Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Clearing Large Clipboard Entries.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 18, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Have you ever noticed that after you've copied a large amount of data to the Clipboard, and then you close Excel, you see a dialog box stating that "A large amount of data is present in the Clipboard. Do you want to save it before quitting?" You may get tired of seeing this message. If so, then there are a couple of things you can do.
First, you can replace the "large amount" with a "small amount." (Excel never asks if you want to discard a small amount.) To do this, just select a single cell in your worksheet and copy it to the Clipboard. The contents of the single cell replace the large amount of data on the Clipboard, and you can exit Excel without seeing the message.
If you'd rather have a macro approach, you can do the exact same thing in a macro—just select cell A1 and have your macro copy it to the Clipboard:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
Sub GoAway1()
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Copy
End Sub
Another approach is to use a single-line macro that basically "disables" the Clipboard by canceling any current copy operation:
Sub GoAway2()
Application.CutCopyMode = False
End Sub
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10696) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Clearing Large Clipboard Entries.
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