Copy and Paste is not working on my Remote Desktop Connection… what’s wrong?

hahah….such an annoying problem with such a simple fix..thanks for that, i was pulling my hair out on this one!

Yes Jack I agree, it is indeed a very annoying problem and easy to fix but only once you find out how! It’s not really that straightforward to diagnose as it doesn’t really generate any errors anywhere. Hopefully Microsoft will patch rdpclip one of these days and fix the problem permanently but until then I hope this will at least help a little bit.

This is a clever fix, but I personally prefer to use a clipboard extender and avoid the problem entirely. These programs allow you to continuously save whatever is copied or cut from your display. They’re very handy applications and add real power to the Windows clipboard. I’ve tried a few of these programs over the years, but my favorite remains ClipCache, by Xrayz Software (http://www.xrayz.co.uk/). By the way, when the clipboard stops working with ClipCache running, you can reconnect to it with a simple choice from the application’s tool menu item.

Thanks John, Will definitely check that out.

What about the new Snip tool in Windows 7?

Hi Mike, Welcome to the Blog. I haven’t use the Snip tool yet to be honest so I am not very acquainted with it, just what I read about it. Does it have issues when used via Remote Desktop?

I have not used the tool that much either. I do know that I can take a “snip” of whatever is on my screen at pretty much any time. I can then save it as a “.png”, .”jpg”, etc. Here is a link that might be helpful.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Use-Snipping-Tool-to-capture-screen-shots

Hope that helps!

Ah you were suggesting the use of the tool; sorry, thought you might have been experiencing issues with it similar to rdpclip. Yes the snip tool can be really useful in certain cases such as when you need to take a screenshot of only part of a window and not of the whole thing. Saves having to take the screenshot, paste it into some paint program and cutting and pasting and what not. Thanks for the suggestion Mike.

Rdpclip.exe is not available on task manager

Hi Mike,

if rdpclip.exe is not showing in your task manager, I would first suggest you ensure your task manager is showing processes from all users. There should be a checkbox for that at the bottom. If it still doesn’t show perhaps it crashed and never reloaded so try running “rdpclip.exe” without first killing it.

May I ask what operating system you’re running? The one you’re connecting to via Remote Desktop that is.

Please don’t hesitate to ask if you’re still experiencing issues.

Check as above .. still copy paste not working [ with bat]

and i cant find rdpclip.exe in process with show users checkbox selected

Hi Ken, what operating system are you using mainly and which one are you Remote Desktop connecting to?

I love this…its working NOW.. its saved my time.. Thank U.

In my case steps 1 to 4

1.Load up task manager (right click taskbar and select Task Manager)
2.Go to the Processes Tab
3.Select rdpclip.exe
4.Click End Process

It was not working when I followed all steps, weird!

i am facing the copy paste problem in my desktop.i am unable to copy and paste from a document and from a browser …can any one suggest me ,how to solve this problem.

thanks in advance.

Ramulu Ponnam

I have the same problem of copying from the office (Server) to my remote computer (Win 7, IE9). It worked fine until a few months ago. Maybe caused by an update to the MS server software.
I could not locate rdpclip.exe on my computer. Is that something that should be done at the server side?

rdpclip.exe should be in the windows\system32 folder

If it is missing from there, that might explain why copy and paste is no longer working for you. If it got deleted for whatever reason, you will need to restore it or alternatively copy it over from some other windows 7 installation if you have that.

Thank you much for your help.

Man, I was almost reinstalled the whole server, because of this damn Copy/Paste failure. Thank you very much for preventing me to do that.

Nice post n working fix. I would add another corollary:
- if you work in a team, pls be sure you’re not “stealing” someone else RDP Connection (e.g. Windows Server 2003 makes them available).
In this case connect through RDP, Logoff -> check the fix (rdpclip must be running) and reconnect through your RDP. voilà remote cut’n'paste.

Followed the steps above no joy copy & paste still do not work. Any thoughts?

W7 (32bit) >> W2K8 R2 (64bit)

Hi Big Ian,

I am sorry this didn’t work for you. I need you to answer a few questions so that maybe I can help you out; did you confirm rdpclip.exe started successfully when you tired to restart it?

Also, some people reported that rdpclip.exe was missing for them, is that the problem you experianced?

Did you perform the procedure on the W7 or W2k8?

If the clipboard is still not working after restarting the rdpclip process, then clipboard redirection is probably disabled.

To enable it, open mmc, add/remove snap-in, terminal services configuration.

In there, under the “Connections” heading, right-click on the listed connection and choose properties. On the “Client Settings” tab, under the “Redirection” heading, *uncheck* “Clipboard” Click “OK”

Finally, log off/logon and clipboard should now work for you!

I to cannot cut and paste using xp pro.32 bit.. rdpclip is not listed in my windows task manager
how can I restore it. step by step
thanks

@obaia if rdpclip is not running all you need to do is click on start, choose run and type in rdpclip.exe and press okay.

I get the following error running the command: The process rdclip.exe with PID 4976 could not be terminated. This process can only be terminated forcefully (with /F option)

Thanks, it works like a charm!

This is finally working. It’s really a frustration when I needed to send all my files thru cloud sharing and download from my RD previously…! Thank you!

I’m not use remote desktop but i am having same issue.

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Office 2010

copy/paste doesn’t work. ctrl-c and ctrl-v do nothing. if i open word and expand the clipboard, it will show in the taskbar area. when i try to copy, i get a clipboard popup that reads “Item not collected”

I’ve tried the following:
close all office programs
open task manager
no rdpclip running, so i start the process
after starting the process, rdpclip shows in “Processes” tab but i still have the same problem described above

restarting windows will fix the issue but after using computer for awhile, copy/paste problem will return

any thoughts?
it sounds like stopping rdpclip then restarting the process should reset the clipboard. is there any other way to do this?