Since macOS Tahoe, Spotlight has gained more hidden features than meets the eye. One of these is the ability to consult the clipboard history — ideal when you’ve accidentally overwritten something or want to quickly retrieve previously copied text.
In this article, we’ll show you how to access the contents of your clipboard via Spotlight, exactly how far back that history goes, and how to use the feature on a Mac.
Spotlight for Mac
Spotlight is macOS’ built-in search feature that helps you quickly find files, apps, emails, and more on your Mac. You can easily open Spotlight with the keyboard shortcut command⌘ + Space bar or by clicking on the magnifying glass in the menu bar.
In addition to searching, Spotlight can also perform quick calculations, display definitions, and retrieve information from the Internet. Since macOS Tahoe, you can directly consult your Clipboard history from Spotlight, but before you can use this you must activate the function.
Clipboard in Spotlight
With access to Clipboard History in Spotlight, you can see not only the current clipboard item, but also a timeline of recently copied or cut texts and other clippings. You open this history via a button next to the search bar in Spotlight or with the keyboard shortcut command⌘ + Space followed by command⌘ + 4.
For example, you can quickly find and reuse a text you copied half an hour ago. The function only works after you have given permission, so that your privacy is guaranteed.
Click the copy button next to the item in Spotlight to copy the item from history to the current clipboard and paste it in the desired location.
Enable clipboard history
The first time you open the tab in Spotlight for Mac, macOS will ask you if you want to enable the feature. If this is not the case, or if you want to adjust the option afterwards, you can do so using the step-by-step plan below.
- Open ▸ System settings
- Go to ‘Spotlight‘
- Scroll down to ‘Results from clipboard‘
- Enable the option
Adjust period
You can then specify a desired period under ‘Clipboard history is available in Spotlight’; standard this is 8 hours. This means that after this period the history in the clipboard will be deleted.
The Clipboard History mainly supports text, files and images and also works with Universal Clipboard between Apple devices.