SQLAuthority News – Fix : Remote Desktop Copy Paste Stop Working

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SQLAuthority News – Fix : Remote Desktop Copy Paste Stop Working

January 22, 2008 by pinaldave

Today’s article is not related to SQL Server 100%, however it is quite related to SQL Server, or atleast I found it while working with SQL Server. Just two days ago, while I was working with remote SQL Server using Remote Desktop tool provided by Windows XP. Suddenly, copy/paste feature of windows stop working on remote desktop. I was not able to copy from local machine to remote machine and remote machine to local machine, both ways. I was able to copy/paste from remote machine to remote machine and local machine to local machine.

I thought may be if I restart both the computers it will work (Do not restart your live servers in any case, also restarting is not the solution please read the solution at the end of article). It did not work. I played with few administrative services, again no luck. I was very frustrated for two days as it was very inconvenient to copy/paste and I did not had solution.

After playing with different services and process for a while I found following solution. The solution works perfectly.

First of all go to task manager in remote machine. Go to processes and kill process rdpclip.exe.
After that to go Start >> Run >> type rdpclip.exe and press OK.

This will fix your remote desktop copy/paste issue.

If you want to share files across remote desktop. Follow following instructions.

Go to Remote Desktop Connections >> Options >> Local Resources >> Local Devices >> Turn on Checkbox of Disk drives and click Connect.

I hope today’s article will help users who are facing this problem.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://www.SQLAuthority.com)

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Posted in Database, DBA, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | Tagged Vista | 54 Comments

54 Responses

on January 22, 2008 at 9:17 am | Reply Marlon Ribunal

Pinal,

Can you post the most important DDL Triggers and the samples for the real world?

Please join our group, DBAdmin/Linked DBA. Please visit our group blog, http://dbalink.wordpress.com, just go to the “Join Group” to get the invitation. On the blogroll of our blog, your site is listed!

Regards,
Marlon Ribunal
on January 22, 2008 at 10:30 am | Reply Krupa

Go to Remote Desktop Connections >> Options >> Local Resources >> Local Devices >>

Remote Desktop Connections – where we can find this ?
Or this is OS specific?
on January 22, 2008 at 3:25 pm | Reply Mayoz

@Krupa: Remote desktop connection is a microsoft windows based functionality since windows xp.
on January 22, 2008 at 5:35 pm | Reply Rohit Nigam

I was facing the same problem for some time. Thanks for the solution :)
on January 22, 2008 at 9:12 pm | Reply Jerry Hung

One can find Remote Desktop in XP under
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Communication -> “Remote Desktop Connection”

Of course don’t forget to ensure the remote cmoputer ALLOWS Remote desktop in

right-click on “My Computer” -> Properties -> Remote tab
you will see “Remote Assistance” and “Remote Desktop”
on January 23, 2008 at 1:54 pm | Reply Sheron

Thanks a lot for sharing this.

Proved very useful. :-)
on January 24, 2008 at 12:41 pm | Reply amit pandey

pinal,

I would like to addsomething here. Depending on the rights the user have, he might not be able to access the GUI. we can do the copy and paste activity through SQL server engine only.

we can go to the query analyser
use the following extended stored to copy and paste. It worked for me when nothing else was working.

master..Xp_cmdshell ‘ copy sourcepath destinationpath’

Regard
Amit Pandey
on January 24, 2008 at 12:44 pm | Reply amit pandey

krupa, in case you are not able to find the remote desktop connection you can also go to start >> run
type MSTSC in the run box and press OK

Amit Pandey
SQL Server DBA — merrill lynch
on July 2, 2008 at 10:00 pm | Reply Sol

Thank you for this soulution, what a great thing to tell rest of us. The copy/paste issue made crazy – and others too. Thank you :)
on July 11, 2008 at 11:12 am | Reply Kishore

Thanks a lot for the solution. It was bugging me like you for couple of days back the copy & paste option was working all of sudden it stopped working …..

Thank you once again :)
on July 11, 2008 at 9:10 pm | Reply charlie arehart

I was hopeful about this solution, as I have the same problem on a machine I’m remoting into for the first time, but it hasn’t worked. It’s odd, but when I run the rdpclip on the remote machine, there’s no response (no error, but no interface, either). Now, I see you list your remote running XP. Mine is running 2k3 R2. Maybe yours is an XP-only solution.

If anyone has other ideas, I’d welcome them. (Yees, I have enabled the clipboard option in Remote Desktop’s “Local Resources” tab. Still no go.
on July 13, 2008 at 6:24 am | Reply Frank

I’m a nontechnical user who has been able to work from home by connecting to my office computer.

All of a sudden I got this error and can no longer work from home:

Only part of a ReadProcessMemory or Write Process Memory request was completed.

I sure hope someone can help.

Thanks
on August 27, 2008 at 11:02 pm | Reply Gary

Thanks for the solution to copy and paste. Never realized how much I relied upon ctrl C / ctrl V !!!
on August 28, 2008 at 8:27 am | Reply Imran Mohammed

This is really great feature… I there any way by which we can drag and drop from our main machine to remote connection, it never worked for me, but surely adding your drive would solve that problem.

Thanks once again!

Imran.
on September 22, 2008 at 8:10 pm | Reply Soniya

It worked!! Tthe only alternative I used so far was log off and log on again.This command saved me a great deal of time. Thank you!!
on May 29, 2009 at 2:21 am | Reply Max

THANK YOU!!!
on July 1, 2009 at 7:27 pm | Reply Jon

Many thanks for the rdpclip fix! Not being able to copy/paste from my remote desktop was driving me nuts!
on July 28, 2009 at 11:23 pm | Reply AC

Thank you so much! This resolved my copy/paste issue.
on August 15, 2009 at 4:26 pm | Reply Phil Mathews

When trying to copy/paste on to/from a remote Server via the Internet Remote Web Workplace I am getting an error msg coming up on the server while trying to paste saying ‘Cannot copy file:Cannot read from source file or disk’ when trying to copy from my computer to the server. When trying to paste from the server to my computer an error msg comes up on the server saying ‘Cannot copy Jon: Windows cannot find ‘%1!ls!’. Check the spelling and try again’ The file trying to copy and paste to my computer is called jon.txt. Have tried your suggestion with RDPclip.exe but unfortunately doesn’t work. Also, a msg from the server says VBScript : Remote desktop disconnected’ ‘An internal error has occured’ These errors only occur when my computer is accessing the server, other computers used are still working fine, so looks like something has become corrupted somewhere on my computer. Any ideas very welcome. Thank you.
on August 18, 2009 at 11:57 am | Reply SV Srinivas

It worked for me, thank you for the solution.
on December 2, 2009 at 10:46 pm | Reply J Cranston

I’ve seen this same solution posted on other sites and it does not work for me. It might work for a few minutes but then copy/paste stops working again. It’s driving me nuts, driving me to consider switching to a Mac. Copy/Paste is perhaps the main reason we switched from typewriters to computers in the 1980s. Now Microsoft has found a way to make that not work. What’s next, ctrl-z will stop working?

Does anyone know if Microsoft fixed this bug in Windows 7?
on March 24, 2010 at 4:54 am | Reply NAPLAN

Thanks for this; suddenly my copy & paste function was hanged and google helped me to find this article and you helped me to fix my problem. Thanks again.
on May 10, 2010 at 8:29 pm | Reply Neha

Thank you for taking the time to research this and posting a solution.
on May 22, 2010 at 4:32 am | Reply Praveen64

Thanks for posting this solution
on June 4, 2010 at 2:03 pm | Reply Pete

Thanks, it worked perfectly. I still have a problem connecting to local resources through Remote Desktop but copy and pasting files is an adequate work around.
on June 9, 2010 at 1:39 pm | Reply Stefan

Thanks for the help fixing my RDP issue with clipboard that suddently stopped working :D
on September 1, 2010 at 1:50 am | Reply Eric Farraro

I ran into this issue all the time, and finally decided to try Google; this was the first hit and it completely solved the issue. Thanks for sharing!
on September 1, 2010 at 8:29 am | Reply J Cranston

Thought I would chime in again to say that my issues were solved with Windows 7 Pro. I installed it a few weeks ago and the copy/paste issue has gone away completely.

I’m loving Windows 7 so far.
on December 4, 2010 at 5:02 am | Reply Roger Wehling

I am having a problem with Win 7 when I try to copy from remote connection and paste into a page open on the local computer. But I do not have this problem when I try the same thing using my older local computer operating with Win XP.
on December 6, 2010 at 6:23 pm | Reply antoine

None of the solutions proposed on the internet worked for me, so I tried to log off the remote machine, but it wanted to close my program (which is R) and started the countdown “ending in 30 sec” (or smth) so I canceled.

And then it worked…

I guess when it’s preparing to close the session it clears the stuff that you want fixed :). Pretty technical I know :).
on May 17, 2011 at 1:23 pm | Reply KA

Thanks for this solution! It was indeed very frustrating to have the copy-paste stop working
on June 15, 2011 at 2:44 pm | Reply Louis

Thanks, this was driving me nuts!
on August 11, 2011 at 2:44 pm | Reply Ashwini

It worked for me. Thax.
on September 8, 2011 at 3:46 am | Reply anonymous

This is an excellent post. I spent hours trying to figure this thing out and finally found your post.
thank you.
on September 23, 2011 at 3:13 am | Reply Javier

Thank you for the useful info, I saved valuable time from your post. Prosperity.
on November 28, 2011 at 4:56 am | Reply John Pennington

1) When you first run Remote Desktop Connection, go to options, then the Local Resources tab, and then make sure Clipboard is checked.

2) Second, create a batch file on the remote machine as follows:

c:\windows\system32\TaskKill.exe /im c:\windows\system32\rdpclip.exe
c:\windows\system32\rdpclip.exe

3) Then create a shortcut to the batch file.

Whenever the cut and paste stops working, just click on that shortcut, and you should be functional again.
on January 27, 2012 at 9:34 pm | Reply Laura Bryson

Thank you for this post, this issue has been driving me crazy. Another workaround for us (Windows 7 clients with Windows 2008 servers) is to turn off the Clipboard on the Remote Desktop client options (under Local Resources).
on February 11, 2012 at 2:27 am | Reply ranjithcheemarla

It worked perfectly for me…..this issue is pain in the ass…thanks for sharing
on February 16, 2012 at 12:54 am | Reply lechien

Thanks for this!!!
on February 25, 2012 at 2:32 am | Reply Carol

Legend! Thank you!
on April 17, 2012 at 1:56 am | Reply Mark Womack

I love you! I have been trying to figure this out for a long time.
on April 20, 2012 at 11:40 am | Reply coolan

very nice article thanks
on May 2, 2012 at 12:39 pm | Reply rajkvwordpress

Hello sir , i am using open office and remote desktop, remote desktop allow only once to copy items. It gives error” the content of clipboard cannot be deleted”
I tried your method but it works for single copy paste operation only after that i have to disconnect and re connect remote desktop for using again copy paste data . Please reply.
on May 25, 2012 at 9:23 pm | Reply Chris

Very nice, worked perfect. As always, you are a trusted resource my friend.
on June 4, 2012 at 3:30 pm | Reply Martin Boado

wonderfull, it was the probelm!!! rdpclip.exe
Thanks, i can´t work without the copy-paste service
on June 8, 2012 at 1:40 pm | Reply dexter

Thanks! I was panicking like hell until I found the solution…
on July 17, 2012 at 10:55 pm | Reply SQLLover

You are a lifesaver thanks!
on July 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm | Reply Anju

it didnt work for me…….. i am still unable to copy/ paste to the remote desktop.
- on July 21, 2012 at 1:40 pm | Reply letscopypaste
  
  you can try following commands in sequence on your remote machine.
  
  1. taskKill.exe /im rdpclip.exe
  2. rdpclip.exe
  
  This will definitely solve your problem, if not you can try using http://www.letscopypaste.com. This is an online clipboard application and it works great.
on October 4, 2012 at 11:21 pm | Reply Tanya

Thanks! Tried so many other solutions found on internet first, this was the one that worked for me. Really would have been SOL without the copy/paste from remote to local.
on January 19, 2013 at 10:20 am | Reply Jonny

Thanxs
on January 26, 2013 at 7:01 am | Reply SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #013 « SQL Server Journey with SQL Authority

[...] Fix : Remote Desktop Copy Paste Stop Working Though not a SQL Solution, this has to be one of the most annoying issues I faced in my career when working on Windows Server. After posting this blog post, I realized that I was not the first one who faced this issue and there are many others who have faced similar issues. [...]
on January 27, 2013 at 3:41 pm | Reply Prem

Excellent!!! Thanks.
on February 27, 2013 at 7:01 am | Reply SQL SERVER – Cycle Clipboard Ring in SSMS – SQL in Sixty Seconds #045 – Video | SQL Server Journey with SQL Authority

[...] Fix : Remote Desktop Copy Paste Stop Working [...]