There was an error while copying to Clipboard. An internal error occurred.

[Andy24]

Hello

I'm running a Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 environment, based on Windows Server2003 and providing Adobe Reader as a published application (this issue appears with Adobe Reader 7 and Adobe Reader 8 equally).

Sometimes when trying to copy test from a pdf document, the error message "There was an error while copying to Clipboard. An internal error occurred." appears. The selected text is still copied to the clipboard, so the message seems to be more of a warning, but it's confusing for the end-users. This happens equally when copying via 'Ctrl-C' or with the mouse (right-click & copy).

It is not a problem with the document itself since sometimes the error appears and sometimes not on the same document. This happens for all documents I've tried so far.

Additional information: On the servers also MS Office 2003 SP3 is installed. I have the feeling that it may be an interference with the Office Clipboard, but I can't put my finger on it...

Please, has anyone found a solution for this?

Thanks

Andy

[abcadmin_com]

Try closing all other open applications that might have previously used the clipboard, such as MS Word.

Cheers.

[dtramm1]

I am getting the same error only when using Adobe. I copy several items then post to word or excel. I am unable to close and open just takes to much time. I only get the error within Adobe all other programs copy fine to clipboard.

[abcadmin_com]

Some possible ways to deal with the warnings are:

1. Compromise (just ignore them). You could also try to use a resident scripting tool for closing the warning window automatically when it pops up.

2. Find another set of programs to work with (i.e. replace the ADOBE reader with an alternative)

3. Use a simple editing tool for temporary pasting, while MS-bread products are all kept closed, then open the ones you need and copy-paste to the right place.

Cheers.

[cypher88]

Wow, abcadmin. Someone says Adobe won't copy text to the clipboard. And your solution is to ignore the error or replace Adobe. Sheer genius. Why didn't I think of that.

[abcadmin_com]

Hello.

For some reason, I can not reply to this post or any other post, even after

logging in.

Please help.

[bourne_again]

here is the solution : start the clipbook service in the NT service manager. open system32\clipbrd.exe, and delete all the contents. now copy from the pdf again. NO_ERROR    : - )

[DavidKRe]

Ignoring the flame war that burst out, I have to say:

1. Lots and lots of us get this error message, judging from a quick search of the forum.
2. The suggestions to quit using Adobe Reader or do some obscure Windows kludge are not really helpful.
3. This really is something the developers ought to attend to -- ought to have attended to many months ago, in fact.

For those of us who suffer from this problem, in my experience the only thing to do is click OK on the error message, and try the paste anyway. I always find that, in fact, the copying to the clipboard has been done successfully. I use a clipboard manager called ClipCache, and it always shows me that the text has been copied.

This error message seems sort of like announcing to someone with whom you're having a conversation that there's a ringing in your ears. It matters to you, but not really to them, so why announce it? The error message is a waste of the user's time but not a sign that anything is really wrong for the user. Perhaps that's why it seems like a waste of the developer's time to fix it; but companies that consider their time more important than their users' time are going to lose users.

[Guest]

edit

[Guest]

Great to see a calm and rational response here. I, too, add my plea for developers to remove this message. In my current task at work I am using the c/p every few minutes, all day, for several days in a row. I would have been done by now if the product was working well.

[eldergod0515]

I've had this problem for years, and couldn't find the answer either (but recall finding this post before). I think I found the answer in another post:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-excel/cant-empty-clipboard-using-excel-2...

Looks like if you disable the Skype add-ons in your browser the problem will go away. At least it did for me.

Hope this helps.

[DavidKRe]

Thanks for this. Unfortunately, this specific fix won't do the job in my situation. My main browser is Opera (http://www.opera.com/), and I don't have any extensions installed in it. However, I do have IE open sometimes (although I already have the Skype extension disabled in it), and I'll now start watching to see if that is a factor in this annoying error message.

[kulukterna]

in windows 7

start-control panel-uninstall programs

uninstall the "Skype Click to Call", this will uninstall addins from ie, firefox, you dont have to uninstall skype.

in ie and firefox you can disable addons but can not uninstall them using ie or firefox interface, when you uninstall Skype Click to Call, it will remove it from all added browsers.

This works me now.

Edit 1:

Unfortunately skype trick does not work.

I recently switched to windows 8 and reliazed that there is no copy error any more.

Edit2:

This error maybe caused by Babylon dictionary which has an Adobe Acrobat or Reader addon which captures the text from pdf documnet when ctrl+right mouse click. This feature is enabled when it is copied to" C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\plug_ins " or  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\plug_ins " directory, so if it is copied such copying error appeared, if not copied it does not appear. Baylon dictionary addin is installed when you install babylon dictionary software, and it is here " C:\Program Files (x86)\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Utils ", its name is " BabylonRPI.api "

Edit3:06-April-2013

My experience is that Babylon Dictionary was causing this error. With babylon version 10 acrobat does not give that kind of error anymore, on windows 7 x64, but previous version leftover files may cause this error again even if you remove previous versions and install version 10. With a clean install of windows 7 x64 with babylon dictionary version 10 there is no error anymore.Uninstalling previous versions of Babylon using third party uninstalling software like Revo or Uninstall Tool may help without reinstalling Windows.

[Guest]

This problems has been going on for 3 years now ? Ive finally got annoyed enough by this bug to search for a fix. Ive updated to the newest version several time (including today), did not have skype click to call (or any skype) installed. I also don't have any directory called babylon in the programs files directories. I dont want to do a clean install of Win 7 just to reinstalled reader or update to Win 8 to solve this bug. Was hoping for an easy fix.

[DavidKRe]

Same here. No Babylon Dictionary, no Skype extension in IE (which I hardly ever use). Still get the annoying error message. Definitely not going to Windows 8 for this -- for me, that would be like putting on clown shoes to step on an ant.

[Confabulous]

Dear Adobe Developers,

This issue has been going on for 3 years.

I have just received this error for the 1,000th time.

You have just achieved something which is extraordinary: you've goaded a normally mild natured user into extreme anger.

Thus, I'm accusing the entire Adobe development team for Adobe Reader of being a brain dead bunch of morons. And don't claim you don't deserve this label, because you do.

Yours sincerely,

A Normally Mild Mannered User

p.s. Look at the number of views for this thread. Its more than 74,000. Fix the damn problem!!

[DeKnyff]

Hello,

I'm having the same problem with Acrobat Reader X 10.1.4. I'm not using anything related to Skype, not even Internet Explorer, so this should not be the problem.

However, I'd like to inform you about something I think could be relevant for developpers: I'm experiencing a similar problem with Microsoft Office 2010, at least with MS Excel. This is, when I cut-paste or copy-paste cells, if I do it by dragging the cells, I often get the message "Couldn't empty the clipboard. Another program could be using the clipboard" (or something like that, free translation from Spanish), a very similar message to Adobe Reader's. However, if I cut-paste or copy paste using the menu or throughout the Ctrl key, there is no message. In both cases, the cells are perfectly cut/copied and pasted, just like the message in Adobe Reader doesn't avoid the copy to be done.

The interesting thing is that Office has a clipboard manager, and when I drag the cells and get the "Couldn't empty clipboard" message, I can see that the clipboard is actually empty.

I know this is an Adobe forum and MS Office problems are probably irrelevant to you, but my goal is to provide you some information for solving this Reader problem, which is surprisingly not solved yet.

Thanks for your help

[Mammoth_27]

I had same issue with Adobe Reader 10.10 so i moved all user to Adobe Pro 9.2 and voila problem solved.

This even created some revenue for Adobe.

[Guest]

This problem seems to exist with versions 10 and 11 and for some reason not 9

[CreeDeaux]

I am sad to report this happens in version 9.5 too.

Maybe it has to do with 3rd party programs that monitor your clipboard

so you can get special copy and paste functions. Like I have something called PureText+ that strips

the formatting from any text you copy & paste. Others have mentioned Skype click-to-call and the Babylon plugin.

I shouldn't have to uninstall anything. All other programs copy and paste fine.

The text still pastes so really there wasn't an error. The "internal error" dialogue box

is completely useless. It's a false alarm.

I've never heard of anyone legitimately getting the error (where their text failed to copy)

So why not just ditch the error entirely, Adobe?

Can someone make a plugin or script that OK's the dialogue box or suppresses it?

[drevonthief]

The error message no longer appears with Reader 11.0.5 in our environment, but as far as copying out information, I have gotten used to saving the PDF as a text file first and doing all Copy/Paste operations that way. Might not be the best solution but it works for me.

[paulh]

As it's taken me so long to work out how to fix this, I thought I would share the solution with others in case they're having the same problem.

In Adobe Reader, go into Edit > Preferences.

Click into the Security (Enhanced) tab on the left and untick "Enable Protected Mode at startup", then OK and close & re-open Adobe Reader.

Ctrl+C now works first time every time for me.

Regards,

Paul.

[jo_hey]

I managed to live with this annoying problem for several years now, once in a while I searched for a solution but always without success. I just upgraded to Adobe 11, hoping the problem finally was handled by Adobe, but alas. Almost every copy command results in that stupid message box, while the content was in fact copied to the clipboard.

It seems like Paul finally helped me to get rid of it. Disabling that protected mode seemed to have solved it instantly.

So, thank you big time, Paul!

Best regards,
<Johan>

[jo_hey]

Until now the message appeared only once to me (and I am copy/pasting quite a lot). So it's not solved for 100%, but I can certainly live with it. After all, I'm coping with Microsoft products too..  😉

[Guest]

Thank you, Paul.  I'm glad I did not give up and continued to the bottom to find your solution to the "error while copying to the clipboard."  Unticking the Enable Protected Mode worked perfectly for me.