How to pause your clipboard history on macOS
You can do this with Paste My. One shortcut stops recording, the menu-bar icon shows which state you are in, and the same shortcut starts it again.
Most of the time you want everything kept — that is the point. But there are stretches where you would rather nothing were recorded at all: working through an account recovery, handling somebody else's details, sharing your screen in a meeting.
Pausing is the blunt instrument for exactly those stretches. It is one keystroke, it is visible while it is on, and it is one keystroke to undo.
Pause and resume
Press ⇧⌘K
Saving stops immediately. Nothing you copy from this moment is recorded, and nothing already in your history is touched.
The app carries on running — your history is still there to search and copy from. It has simply stopped adding to it.
Check the menu-bar icon
The icon shows whether saving is on or paused, so the state is always visible without opening anything.
This matters more than it sounds. Almost every “my history is not working” moment is a paused history, and the icon is what turns that into a two-second check.
⌘1⌘2⌘3⌘4The menu-bar picker. Start typing to narrow it, then press ⌘1 to ⌘9 to put one of the first nine back on your clipboard. Or toggle it from the menu bar
The picker has the same switch, so you can pause and resume without remembering a shortcut at all.
The same menu is where you open Settings and quit, so everything is under one icon.
Press ⇧⌘K again
Recording starts again from that moment. Anything copied while paused was not recorded and cannot be recovered — that is the whole point of pausing.
If you needed something from that stretch, copy it again now that saving is back on.
Pausing is deliberately not sticky across everything. If you want a permanent exclusion rather than a temporary one, an app on the ignore list is the better tool — its copies are always skipped without you remembering anything.
Pause, exclude, or let it mask
Pausing is one of three answers, and it is the right one less often than people assume — because the other two need no decision at the time.
- Pause when the sensitive stretch is a period of time rather than an app. You choose it, and you have to remember to turn it back on.
- Exclude an app when the same app is always the problem. Put it on the ignore list and its copies are skipped entirely — not the content, not even the app's name — with nothing to remember.
- Let it mask for individual secrets. Passwords, API keys, one-time codes and real card numbers are recognised on your Mac and hidden on screen until you choose to reveal them.
And one thing that needs no setting at all: password managers mark what they put on the clipboard as private, and that content is never stored in the first place.
If it is already recorded
Pausing stops the future. For something already in your history there are two other routes.
- Delete the clipping. Individual entries can be removed, which is the surgical answer.
- Clear your history. Everything goes except the clippings you pinned or stashed, with a confirmation before it happens.
There is also an option to remove clippings older than a number of days automatically, which keeps the whole question from arising as often. Pinned clippings are never removed by it.
Pausing before you share your screen
This is the case worth planning for, because it is the one where a clipboard history is most exposed and least on your mind.
Opening your history in front of an audience shows recent clippings. Likely secrets are masked until you choose to reveal them, so the worst case is largely covered — but ordinary clippings are not secrets and are shown normally, and a client's address on a shared screen is still somebody's address.
- Before the call — ⇧⌘K to pause, so nothing from the session is recorded.
- During — the icon shows paused, so you can confirm at a glance without opening a window.
- After — press it again. Anything you actually needed can be copied once more.
For a recurring case, an app on the ignore list is better than a habit — it needs no remembering at all.
If pausing is not doing what you expect
Things are still appearing
Check the icon. If it shows recording, the toggle did not land — another app may have taken the keystroke while it was in front. Use the menu-bar picker instead, where nothing can intercept a click.
There is a gap in your history
That is what a pause looks like from the other side. Nothing copied while paused was recorded, so the history resumes where you turned it back on.
If the gap is a surprise, saving was probably paused for longer than you thought — the icon is the fastest way to avoid that.
You forgot to turn it back on
It happens, which is why the state is on the menu bar rather than buried. If you regularly forget, consider whether an ignore-list entry for the app in question would do the job instead — it needs no remembering at all.
Questions people ask
Does pausing delete anything?
No. It stops new clippings being recorded. Everything already in your history stays exactly as it was, and remains searchable and copyable while paused.
Can I get back something I copied while paused?
No — it was never recorded, which is the point. Resume saving and copy it again if you need it.
Is there a way to pause automatically for certain apps?
An app on the ignore list has its copies skipped permanently, which is the better tool for a recurring case. You can also set an app's capture to off.
Does pausing hide the app?
No. The window, your history and search all work normally while paused. Only new recording stops.
How do I know it is paused?
The menu-bar icon shows the state, so it is visible without opening anything.
What about passwords — do I need to pause for those?
Generally not. Password managers mark what they put on the clipboard as private and that content is never stored. Other likely secrets are recognised and masked on screen until you choose to reveal them.
Does pausing survive a restart?
Pausing is a state you set deliberately and the menu-bar icon always shows it, so whatever the state is, it is visible rather than something you have to infer.
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