Clipboard History on a Mac: What macOS Keeps and How to Keep More

October 12, 2026 · 6 min read

For years, the Mac clipboard held exactly one thing: whatever you copied last. Copy something new and the previous item was gone for good. macOS 26 Tahoe changed that with a clipboard history built into Spotlight — but it is off by default, and it keeps your copies for seven days at most.

The short answer: on macOS 26 or later, turn on Results from Clipboard in System Settings › Spotlight, then open Spotlight with ⌘ Space and press ⌘ 4 to see what you copied recently. On older versions of macOS there is no history at all, and you need a clipboard manager. Below: what each option keeps, for how long, and how to get a longer, searchable history with items you keep for good.

What the Mac clipboard keeps on its own

Before macOS 26: a single item

On macOS 15 Sequoia and earlier, the clipboard is a single slot. In the Finder, Edit › Show Clipboard displays what is in it right now — and that is all macOS remembers. Universal Clipboard can hand that one item to your iPhone or iPad, but it does not keep older copies either.

macOS 26 Tahoe: a short history in Spotlight

macOS 26 added a clipboard history to Spotlight. To use it:

Open System Settings › Spotlight and turn on Results from Clipboard.
Choose how long copies are kept. Since macOS 26.1, the choices are 30 minutes, 8 hours or 7 days, and the same section has a button to clear the history.
Open Spotlight with ⌘ Space and press ⌘ 4 to show the clipboard. Choose an item to use it again.

Its limits

It is a welcome addition, but it is designed as a short-term memory:

Seven days at most. Anything older is gone, including the address or the snippet you paste every week.
No item kept for good. Everything expires on the same schedule.
macOS 26 or later only. On Sequoia and earlier, there is nothing to turn on.
Inside Spotlight. You open Spotlight first, then switch to its clipboard view.

That is enough for "what did I copy ten minutes ago?". To find something you copied last week, or to keep a few items at hand permanently, you need more.

How to keep more: a clipboard history that lasts

A clipboard manager watches what you copy and stores it, so you can paste it again later. Folia Files, a file manager for the Mac, includes one: its clipboard history. It is in both the website and the Mac App Store editions, works from any app as long as Folia Files is open, and stays off until you turn it on.

The Folia Files clipboard history palette, opened with ⌃⌥V over the window: a meeting note, a launch date, a link, a color, a photo and two invoices

Turn it on

Choose Folia Files › Settings… (⌘ ,), then Clipboard.
Turn on Keep clipboard history.
Set Items kept (50, 100, 200 or 500) and Keep for (1 day, 7 days, 30 days or Forever).

From then on, everything you copy — text, plain or formatted, images, files, links and colors — goes into the history.

Open it from any app with ⌃⌥V

Press ⌃ ⌥ V wherever you are. The palette opens over the app you are working in without taking it away from you. You can change this shortcut on the same settings page (Open the history (from any app)). The history is also in Edit › Clipboard History… inside Folia Files, in its menu bar menu (the last six items, one click to paste), and as a module of the right sidebar and of the drawer.

In the palette:

type to search what you copied, or filter by kind: text, images, files, links, colors;
↩ pastes the selected item, ⌥ ↩ pastes it as plain text, without its original formatting;
⌘ 1 to ⌘ 9 paste the first nine items directly;
Space shows a preview;
⌘ P pins, ⌘ ⌫ deletes, ⎋ closes.

Pin what you paste again and again

Your address, an email signature, a standard reply, a line of code: pin it once with ⌘ P. Pinned items are kept outside the limits — they do not count in the number of items kept and never expire — and they have their own Pinned section in the palette and in the menu bar menu.

Settings › Clipboard in Folia Files: history turned on, the shortcut, the number of items kept, how long they are kept, and what happens when you choose an item

Pasting directly: the two macOS permissions

Two different macOS permissions are involved, and it helps to know which is which.

"Paste from Other Apps" (macOS 15.4 and later)

Since macOS 15.4, macOS may ask before an app reads what other apps copied. A clipboard manager reads it by design, so when macOS asks about Folia Files, choose Allow. The choice is kept in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Paste from Other Apps. Set to Ask, macOS asks again at every copy; set to Deny, the history no longer sees what you copy in other apps. After changing it, quit and reopen Folia Files.

Accessibility, so the item lands where you were

When you choose an item, Folia Files can paste it straight into the app you were using: it presses ⌘ V for you. Sending a keystroke to another app needs the Accessibility permission, so the first time, click Allow… on the Clipboard settings page and turn Folia Files on in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility.

Without it — or if you set When you choose an item to Only copy it (you press ⌘V) — the item is put back on the clipboard and a short message says "Copied — press ⌘V".

Private by design

A clipboard sees a lot: passwords, one-time codes, private messages. Folia Files' history is built around that:

Concealed content is never read. What apps mark as concealed or transient — what password managers copy, one-time codes — is skipped before anything is stored.
Password managers are ignored by default: 1Password, Bitwarden, Keychain Access, Passwords, KeePassXC and others. Under Privacy, Add an App puts any other app on the list.
It stays on your Mac. The history lives in a private folder in Folia Files' data, left out of backups, never in iCloud.
Pause it before sharing your screen: Pause the history for 5 minutes, 1 hour, or until you resume. Clear All… empties it.
Large items stay light. Beyond 20 MB, only a thumbnail of the image or the start of the text is kept.

The Privacy section of Settings › Clipboard: password managers ignored by default, and the button to add another app

Spotlight or a clipboard manager?

Spotlight's history is built in and needs nothing to install: if you are on macOS 26 and only want to recover something copied a few minutes or hours ago, turn it on and you are done.

A clipboard manager like the one in Folia Files makes sense when you want:

a history that lasts 30 days, or forever;
items pinned for good;
pasting as plain text, and the first nine items one shortcut away;
apps of your choice ignored, and a pause button;
a history on macOS 14 or 15 too.

Folia Files needs to be open for its history to work; it can start at login and stay in the menu bar. And nothing stops you from keeping Spotlight's history turned on as well.