After opening Management Studio and doing some editing it is possible to copy/paste things in the query editor. After a while (working in another app) I come back to Management Studio and I can't copy/paste anything anymore. If I try to copy from the results window I get an error message that the clipboard operation did not succeed. If I try to copy from the query editor window it just doesn't copy. I can copy/paste in other apps without a problem.

I have seen this problem described in other forums so I'm not alone but I have 3 other computers where this problem does not occur. The one machine with the problem is hyper-threading. I wonder ....

Any other ideas? It is not the clipboard getting full but I can't rule out much else.

What is the configuration of those machines?

I believe the copy/paste cache is depend upon the operating system and resource usage, I don't see any problem with SSMS here. If it is a normal text then based on the memory usage that shouldn't be a problem.

You are not alone, I had this happen to me also where the copy paste functionality quit working but under slightly different circumstances. I am running Windows XP Professional SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition SP2. I started working in SSMS yesterday and copy paste functionality was working fine. I did not shut down the program or my machine over night and when I logged onto my machine this morning to continue working in SSMS the copy paste functionality was not longer working. I have never had a problem with this functionality until today. I see that someone else reported it as a bug. I suggest that you also log onto the but report and validate that this is an issue. The link is: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=126743

Maybe if everyone who has this issue reports it then someone will do more research to determine the cause of the problem.

GN

I'm having the problem, too.  I'm on Windows 7 64-bit w/SQL Server 2008 R2.  It appears as though SSMS intermittently copies nothing to the clipboard, which then causes the Paste menu item to be disabled.

The workaround that I've discovered is to save the results you're interested in to a text file, then copy whatever you need using another program, then paste into SSMS.  PITA, but at least I'm not DITW.

-matthew

Can you uninstall/reinstall SSMS and check again? Thanks.

I have seen this when I have multiple connections open via RDP. Once I disconnect from RDP SSMS copy/paste starts working fine.

I realize that we are a few years away from this post. However I have this same issue and I am not using RDP SSMS.

I do have the "Paste" only option no matter what in SSMS after using it for a bit. When launched, the clipboard works fine just for one go! It seems that Microsoft has not thought this very well and it is SSMS related!

The best workaround I have found so far is to right click any existing view and select "Script View As" then any other option but make sure it is to "Clipboard".

It seems in my case that this reset the clipboard at least for a while.

Hoping this can help someone still having the same issue.

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