Question

I have a problem and I only came accross two or three posts around the web about it: When I’m using the clipboard in a C# application (Clipboard.SetText or Clipboard.Clear), Chrome is randomly already using it, so my clipboard request fails.

System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException: Requested Clipboard operation did not succeed. 
    at System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.ThrowIfFailed(Int32 hr)
    at System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetDataObject(Object data, Boolean copy, Int32 retryTimes, Int32 retryDelay)
    at System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetText(String text, TextDataFormat format)
    at System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetText(String text)

I close Chrome, it works, then reopen Chrome, and after some minutes, it still fails. I’m using the following code with a 1 second timer and GetOpenClipboardWindow(), another PInvoke :(, to confirm that this is really Chrome that is annoying me:

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr GetOpenClipboardWindow();

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern int GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out int 
    lpdwProcessId);


    IntPtr hwnd = GetOpenClipboardWindow();
    if (hwnd != IntPtr.Zero)
    {
        int processId;
        GetWindowThreadProcessId(hwnd, out processId);
        Process p = Process.GetProcessById(processId);
        listBox1.Items.Add(p.Modules[0].FileName);
    }

Does any of you already had this problem? Do you know why Chrome is stealing the clipboard?

[Edit]

At any of the Chrome team members: Dear developer, if you read this today, give me my Clipboard back as I have more rights than you on my Clipboard. I’ve been searching for two days because of you.

Answer 1

I’m afraid there is nothing left to do, If another process has the clipboard open, there is no way to free it until that process closes it.