Here’s How to Find Your Clipboard History (Windows, Android)

Clipboard history is a useful productivity feature that can save you a ton of time throughout your workday by ensuring that the various items you copy/cut — from text fragments to URLs — are easily accessible later, even if you copy/cut more things in the meantime. It’s worth noting that the clipboard history feature isn’t enabled by default in Windows 10 and Windows 11. You’ll first need to enable it by visiting the Clipboard section in Settings. Android doesn’t have clipboard history built into the stock OS; however, you can get it by using a third-party keyboard app (Samsung Keyboard) or installing a third-party keyboard app (Gboard, SwiftKey) that supports these features.

There are some limitations to the built-in version of Windows’ clipboard history, introduced in October 2018, such as the way it clears history after a restart. Pinning items preserves them even after a restart. Another way to bypass these limitations and access more clipboard features — including search — is to download a dedicated clipboard app for Windows. On Android, while keyboard apps are also limited compared to dedicated clipboard apps, Google has scaled back the latter in Android 10 and later, so unless you have an old phone, you’ll have to use the keyboard app’s clipboard features. It’s also worth noting that because Android stores your clipboard history in your phone’s RAM, the history is deleted within a few hours. So, if you don’t pin an item, it’ll disappear without even a restart.

By default, clipboard history is turned off in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. To turn it on, press Windows Key + V, which will take you to the clipboard settings. If it doesn’t, you can do so by going to Start > Settings > System > Clipboard. Once you’re in the clipboard settings, you need to turn on the clipboard history feature by toggling the switch as shown in the image above. Now, you can find and use your clipboard history anytime you press Windows Key + V. It will appear next to your cursor in a text dialog, whether you’re in an app like Microsoft Word or a browser window.

If the text dialog is not selected, the clipboard history will appear in the lower right corner of the screen. It supports text, HTML, and bitmaps (read, images) up to 4 MB in size. A maximum of 25 items will be stored here from the moment you log into Windows until you restart or shut down your computer. Older items will disappear when new ones are added.

You can also pin items by clicking the ellipses next to each item in your history, and they will remain in your history even after restarting/shutdown. Pinned items do not count towards the 25-item limit. The ellipses menu (called See more in Windows 11) also lets you delete a single item, unpin an item, or clear all items except pinned ones. Windows 11 offers a Clear All button at the top of your clipboard history.

Here’s how to use the clipboard history feature on Samsung Keyboard. In case you’re not already using Samsung Keyboard as your default input method, here’s how. Go to Settings > General Management > Keyboard List & Defaults, then select Samsung Keyboard. Once you’ve enabled it, you can add the clipboard to your keyboard toolbar for easy access. Follow the same steps highlighted above and tap the gear icon next to Samsung Keyboard. Here, go to the Style & Layout section, then turn on the Keyboard Toolbar switch.

Now, visit any text field, such as the search box in the Google Search app, the navigation bar in your browser, or email or text, and wait for the keyboard to appear. The clipboard icon may already be in the toolbar. If not, tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner. This will bring up a list of keyboard tools, such as Translate and Modes.

Find Clipboard, then drag and drop it onto the toolbar. Now that you’re in the text box, you can access the clipboard history feature by tapping the clipboard icon, and you can also pin items (to keep them even after a restart) using the pin icon or delete items (to hide them from other users) using the trash can icon. In addition to text, the clipboard will save recent screenshots and copied images.

Many smartphones come with Gboard as a bundled keyboard, so chances are you already have it. If you don’t, install it from Google Play and follow the instructions to set it as your default keyboard. You can also go to Settings, search for the keyboard (usually located in System > Languages ​​& input), then go to Virtual Keyboard and switch to Gboard to set it as your default keyboard.

Now tap any text field and wait for the Gboard keyboard to appear. If you don’t see the clipboard icon in the toolbar, tap the four squares icon in the top left corner of the keyboard. You’ll see a list of Gboard tools, including Clipboard. Hold and drag it to the toolbar at the top. Tap the clipboard icon and you’ll see a toggle at the top, which is off by default — either turn it on or tap the “Enable clipboard” button. This will allow you to copy text and images and keep them in your clipboard history for one hour.

If you restart your phone before this period has elapsed, the history will be cleared. You can use the pencil icon in the upper right corner to select items in your clipboard history that you want to delete or pin using the corresponding icons. Pinned items will remain in your history until you unpin them. You can edit your clipboard settings by tapping the gear icon in the toolbar to go to Gboard settings, then selecting Clipboard. You can also select sections of text from copied text to paste them.

While we’ve detailed the methods for accessing the clipboard features in two keyboard apps, Samsung Keyboard and Gboard, the methods are pretty similar regardless of your keyboard of choice, including Microsoft’s SwiftKey — which includes a guide on how to use the clipboard feature. There are also a few clipboard apps for Android, with features like search and filters; however, these only work as intended on older versions of Android for security reasons.

Google in Android 10 and later restricts clipboard access to only default input method editor apps (such as keyboard apps) or those apps that are in the foreground. Therefore, to use clipboard manager apps in Android 10 and later, users need to use the Share menu to copy information to the app, instead of directly copying or cutting. Popular clipboard manager apps for Android include Clipper+ and Clipboard Manager.

There are several other popular clipboard management apps available for Windows, such as ClipAngel, CopyQ, Ditto, Clipboard Master, ClipClip, and Pasteboard. If you want to sync your clipboard across your Windows devices, you can enable the “Sync across devices” feature in the clipboard settings in Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can also sync clipboard items between your PC and your smartphone (this doesn’t just work on Android smartphones; it also works on iPhones), but you’ll need to set up Phone Link in Windows and install the Link to Windows app on your phone.

Unfortunately, Apple devices do not have native clipboard history options. Whether you are using a Mac, iPhone, or iPad, there is no built-in way to copy more than one item at a time. Each new item you copy will replace the previous copied item. Not only that, copied text or images will disappear from the clipboard after a few minutes. This applies to all clipboard types available on Apple devices — the primary/universal clipboard and the secondary clipboard.

The only workaround is to use a clipboard management app, and there are quite a few. The one we recommend for Mac, and one of the 20 best Mac apps you can use to improve your Apple experience, is Maccy . Another good app for Mac is CopyClip . A popular option for Mac, iPhone, and iPad is Paste – Endless Clipboard . Another trick is the Shortcuts app, which you can use on Mac or iOS/iPad to create a custom shortcut to save what you copy to individual or separate Notes files, or even separate text and image files.