The clipboard is one of those system features that you constantly rely on, but rarely actively think about. Without it, a function you use every single day wouldn’t even be able to work. I’m talking, of course, of the copy and paste function, the best friend of procrastinating students and iterative researchers everywhere. Every copied sentence, image, file, or snippet of HTML has to pass through the clipboard before you can paste it.
Despite how important it is, though, the clipboard on macOS is pretty basic, especially compared to its Windows counterparts. In this guide, we’ll talk about exactly how the macOS’s clipboard works, what its limitations are, how it compares to other clipboard programs, and most importantly, which apps to download to make macOS’s clipboard more powerful.
What Exactly is the Clipboard on macOS?
At a basic level, the clipboard on macOS is a temporary, system-wide storage that holds data that you copy or cut so it can be pasted elsewhere. This data includes
- Plain text
- Rich text with formatting
- HTML codes
- URLs
- Images
- Files and folders
So when you copy (Command + C) or cut (Command + X) something, macOS will store that item into the clipboard’s temporary memory. When you paste using Command + V, macOS will retrieve whatever is currently in the clipboard and insert it into the active app or text box.
How to Access the Clipboard on macOS
While macOS has historically had a weak clipboard feature that only retain one item at a time and paled in comparison to Windows’s clipboard feature where you could view its history, that all changed with the latest macOS version Tahoe. It finally introduced a native clipboard history feature embedded directly into Spotlight search. Before this was introduced, users depended on third-party clipboard managers for history, search, or reuse.
However, macOS Tahoe added clipboard history functionality by putting it inside Spotlight. Follow this guide to get it working:
- Open Spotlight by using Command + Space
- In the Spotlight window, you’ll see a set of category icons, one of which is Clipboard. Note: You can also jump directly to it by pressing Command + 4.
- This will open a list of recently copied items, including text, images, links, and file references, stored in chronological order.
You can scroll through your clipboard history and select an item you copied during your entire session. Anything you click will be copied back to the older system clipboard that only stores one thing at a time, and paste it anywhere using the standard Command + V input. You can also see a thumbnail or mini preview if the item is an image.
This is a huge step forward for macOS clipboard functionality in general, but it does still have a lot of missing features. For example:
- History is only available for approximately eight hours after items are copied by default. You can modify this setting, but it still only retains history for up to 7 days at max.
- There is no feature for pinning, folders, or rich organization.
- Syncing across devices isn’t a part of this feature. The Universal Clipboard handles cross-device copy/paste, but it doesn’t let you manage in any way.
- Some apps may let you copy or cut from them, but their content may not show up in the Spotlight indexing.
Overall, while Tahoe is a great leap forward, there is still plenty of room for more features to come into a play. That’s where various clipboard apps come into play to help fill these gaps.
Clipboard Apps for macOS
Third party clipboard apps still remain the most powerful option you have for clipboard management, and you don’t even need to pay for a lot of the best options. Below, we’ll go over some of the best and most affordable options available.
Maccy – An Open Source Option
Maccy is a lightweight, open-source clipboard manager that tracks everything you copy and makes it all instantly searchable. It lives inside your menu bar and opens with a keyboard shortcut. That means that it’s not going to take up valuable real estate on your display until you want it to.
How it works in a nutshell is that it monitors your system’s clipboard and adds them to its own history as you copy. When you bring it up, it will automatically have the most recent 6 copied items accessible through Command 1-6 for you to instantly paste it somewhere. You can also use its search bar to search its entire history for specific copied items in the past.
It also has a bevy of other features that make it superior to Tahoe’s clipboard on macOS. For example, you can pin items that you frequently use, so they stay at the very top, leaving them easily accessible in case you need to copy paste something repeatedly. It also has the option to convert rich text to plain text, so if you want to paste plain text into a word processor, then you can use that feature. There is also full image support with thumbnails that can also be found through the program’s keyword search feature.
Best of all – it’s completely free because it’s open source. Like all open-source projects, the community is the one in charge of developing this, and the community tends to value things like privacy and security. The files that this program saves is fully local and is also completely free to use forever.
There are a few cons, though. Because of its focus on privacy, it has no capacity for any kind of cross-device sync. Moreover, the search features are still being developed. Lastly, its visuals and UI are rather lacking compared to other richer clipboard apps.
Still, in terms of functionality and price, it’s hard to beat Maccy.
Clipy
Install Clipy by clicking here.
Clipy is a well-established free clipboard manager with a simple interface that lives in macOS’s menu bar and presents a scrollable list of recent copies. It’s been around for quite some time and remains popular because of its straightforwardness.
Just like Maccy, the clipboard manager also lives in the Mac’s menu bar and stores clipboard items as you copy. You can also customize keyboard shortcuts to open the history panel and once it’s open, you can easily scroll through all the items that it has saved and choose the one you want to paste.
What sets it slightly apart from Maccy is the folder system. Clipy will automatically organize all of your clips into individual folders, and inside each folder, you can use Command 1-9 to access each of the clips inside. You can also customize what goes in to each of these folders, giving it some organization features that macOS Tahoe’s Spotlight clipboard and Maccy are both lacking. It’s also compatible with much older macOS versions than other options, giving it a niche that the others lack.
However, this app also lacks some features that Maccy offers. For instance, it lacks any sort of advanced search, meaning you’re going to have to manually sort through all of your clipboards. Also, while it’s open source, its development has slowed down in recent years due to the ancient nature of the app.
Nevertheless, it’s still a solid lightweight program for those looking for a clipboard manager app.
Pesto Clipboard
To download Pesto Clipboard, click here.
If you want to go in the other direction in terms of functionality and modernism, then look no further than Pesto Clipboard. This clipboard is self admitted to being heavily inspired by Maccy, and you can tell from how similar the UI and feature set are at first glance.
Pesto sets itself apart from Maccy with two different features. One is in its approach to pasting items. Unlike other clipboard managers that utilize shortcuts to reapply the clip back to the native clipboard on macOS where it can be pasted, Pesto instead has commands to instantly paste one of your most recent items. To support this, there are also global shortcuts that let you quickly open your history and paste selected items.
Another feature it boasts is a different search engine that isn’t keyword driven. While it makes it a little harder to find specific entries, it makes up for it in pure speed. This makes Pesto better for when you’re working with a very large history while Maccy is a little more specialized in mid-sized libraries.
Unfortunately, it also does have some downsides. Pesto does have a hard limit of 5000 items, whereas Maccy is theoretically unlimited. It’s worth noting that this is still larger than the clipboard on macOS, though. It also doesn’t have any kind of cloud sync, and the quick paste keys are useful but require some learning.
Optimizing your Clipboard on macOS
While macOS has made great strides with their clipboard with their latest update, it still is little more than basic functionality. While this is likely to be more than enough for most users, power users will likely want more from their clipboard. That’s where you should start using clipboard managers, and the macOS has a ton of different apps that users have made to fill that need.
Maccy gives a lot of fantastic features that makes it a great choice to be a baseline for your clipboard, with strong search features and a variety of command shortcuts. Clipy is weaker in various ways, but offers unique organizational tools and compatibility with older OSes. Finally, Pesto Clipboard will give you a faster search tool and the extremely useful quick paste feature, although it may take a little bit of time to get used to.
All of these apps are great picks. We hope that this guide has helped you make a decision.
If you want to learn more about the clipboard on Android, click here!
If you want to learn more about the clipboard on iPhone, click here!
If you want to learn more about the clipboard on Windows 11, click here!
