How do I paste something I copied before the last copy?

Open ClipHistory's history with Cmd+Shift+V, find the older text, and press Enter to paste it. macOS alone can't do this because it only stores the most recent copy.

Can I paste old text as plain text without formatting?

Yes. ClipHistory preserves rich text but can also clean a clip to strip formatting before you paste it.

How many past copies can I paste from?

ClipHistory keeps your last 150 unpinned clips, plus unlimited pinned clips for text you want to keep permanently.

Is my copied text stored online?

No. All clips stay local on your Mac. There's no cloud sync and no account required.

How to Paste Old Copied Text on Mac

You copied a paragraph, then copied something else, and now the first one is gone. macOS keeps only your most recent copy, so Cmd+V always pastes the latest thing — never the one before it. To paste older copied text, you need a clipboard history.

Why Cmd+V Only Pastes the Last Copy

The macOS clipboard is a single slot. Every Cmd+C replaces what was there. There's no "previous paste" and no list to choose from. This is fine until you're juggling several pieces of text at once — quotes, names, snippets of code — and you lose the one you actually needed.

Pasting Older Text with a Clipboard Manager

A clipboard manager records each copy so you can paste any of them later. With ClipHistory:

Press Cmd+Shift+V to open the history panel.
Find the older text — scroll, or start typing to filter.
Hit Enter, and it pastes into wherever your cursor is.

Your last 150 text clips are available this way. That covers a normal working day of copying without losing anything.

Filtering to the Right Snippet

Don't scroll if you don't have to. Open the panel and type a few words from the text you want. ClipHistory narrows the list instantly, so finding a sentence you copied an hour ago takes seconds.

Pasting as Plain Text

Copied text often carries formatting you don't want — fonts, colors, sizes from a web page. ClipHistory preserves rich text, but it can also clean a clip so you paste plain, unformatted text into your document. That's an AI transform you run on demand using your own API key, and like everything else it happens locally on your Mac.

Reusing the Same Text Often

If there's text you paste every day — a reply template, your address, a code block — turn it into a snippet. Snippets live separately from the rolling 150-clip history, so they're always one search away. You can also pin any clip to keep it permanently; pinned clips are unlimited.

Queueing Several Pastes in a Row

Filling out a form or a template with several values? The paste stack lets you collect multiple clips, then paste them one after another in order with repeated presses — no jumping back to the source each time.

Quick Setup

ClipHistory is a universal binary (Apple Silicon and Intel), signed and notarized by Apple, and runs on macOS 12 and later. Download it, open it once, grant accessibility permission, and it starts recording copies immediately. No account, no cloud — your text stays on your machine.

Stop losing what you copy. ClipHistory keeps your last 150 clips (plus unlimited pinned ones) right under Cmd+Shift+V, with AI transforms that run on your own API key and never leave your Mac. Get ClipHistory for macOS — $19.99, one-time