not. Microsoft’s own write-up says there is no error message and no alert with sound. The marching ants can still sit on the source. The destination cell looks as if you never tried.

In a finance or ops workbook, that is how numbers vanish without a trace. A clerk copies a block of actuals, hits Ctrl+V, sees no protest, and saves. The receiving range is still empty. Autofill and formula drag failing in the same session compounds it, because the usual ways to push a formula down a column die too.

Paste Special is not a full substitute. It is a dialog with a choice to make, and it is slower than muscle memory. It also does not restore drag-fill. For people who live in large grids, the day becomes a sequence of extra clicks, or a hunt through File, Account to see which build they are on.

The louder complaint after the first week was not that Excel froze. It was that Excel lied by omission. A security pack is supposed to make the app safer to open. This one made the safest-looking action, paste, the one you could no longer trust.

Ctrl+Alt+V Still Works When Paste Does Not

Until Microsoft names builds for the SKUs still sitting on the affected list, the company’s own workaround is Paste Special. On the Home tab, open the Paste menu and choose Paste Special, or press Ctrl+Alt+V.

PASTE SPECIAL OPTIONS MICROSOFT LISTS

• Formulas: Pastes the formula without the source number formats.
• Formulas and number formats: Pastes the formula and the number style.
• Values: Pastes the calculated result only.
• Values and number formats: Pastes the result and the number style.
• Paste Link: Inserts a live link back to the copied cells.

Those five choices are the same list on the KB5002665 page and on the known-issues page. They are also the path Microsoft still gives for workbooks where conditional formatting keeps paste dead after the MSI hotfix or the LTSC 2019 mitigated build.

Admins on LTSC 2024 should confirm they are on 17932.21000 or later. LTSC 2021 needs 14334.20918 or later. LTSC 2019 needs 10417.20208, then Paste Special if the sheet uses conditional formatting. MSI Excel 2016 needs KB5002665 from the Microsoft Download Center, with the same formatting caveat. Click-to-Run Office 2016 has no matching package on that download page.

Retail Excel 2024, 2021, and 2019, plus Excel Online in Office Online Server, remain on the affected list without a build next to their names. Microsoft 365 Apps are not on that list. The September 8 security pack is still the thing that closed 29 Excel flaws. The September 16 hotfix put copy and paste back for one retired installer. Everyone else is still choosing between a dialog box and a rollback.