Copy and paste are among the most popular actions we perform on our computers. The problem is that the built-in macOS clipboard has a very basic functionality and allows you to store only one copied item. That’s far from enough for many people.
These were some of the best Clipboard managers that will allow you to copy and paste multiple files on a Mac machine. Personally, as I mentioned, I use Flycut but if I ever needed a premium. Buy Copied on Mac App Store. Copy’em Paste ($12.99) Not exactly for simplicity lovers, this clipboard app is just great for those who seek the full pack of features and preferences. The app’s capabilities and customizability are impressive. Download the latest version of Copied for Mac - Copy notifications and clipboard clearing. Read 1 user reviews of Copied on MacUpdate.
If you need your multiple copied data (clipboard history) to be easily accessible, available after the system reboot and simply managed in different ways – then you definitely need a good clipboard organizer.
The question is: how do you find the best clipboard manager for your Mac? Check out the top 5 list of the most loved ones we have selected from the vast quantities across the Web adding a touch of our own point of view.
Worth mentioning, we didn’t include completely free clipboard apps. Because if you are serious about your copy-paste experience, you should look for a quality paid tool.
For this article, we’ve tried to find the most pleasant cost-effective solutions which would satisfy most Mac users. We’ll go in order from more simple and neat copy-paste apps to heavy-loaded clipboard managers.
Ready? Let’s go.
Unclutter ($19.99)
To begin with, Unclutter is not only a clipboard manager. The app combines three productivity tools and the Clipboard section is just one of them. Still, it provides a fully functional environment for working with what you copy and paste on a Mac. It remains really simple and snappy while having all the necessary basics.
The biggest competitive advantage of Unclutter’s Clipboard is probably that it’s instantly accessible. Unclutter has quite a unique solution to the opening of its window – by scrolling down from the top of your screen (which takes no more than a second). The window will hide right after you move the pointer out of the app’s area so you could continue working with minimal distractions.
Copy to the clipboard whatever you wish – text, links, images, docs, etc. – Unclutter will store all that in the source formatting. Go even further and edit copied text snippets, if needed. Another nice thing to have is its Clipboard Favorites which may come in handy if you use some clips more often than others.
In addition to all that, Unclutter has 2 more productivity tools (files hub & notepad) – all combined in one neat interface.
Verdict: Although somehow limited storage (up to 50 latest copied items) with no auto-sync, Unclutter stands out with its fast one-gesture access to the clipboard, simple and neat interface which will quite soon feel like a part of the macOS system. So if you need a handy nicely-organized clipboard manager without many bells and whistles, you may go no further – Unclutter is a good fit for you.
Paste 2 ($14.99)
An intuitive eye-pleasing interface of Paste makes it easy and nice to view your recent clips. This clipboard manager is basically made for those who love with their eyes and doesn’t like to complicate things.
The app’s window pops up from beneath of your screen, does what is needed and disappears. That’s a comfy approach.
Paste has a search bar which allows you to search not only by an item’s name but also by the type of content and the name of the app it was copied from. Just put some keywords for your item and get relevant results.
Paste from the clipboard using double-click, drag-n-drop or keyboard shortcuts. Use Pinboards to keep your most used copied snippets neatly organized. Let Paste ignore the data copied from the apps of your choice. All the basics you need – covered.
As a pleasant bonus, there is also Paste for iOS which is free for download. And of course, you can sync your clipboard history across all your Apple devices.
Verdict: Paste is focused not as much on the wide range of functions as on pleasant UX and dealing with huge amounts of copied data. Pinboards, intelligent search, unlimited storage and iCloud sync as the proofs of it. For those who believe their clipboard must look beautiful, among other things – that what Paste is for.
CopyLess 2
(Free, Full version – $6.99)
CopyLess has an exceptional functionality as for a basically free tool. Even though a few options (iCloud sync and larger storage) aren’t included in a basic version – the app is still pretty good.
If you don’t want to deal with a dull ordinary clipboard’s appearance, bring some color to your life with various customizable themes. You can set lots of keyboard shortcuts to improve your copy and paste experience. There is even an option to customize the app’s window toolbar.
Interestingly, CopyLess seems to be a rare copy and paste app where you can import and export your clipboard history – having it stored in a separate file (.clarchive extension). Another curious thing: it’s possible to choose whether you want to ignore or to fetch the data copied from selected apps (i.e. positive or negative filter modes).
CopyLess also has quite a deft Serial Copy&Paste feature – just don’t forget to install their free CopyLess Helper for everything to work properly (the same rule goes for the other clipboard apps on this list).
Verdict: Despite being not that popular in comparison to the others from this list, CopyLess 2 is surprisingly a good pick for most of your copy and paste tasks. It is notable for the app’s capability to import/export the clipboard history and its number of themes in many colors with customized adjustments. You should also like a decent set of custom key combinations CopyLess has. Quite a nice set considering that you can use this Mac tool for free.
Copied ($7.99)
Turquoise colored Copied is a lovely decision for your copy and paste manipulations. Its feature richness and tight integration within the Apple ecosystem are among the most notable app’s attributes.
Copied shares many of the popular clipboard apps’ functions such as separate lists, customizable hotkeys, whitelisting/blacklisting of copied items depending on a source app and so on.
Apart from that, Copied allows you to paste with standard or your own templates, add to list, drag and drop, merge, etc. multiple clippings, share what you’ve copied with other apps or social networks… and the list goes on.
Copied For Mac Os
Since Copied exists on macOS and on iOS – it can easily auto-sync clipboard history between your iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Verdict: If you need your clipboard history to be synced across your macOS and iOS devices, Copied specializes exactly in that. Besides, it would fit great if you’re going to use paste templates and assign lots of key combinations for different actions related to copy and paste. Of course, all other goodies like themes, lists, rules, etc. are included.
Copy’em Paste ($12.99)
Not exactly for simplicity lovers, this clipboard app is just great for those who seek the full pack of features and preferences. The app’s capabilities and customizability are impressive. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with its tutorial and set your custom shortcuts, you are ready to do amazing tricks with your clipboard.
Talking about the main app’s differentiators, those are: auto-star and plain-text modes which you can turn on or off, an option to pause clippings recording, batch pasting, a built-in screenshot tool (to save them right into your clipboard). Besides, you can transform text clips in different ways, choose what type of clippings to be displayed, and switch between your lists.
In Copy’em Paste, it is possible to assign any kind of key combinations for virtually anything in the app. The list is crazy. You gonna feel comfortable there if you prefer using a keyboard for most actions on your Mac.
Set local (within the app’s window) or global (within your Mac system) keyboard shortcuts for pasting your favorite clips, create custom copy & paste key combinations for specific apps, blacklist the apps you don’t want to store the copied data from… and other advanced features. Really, a lot of everything.
Verdict: Copy’em Paste seems to have all you may ever need for copy-paste and even more. Screenshot-making tool and the huge array of all possible keyboard shortcuts – that already says a lot. Sure, its interface may appear not very intuitive and interactive, plus, you will need time to sort out all the capabilities the app has. Yet, it is worth the effort. Not everyone expects such feature-richness from a clipboard manager, but if you’re that very person – grab Copy’em Paste right away.
***
There is one more app we consider to be worth an honorable mention. It is not exactly a clipboard manager but it can also help you with copy and paste on your Mac besides all its other talents.
Alfred 3
(Free, Alfred Powerpack – £19)
Mac Os Versions
Alfred is a truly powerful (somehow even overwhelming) all-in-one app. It includes a decent clipboard organizer as one of the app’s numerous features in the Powerpack paid extension. Alfred will come in handy if you don’t need to focus much on the clipboard only but want to have a robust Mac productivity multi-tool – kind of a Spotlight’s older brother, on steroids.💪🎩
To sum up
To create this comprehensive top 5 list, we have reviewed lots of various clipboard apps – some of them are already outdated and no longer supported, some are too complicated or inconvenient to deal with. In our opinion, these five apps are the most interesting and efficient solutions for working with copied data in 2018.
Keep in mind that some apps, like Paste 2 and CopyLess 2, will fit great for less demanding but aesthetic individuals; while Copied and Copy’em Paste must be good for those who look for the full pack of features.
Unclutter would come in handy for all who need their Mac clipboard history available right at their fingertips; plus, file-keeping and note-taking panels to make one’s Desktop clean and workflow volant. By the way, if you’ve found the other Clipboard app you like, you may still want to get Unclutter and use the other two productivity sections (Clipboard panel can be simply disabled).
We’ve provided you with the top-notch options. The final choice is yours!
Make your Mac invincible
Copy and paste has been revolutionary for productivity. That may sound bizarre, considering how commonplace it is. Everyone copy–pastes, all the time. But without such functionality, we’d have to start from scratch on whatever we are working on every time.
Instead of starting over, copy and paste gives us control and time. Control to know that once we’ve created something once — whether it’s a passage of text, an entire document, images, videos, music, code — we can replicate it, instantly and easily. And wherever we have an internet connection, we can share those creations or links with anyone else in the world.
When you stop and think about it, copy and paste is remarkable (on a Mac: Command/⌘+C to copy, then Command/⌘+V to paste). The problem is, we are so used to it, so used to skipping back and forth between tasks that once we’ve copied something, if we don't paste it, we can quickly lose it and need to start again. Such a pain! Unfortunately, even the most expensive Macs only have one clipboard.
Avoid clipboard limitations
Get an upgrade for your macOS clipboard with Setapp. Quick fixes, no limitations, simplified history recovery.
How to view and manage clipboard history on macOS
Once you’ve copied something else, what you originally copied is lost. A Mac clipboard is a transient memory function, only designed to hold one item at a time. Once it's gone, it's gone. Clearly, this is a problem, and one that developers have been working on with numerous solutions, known as clipboard managers, appearing over the years. Thankfully, we have a solution we highly recommend to this particular problem with copy and paste history.
Where do you find the clipboard on your Mac?
A Mac clipboard is one of those macOS programs that runs in the background. You can find it and view clipboard through the Finder menu, in the top toolbar. Find and select Show Clipboard to see the last item you copied.
How does the macOS clipboard work?
As a native program, macOS clipboard runs the same way as other macOS operating functions. Clipboard is a basic program, which is why it takes up almost no processing power or space, except for the item it currently holds. Unfortunately, this comes with limitations. You can’t see anything else, apart from the latest item you copied. Once you copy something else, the first copied item disappears.
Gladly, now we have a solution for viewing the little-known secondary clipboard, where you can find your clipboard history.
The Mac’s hidden secondary clipboard
Not many people know that macOS has a hidden secondary clipboard. It’s a very well-kept secret. Select any text and press Control + K to cut it. To paste it in its new location, press Control + Y. Note that this cuts, rather than copies, the text. As this feature uses a different functionality, it won’t remove what is currently on the “main” clipboard.
Universal Clipboard
Universal Clipboard is a feature that was introduced in macOS Sierra and iOS 10, and allows you to copy and paste between Apple devices, as long as they’re signed into the same iCloud account and connected to the same WiFi network, with Bluetooth switched on. They also need to be physically close to each other.
To use Universal Clipboard, all you have to do is copy on one device and paste on the other.
How to view clipboard history
The main way to view your clipboard history is to paste (Command/⌘+V). That will show you the most recent item you copied. But did you know you can copy and paste in the Finder too? If you want to copy a file from one folder to another, for example, you can select it, press Command/⌘+C, then click in the folder you want to copy to and press Command/⌘+V.
You can even access clipboard history on a different device than the one you copied from, thanks to Universal Clipboard in macOS Sierra and iOS 10. To use it, your devices must be running at least iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, have both Bluetooth and WiFi turned on and be close to each other. They’ll also need to be signed into iCloud, since Universal Clipboard uses iCloud to sync data. Then all you have to do is copy on one device and paste on the other, using the usual copy and paste method on each device.
How to avoid clipboard limitations
If you have problems using Universal Clipboard, try logging out of iCloud on each device and logging back in again.
There are a couple of alternatives to copying and pasting.
- One is to use text clippings. These are snippets of text that look like files, but can’t be edited and behave differently. To create a text clipping, select text in any document and drag it to the desktop. You can then drag it onto any document in any application that accepts text and drop it at the point where you want to paste it. You can also drag and drop the snippet directly from one application window onto the window of another — missing outboard stores multiple items.
- Paste is quite straightforward. Think of it as a clipboard manager for your Mac, which automatically keeps everything you’ve copied regardless of the format. You can record all clipboard types, from plain text to images, screenshots, links, and more. Anytime you need, you can smart search through the clipboard history manager, share anything through AirDrop or sync to iCloud, and even access clipboard history on other devices using the Universal Clipboard.
- Rocket Typist is another great app that approached solving clipboard limitations from a different angle. This app allows you to create multiple text snippets for passages you use frequently, from email greetings to PHP scripts. Assign trigger combinations for saved snippets and call on them in any app or environment. Alternatively, you can then paste directly into the document you’re working on by selecting the snippet in Rocket Typist to move it to the clipboard and pasting it the regular way.
- One more tool to help solve the clipboard problem is Unclutter. Designed as an app for storing notes and files neatly on your Desktop, Unclutter features a clipboard manager that retains the contents of your Mac’s clipboard, even after you copy something else. An organized interface makes your clipboard history easily accessible, allowing to find any old item you need to paste again.
How do you paste from the clipboard on a Mac?
To paste something from the standard macOS clipboard, use Command/⌘+V. However, when you are using a clipboard manager like Paste, you’ve got several options for pasting items from the clipboard.
- Drag and drop items from the Paste interface directly to any Mac app
- Select and paste multiple items at once
- Paste items as plain text, no matter the format of the original
- Access and paste files from multiple devices using iCloud sync
- Paste using customized shortcuts for most recent as well as old items
- Allow others to paste your snippets by sharing over AirDrop.
How to fix it a non-working clipboard
The first step when you discover that copy and paste don’t work is to check that it’s macOS that’s at fault and not your keyboard. Select some text in any application, then go to the Edit menu and choose Copy. Then go back to the Edit menu and choose Paste or Unclutter. If that works, the problem is with your keyboard.
If that doesn’t work, trying fixing the issue with Activity Monitor.
- Go to Applications > Utilities and double-click on Activity Monitor to launch it
- In its search box, type: pboard
- When it shows the pboard process, select it and press the X in the toolbar
- Click Force Quit and then close Activity Monitor
Go to an app where copy and paste wasn’t working and try again. If it still doesn’t work, try using Terminal to fix it.
- Go to Applications > Utilities and double-click on Terminal to launch it
- Type: killall pboard
- Hit Return
- Close Terminal
Try and copy and paste again in the same app as before. If neither Activity Monitor nor Terminal solves the problem, the next step is to restart your Mac.
How to recover clipboard history on a Mac
The fact that the macOS clipboard only retains the most recently copied thing means that there’s no way to easily view or recover clipboard history. You can, however, use Command/⌘+Z to undo the most recent action and then press it repeatedly to step back through everything you’ve done. Eventually, assuming the application you’re using supports unlimited undos, you’ll get to the point where you pasted the item you want to recover.
A much easier way to recover clipboard history is to use apps like Paste or Unclutter. They retain multiple items and allow you to view them easily in the app, selecting the one you need.
Snippets manager for Mac
Check out the top three best clipboard managers for handling snippets. Grab the handiest one for the job.
How to clear the clipboard
Clearing your clipboard is easy. Either overwrite the current copied item with a copy of something else or, in case of using Paste, delete the clipboard history with a few clicks. However, it’s a good idea to store some items or the whole clipboard history in iCloud just in case you need some of it in the future. Paste or Unclutter make managing clipboard history as straightforward as it can be.
While most Mac users limit themselves to one clipboard item at a time and feel frustrated with every accidental overwrite, you can use apps like Paste, Unclutter, and Rocket Typist — all available in the Setapp app collection — to extend the native capabilities of your Mac and save yourself hours of headaches in the future.
Copier Machines For Home Use
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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