Unable to Copy/Paste Between Different SmartSheets

Hi Everybody,

I'm coming across an odd issue and have searched the help files and community discussions to no avail!

Basically, I'm unable to copy cells from one sheet and paste it to another!

Here's what I do:

1- I select the cell(s) I want to copy from the source sheet, right-click and select copy. (I've tried the CTRL+C shortcut as well)

2- I go to the destination sheet, click on the cell(s) i want to paste to and right-click. At this point, the Paste option is greyed out! And nothing happens when I use CTRL+V.

I've tried any varation of the above steps and nothing is happening. I've also rebooted my computer, just to be on the safe side.

Other info:

- This is happening on Windows 10 Pro machine.

- I'm using the latest version of the Chrome browser.

- I've tried this with single and multiple cells.

- I am the owner of both sheets.

- I can copy/paste data between different Chrome tabs and windows without a problem.

- The strangest thing of all, each SmartSheet tab remembers the data copied from itself. So as I toggle between the different sheets, I'm able to paste the data copied from the same sheet as many times as I like. But I can't paste cells copied from another sheet! As far as I can remember, Windows has only 1 clipboard and whatever data you copy to it overwrites whatever was stored before. And that's how copy/pasting has always worked and still works for everything else on the computer.

Your help is appreciated!

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Comments

Admin@PAT

By switching between the sheets the 'copy' seems to drop off your clipboard. I have 2 seperate windows open over my 2 screens and this seems to alieviate the issue.

Shaine Greenwood

Hi—

Smartsheet has its own contextual menu for copying and pasting, so I'd first ensure that you're using the keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + C for copy and Ctrl + V for paste) at all times. Combining the right-click and the keyboard shortcut may confused the clipboard.

If the above doesn't work, clear cache and cookies in your browser and disable any Chrome extensions you might have to make sure that's not interfering with the process.

Otherwise, contact Support@Smartsheet.com to troubleshoot further.

SmartSheetNoob11

Admin@PAT

Yes that seems to be the case. The question is why is it doing that for SmartSheet when it doesn't do it when data is copied from any other pages and pasted to any other pages! BTW, the same is the case between two separate Chrome windows (not just tabs within the same window).

Thanks

SmartSheetNoob11

Shaine Greenwood

Thanks for the pointer, Shane! So I totally cleared my Chrome cache and rebooted the machine. It is now allowing me to paste using CTRL+V, regardless of how it copied. But it still doesn't give me access to Paste Special, which I was hoping to use for cell linking. This is really confusing! How can this be?

Thanks

Shaine Greenwood

Since Smartsheet has its own contextual menu and its own, built-in clipboard (although it can interact with your system's clipboard on occassion). This process isn't air tight, so the keyboard shortcuts are the best method for copying and pasting.

If Paste Special is greyed out for you altogether, or does nothing when you click on it, I'd recommend contacting Support@Smartsheet.com for further troubleshooting.

Otherwise, if the cell linking option isn't available, it's possible that the cells can't be linked. More information on this is available in our Help Center: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/861579-cell-linking#nolinking

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you find that the cells you're trying to link aren't on the "no linking" list in that Help Center article that I linked—please contact our Support team so they can troubleshoot with you further.

Michael H

From my experience, copy and Paste from one Smartsheet cell to another only requires you to click the cell once as long as they are in the same browser instance. However, copy and paste from another app or from smartsheet in another browser instance requires double clicking the destination cell. For example, a url from salesforce, requires you to double click the cell in Smartsheet prior to the paste.

Single click destination cell = copy + paste from smartsheet to smartsheet if in same browser instance.

Double click destination cell = copy + paste from outside smartsheet to smartsheet or smartsheet to smartsheet if they are in different browsers.

Hope this helps