If you have used Chronos iClipboard 5 or 6 before, see here for importing the clippings into iClip. Paste may not work since macOS 10.14 (Mojave) any more Thanks to Apple's Security Measures, you need to take extra steps to allow iClip to work fully. Trusted Mac download iClipboard 6.0. Virus-free and 100% clean download. Get iClipboard alternative downloads.

The clipboard provides a handy means of copying and pasting text, images, files and other elements from one location to another. However, it is somewhat limited in its ability to only hold one item at a time, and this is something that iClipboard aims to address.

The application makes it possible to store an almost unlimited number of items on the clipboard and includes and integrated viewer so you can easily check its contents. You can easily select which clip should be pasted into a document, and unwanted clippings can be easily removed.

Frequently used clippings can be assigned a label to make them easier to identify and you have the option of using drag and drop or keyboard shortcuts. It may be that you do not want to use iClipboard to capture data from a particular application, and you can configure an ignore list to achieve this.

The iClipboard Shelf provides easy access to the clips you have saved, and multiple clippings can be selected for pasting or moving in one fell swoop. This is an endlessly useful tool which will quickly become indispensible.

Verdict:

A great way to extend the functionality of the clipboard and make it more user friendly

iClip Help

Before writing an e-mail, please check if your issue is covered in the sections below.

I, Thomas Tempelmann, do my best to respond to emails within 24 hours. Please provide as much detail as possible (screenshots are nice) to help avoid 'back and forth' emails.

Clipboard Windows 10

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To keep up with News about iClip, follow iClip App on Twitter.

Manual

Read the manual here, which is also available inside iClip from its Help menu.

Or download the manual in PDF format for easier offline reading.

Other languages

Read the manual in a different languages, auto translated by Google:

(You may open either of the above links and choose another language at the top)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

'iClip.app' is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Bin.

If you get this error, it is likely that you have decompressed the downloaded zip file with an outdated 3rd decompression tool.

Please unzip the downloaded iClip.zip file with Apple's Archive Utility (ctrl-click on the zip file, then use Open With …) or re-download iClip using Safari (and make sure the option Open 'safe' files after downloading is checked in Safari's Preferences, under General).

And better also get rid of the decompression tool you're currently using. For a tool that can also handle .rar, .7z and many more formats, I recommend The Unarchiver.

Runtime Error in macOS Big Sur

If you get this error, you have been using an outdated version of iClip.

Please download the latest version from http://iclipapp.com (big green button) and place it into your Applications folder, replacing the old one.

The double click it to open it.

Also, please make sure you allow for update checks in the future by checking the option in iClip's preferences.

Transfer your clippings to another computer

Automatically copy selected text to iClip

@macautotips writes how to accomplish this with the help of Keyboard Maestro: Automatically Copy Selected Text with Keyboard Maestro and iClip.

Quickly switch between Clip Sets

In iClip's Preferences, under Hot Keys, you can set up various 'Switch to' hot keys.

Alternatively, if you have Keyboard Maestro, you can have even more control over this, defining other triggers and selecting specific Clip Sets. See this tweet.

Import your clippings from iClipboard

If you have used Chronos iClipboard 5 or 6 before, see here for importing the clippings into iClip.

Paste may not work since macOS 10.14 (Mojave) any more

Thanks to Apple's Security Measures, you need to take extra steps to allow iClip to work fully.

See this help article for instructions to make Paste work again.

Text needs to be larger, e.g. due to decreased eyesight

You can adjust iClip to show the text in bins, previews and menus in a larger font.

See this help article for instructions to make the text in iClip appear in a bigger font.

iClip's bin shows unrecognizable characters () but the popup preview shows the correct ones

This happens when you're copying text that uses special fonts that have no mapping to Unicode characters. The bins show plain (unicode) text, and in this case, the text could not be converted into plain text. This also means that you cannot paste such text into other programs as plain text. This is a limitation of the used font, not of iClip.

In the above example, the stars were using the WingDings font, as in: .

On the other hand, if the characters were chosen from a Unicode-compatible font, then they'll also display correctly in iClip and when pasting as plain text to other apps, like these: ⭑⭑⭑.

Why won't the iClip window hide even though I have iClip configured to 'automatically show and hide'?

If you click the iClip menu bar icon to show iClip*, the iClip window will not hide until you click the iClip menu bar icon again*, even with 'automatically show/hide' enabled. This is by design. Once iClip is hidden, auto show/hide will work as expected.

Alternatively, you can show and hide iClip by pressing the the hotkey (if configured), or by opening the app again (with Spotlight or by double-clicking the app icon).

How do I copy full-size pictures from Photos.app?

Apple's new Photos app makes it difficult to copy and paste pictures from the album. If you select and copy a picture from Photos, it'll appear in iClip, but as a Photos thumbnail instead of as a Picture clipping. Pasting such a Photos thumbnail into another application may not work, either, and if it works, it will be rather small.

The solution is to drag the pictures from Photos into iClip instead of using the Copy command. If you drag a picture, you will get the original, full-sized, picture, not the thumbnail. You can either drag the pictures into a bin, replacing its content, or drag them into iClip's [+] button at the botton or right, in order to place the pictures into a fresh bin. Alternatively, instead of dragging items onto the [+] button, you may also drag them onto iClip's icon in the menu bar for the same effect.

Why do I hear a sound every time I copy something to the clipboard?

When you upgraded from iClip 5.1.x to iClip 5.2, you'll start hearing a 'whit' sound every time you copy something. That sound is made after iClip has detected that something has been copyied into the clipboard and has added it to iClip. To turn this sound off, open iClip's Preferences via its menu and uncheck the Play Sounds when iClip records and pastes clippings box under the Miscellaneous tab.

You can also customize the sounds.

Known incompatibilities with other programs

Photoshop

While copying or cutting in Photoshop, you might notice that new clippings do not show up in the iClip Recorder. This is because Photoshop does not transfer the copied data to the clipboard unless Photoshop is made inactive, meaning that you bring another program to the front. Photoshop tries to be smart, avoiding filling the clipboard when it believes that it's the only app needing it - only when you switch to another app, it thinks it needs to fill the clipboard to provide the data to the other apps. Sadly, this is not the way Apple wants apps to do this, and iClip suffers as a result.

Microsoft Office

Paste from iClip into Word keeps pasting the most recently copied item.

This issue is not a bug in iClip but rather in Microsoft Office apps making wrong assumptions about what's in the clipboard. Unfortunately, Microsoft shows little interest in fixing that. It affects most clipboard recording tools, not just iClip.

There are two work-arounds:

• If you only work with plain (unformatted) text, you can simply force all your clips to be plain, e.g. by checking the option 'Always Paste as Plain Text' in the Preferences window.
• Otherwise, try this: Download this AppleScript file. In iClip's menu, use 'Open iClip Support Folder'. That'll open the iClip folder in Finder, which contains your clippings database and some other files that you should best leave alone. Place the downloaded iClip Events.scpt into the Scripts folder there. Then quit and reopen iClip.

Copying Images with Text

When copying text with embedded pictures from Word or Excel, they may not paste into non-Office apps correctly - often, the images will be missing. This is a common problem with Microsoft apps and is unrelated to iClip. To work around this, copy text and images separately.

Copied (app)

If you use the app Copied along with iClip, iClip may record clips twice. We currently have no solution to avoid this, but are in contact with Copied's author to resolve this (Aug 2020).

Clear Clipboard

Clipboard History

Previous iClip Versions

Clipboard With Storage

You may download older versions here. Note that these may not work well on recent Mac OS X versions any more, though:

Further Help articles