Slow paste

Sometimes Excel takes a long time to perform paste operations [last noted: January 2022]. If this problem occurs you are working on a small workbook a paste operation that would normally appear instantaneous might take a few seconds, and if you are working on a large workbook then a paste operation that would normally take half a second might take a few minutes. This problem does not usually occur, but if it does happen then it typically keeps occurring.

Ideal solution

The underlying problem is with Excel, and ideally Microsoft would fix it. The official channel for reporting bugs in Excel and making feature requests is through their public feedback portal. Microsoft are more likely to fix the problem if it is raised and a lot of people vote on it. Please update this page with a link to the specific item on Microsoft's feedback portal if you find that the issue has already been raised or if you raise it yourself.

Workarounds

The following workarounds may allow you to keep going. You do not need to try all of them at once.

• Change your workflow to use something other than paste. The issue normally occurs with a regular paste (i.e. when something is copied to the clipboard and you paste by pressing Ctrl + V or Enter, or by clicking the main "Paste" icon from the 'Clipboard' group of the 'Home' tab of the ribbon. You might consider one of the following alternative workflows [Feel free to create pages in this wiki for each of the workflow steps, and link to them from here]:
  • Paste formulas (e.g. Shift + F10, f).
  • Paste values (e.g. Shift + F10, v).
  • Paste formats, then paste formulas/values. (e.g. Shift + F10, r).
  • Apply formula to selected cells (e.g. Ctrl + Enter).
  • The following two seem to behave the same way as a regular paste (and suffer from the same problem), but may be worth trying if you are already accustomed to them:
    • Fill right (e.g. Ctrl + r).
    • Fill down (e.g. Ctrl + d).
• Save anything you have that is open and has changes you want to keep, and close any other large workbooks you have open in the same instance of Excel.
• Close all other workbooks you have open in the same instance of Excel.
• Disable any Excel add-ins you have running. This item is mainly on this list for completeness because it will typically be included in any given helpdesk troubleshooting process - if it does not help you then as a modeller you may be inclined to reinstate your preferred add-ins.
• Restart Excel.
• Close any other significant programs you have running.
• Restart your computer.
• The workbook file might have become corrupted (most likely due to a bug in Excel), so:
  • use Excel's "Open and repair" feature; or
  • rebuild the workbook from scratch.