Copy and paste between iPhone and Mac: how to make it work

You copied a link on your iPhone and you want it on your Mac. Or you wrote something on your Mac and need it on your phone. You don't have to email it to yourself. Apple's Universal Clipboard lets you copy on one device and paste on another, and Paste turns that one-off hand-off into a clipboard history that follows you across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Set up Universal Clipboard

Universal Clipboard is Apple's built-in way to copy on one device and paste on another. It's part of Continuity, so there's nothing to install. Each device just needs:

• To be signed in to iCloud with the same Apple Account.

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on, with the devices near each other.

• Handoff enabled — on Mac in System Settings → General → AirDrop & Continuity (called AirDrop & Handoff on some versions; turn on Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices), and on iPhone or iPad in Settings → General → AirPlay & Continuity (or AirPlay & Handoff; turn on Handoff). On a Mac older than macOS Ventura 13, the switch is in System Preferences → General.

That's it. Copying and pasting between your devices now works just like it does within a single device.

Copy on one device, paste on another

With Universal Clipboard on, this works exactly like normal copy and paste:

• From iPhone or iPad to Mac: copy on your phone (touch and hold, then Copy), switch to your Mac, and paste with Command-V.

• From Mac to iPhone or iPad: copy on your Mac with Command-C, then long-press where you want it on your phone and tap Paste.

• Between iPhone and iPad: copy on one and paste on the other the same way.

There's one catch. The copied item is only available for a short time, until you copy something else. Universal Clipboard only ever holds the most recent thing you copied.

If it isn't working

Universal Clipboard is a hand-off between two devices that are near each other. It doesn't store your copy in your Apple Account for later. So when a paste fails, one of the devices is usually missing something. Apple lists four conditions:

• The devices are near each other.

• Each device is signed in with the same Apple Account.

• Each device has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on.

• Each device has Handoff turned on. It's on by default.

The two that catch people most often are distance and the account. A Mac in another room, or a work Apple Account on the laptop and a personal one on the phone, both fail with no error message. The same four checks apply to any pair of devices, including an iPhone and an iPad.

If Handoff was already on, turn it off and back on again on both devices.

The copy may have expired

Sometimes nothing is broken at all. In Apple's words, the copy "remains there briefly, or until you replace it by copying something else on either device." Two things follow from that:

• Time matters. If you copied on your phone, got pulled into something else, and came back to your Mac ten minutes later, the copy may be gone. Copy it again and paste straight away.

• Either device can overwrite it. Copying anything on your Mac replaces what your iPhone sent, even if you never pasted it.

So a hand-off that works when you test it and fails during real work is usually a timing problem, with nothing wrong in your settings.

Apple's three fixes

If the four conditions hold and the copy is fresh, Apple's own troubleshooting is three steps, in this order:

1. Install any available software updates on each device.

2. Restart your devices.

3. Check the setup again on each device, including that they are near each other.

It also helps to have both devices awake and unlocked when you copy. A phone locked in your pocket is the most common case of "near each other" that still doesn't work.

When you need more than the last copy

Universal Clipboard is great for a single hand-off, but it forgets everything the moment you copy your next item. Paste keeps a searchable history of everything you copy, synced across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad through your private iCloud, so the link you copied an hour ago, or yesterday, is still right there.

Instead of re-copying the address you pasted this morning, you scroll back and reuse it. You can search your whole history and organize the things you reuse, like templates, links, and snippets, into pinboards that are ready to paste into any app, on any of your devices.

Universal Clipboard moves your last copy from one device to the next. Paste turns that into a clipboard you can actually rely on: everything you copy, on every device, whenever you need it.

Try Paste for free on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Download Paste, or get it on Setapp.