How to find something you copied earlier on a Mac

Out of the box, ⌘V pastes only the last thing you copied. To get back something from earlier you need a clipboard history: macOS Tahoe has a short one in Spotlight, and a clipboard manager keeps far more.

1. Press ⌘Space to open Spotlight.
2. Press ⌘4, or click the Clipboard button right of the search field.
3. Type to search what you copied, and copy it again.

Apple's help for macOS 27 lets you keep it 30 minutes, 8 hours or 7 days, in Spotlight's settings. On macOS Tahoe the setting is a switch called Clipboard Search. The first time, Spotlight may ask you to allow it. Apple warns that sensitive information may show up there.

1. The first time you copy something with Koi running, click Keep them when the notch asks “Keep what you copy?”.
2. Hover the notch, open Tools and click Copy history.
3. Search the words, links, file paths and app names, or scroll by day.
4. Pick it and click Copy, or press Return.

• Keeps words, links, pictures and the paths of files you copy in Finder, for 6 months.
• Never keeps passwords or what apps mark as private.
• Stays on your Mac, never sent and never read by Koi's AI.

More on Koi's Copy history.

Maccy is free and open source, Paste syncs your history to iPhone and iPad, and Pastebot adds filters and stacks. All of them side by side in the best clipboard managers for Mac.