Calc keeps copying and pasting cells as images

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#1

I’ve used Calc for years and have copied and pasted cells without any problems. For some reason starting today, when I copy and paste cells, the cells get pasted as an image.

If I do a “Paste Special”, the selection source shows up as “Unknown source”.

The GIF below shows the behavior:

https://gifyu.com/image/bblxr

I did see previous topics about the same behavior, but in those cases the problem seemed intermittent and could be attributed to a clipboard manager. In my case, I can’t get ever get Calc to paste the content of the cells instead of the image. I’m not using any clipboard manager and have never used one in the past.

System: Linux Mint 21.3 (based on Ubuntu 22.04)
Calc version: 7.3.7-0ubuntu.22.04.8 (latest version in the Ubuntu 22.04 repositories)

After I couldn’t fix the problem, I decided to update to the latest LibreOffice version from the PPA, so my current version is 24.8.5~rc2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~lo1. It still exhibits the same problem.

I looked through my software updates from the last day, but nothing jumps out as being an obvious problem:

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Not having copy/paste functionality in Calc makes it borderline unusable for me. Anyone have any ideas?

1 Like
#2

Test to restart in safe mode.

#3

I restarted in Safe Mode and tested copy and paste. It still pastes the cells as an image.

1 Like
#4

Some clipboard-utility in your OS interfering…

#5

I am having the same issue. The only way to past the content is get inside the cell and copy then go to destiny cell and past. that way is past the way we expected. But I did not work if the cell content is a formula.

#6

As I stated in the original post, I have never used a clipboard manager. I even did a search for the most popular Ubuntu clipboard managers and confirmed that none of them are installed on my system.

1 Like
#7

Yes, individually editing and then copy/pasting the cell content does work. But that obviously isn’t workable if you have a whole column or row of data that you want to copy/paste.

1 Like
#8

Few more test: Copy/past is useless if we copy from Calc cell and past in a text editor also does not work.
I have a cell with this =CONCAT("Line 1 of ",$O$7) it appear Line 1 of 10 for example and copy that cell to LibreOffice Writer, the content past as image as well. If I try to past that cell in another plain text editor, or some plain text field in a web page, it does not work at all.

This issue is kind critical!!! Any one have any idea how to solve it?

#9

I am not a Linux Mint expert but I will try helping you with some ideas.

  • First, I would install a clipboard viewer. Two are mentioned in this thread, ClipIt and Diodon.
  • Second, I would try copy/paste from other LO applications: Writer, Impress, Draw, to see if they show the same behavior. I would also try to copy/paste using the keyboard (Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v), not the menu.
  • Third, I will try Cut/Paste to see if it is the same issue. If not, Cut/Paste, then Paste again to the destination may be a workaround.
  • Fourth, I would try with two disjoint groups of cells, what is the behavior?
  • Fifth, I would search for possibilities to start X11 in failsafe mode in Linux Mint.
#12

Thanks for the suggestions. Here are the results (not necessarily in the same order):

  • Using Ctrl+c, Ctrl-v vs. the menu makes no difference. I normally use keyboard shortcuts, but didn’t do that in the example GIF so everyone could see what was happening.

  • Cut/Paste exhibits the same behavior as Copy/Paste

  • Copying and pasting disjoint cells exhibits the same behavior
    image

  • Copying text from LO Writer and then pasting it into LO Calc does work

    image
    image853×812 97.7 KB

  • I installed Diodon to see what was happening with the clipboard. It does reveal something interesting. When I copy text from LO Writer, one text clipboard entry appears in Diodon. When I copy cells from LO Calc, two clipboard entries appear in Diodon–a text/cell entry and an image entry:

    image
    image981×624 109 KB

    If I then select the text entry in Diodon, the Text Import dialog pops up in Calc and the cells get imported correctly:
    image
    image680×708 55.8 KB

So what seems to be happening is that copying cells in Calc performs two copies–first as text/cells, and then second as an image. Since the image copy is the last action, that is what gets pasted.

  • I’ll look into starting X11 in failsafe mode, but I suspect that isn’t the problem
#13

Neither image nor plain text is correct. You seem to have a clipboard manager which does not store LibreOffice Calc format.

It seems from recent comments that clipboard managers are being included in the build of some Linux distributions, initiated at startup.

Look through running processes to try and indentify it so you can prevent it running at start.

#14

As I mentioned in the original post, I didn’t have a clipboard manager installed when the problem started occurring. I only installed Diodon at the suggestion of @Steph1 in order to diagnose the problem further.

#16

@beaucoup, I tested on my Lubuntu virtual machine and I have only one entry in the clipboard. If you are using KDE Plasma, I posted (below or above this comment) a link which indicates how to purge the clipboard.

#17

@Steph1 I am using the Cinnamon desktop, which doesn’t come with a default clipboard manager.

#10

Similar problem just appeared on my system as well. Running KDE Plasma, latest version on latest version of Tuxedo OS
LibreOffice Calc, (latest version) copy cells and then it pastes images back into LO Calc, also pastes image into any other app, including LO Writer and even composing an email

But I can copy cell contents and it then pastes cell contents correctly

If I do same action, copy cells, from another spreadsheet, I have tried Caligra sheets and Jamovi and copy and paste functions correctly

I see comments indicating this is a clipboard problem, but I suggest, based on the above, that its an LO problem. If it was a clipboard problem, then other spreadsheet apps would suffer same issue

So where to post this to get LO attention?

#11

You can open a bug report here:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/

#15

@prisby, for KDE Plasma, you may try this fix:

#18

HI Steph1
Thanks for the suggestion, I looked up the thread, but nothing I found made any difference. It did give me an idea which I think now changes my previous conclusion

  1. I rebooted the laptop
  2. Removed LO Calc and re-installed, no difference
  3. Downloaded LO as an Appimage and tried again - no difference
  4. Typed into a cell, highlighted and Ctrl C, then looked at clipboard contents, the content is text
    I then clicked on the cell into which I had typed and Ctrl C again, clipboard now shows an image

Therefore I suspect that the copy function for Plasma 6 is somehow now recognising LO Calc cell as an image and not the cell contents as text.

Perhaps its not LO bug but a clipboard bug?

Strange it has only just happened in last 24 hours, it all was working fine before yesterday

Cut and paste suddenly stopped working overnight in Calc - only pastes graphic, not cell data

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