Excel Insert Copied Cells Creates Blank Row

That detail matters: because the problem still happens with add-ins disabled, a normal Excel add-in is much less likely to be the cause. So I wouldn’t start by deleting config files or repairing Office. Let’s first narrow down whether the issue is workbook-specific, selection-specific, or Excel-wide.

Please run these four tests, using exactly the same operation each time:

Select → Ctrl+C → right-click destination → Insert Copied Cells

Don’t use Ctrl+Shift++ yet — keeping the operation identical makes the results easier to compare.

For each test, also note:

• Did the copied cells still show the moving dashed border (“marching ants”) just before you clicked Insert Copied Cells?
• Did you get a blank row, an error, or the copied data inserted correctly?

How to interpret the results:

• New workbook works, original fails → The issue is specific to the original workbook/worksheet. Check for merged cells in the copied or destination rows, worksheet protection, Excel Tables (Ctrl+T — convert to a normal range), hidden/filtered rows, unusual formatting, or sheet corruption. Try copying the sheet to a new workbook or rebuilding the affected rows.
• New workbook fails both ways → The issue is not workbook-specific. Run Quick Repair first: Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Microsoft 365 → Modify → Quick Repair. If that doesn’t fix it, test under a clean Windows/Office user profile, then try Online Repair.
• Whole-row copy differs from A2:E2 → Selection/insert semantics are involved. Note exactly which one fails.
• All four fail → The problem is not specific to the original workbook. It points toward Excel, Office/user configuration, or possibly the Windows environment — but further tests are still needed to distinguish those.
• All four work → The issue may be intermittent or tied to a specific sheet state, clipboard state, or operation sequence. Restart Excel and retest the original file.

Only after those tests, if Excel’s UI is behaving strangely in general, consider renaming — not deleting — the .xlb file as a targeted UI-configuration test. It stores toolbar/ribbon customizations and is not a likely first cause for a blank Insert Copied Cells result.

If you reply with the four results and, if possible, a screenshot showing the row/column headers, I can help narrow it down further. In the meantime, a quick workaround is to copy the row, select the destination row, and try Ctrl+Shift++ or Paste Special → Insert — but use the four tests above for diagnosis, since they’ll tell us where the real problem is.

My answers are voluntary and without guarantee!

Hope this will help you.

Was the answer useful? Mark as best response and like it!

This will help all forum participants.