Help & Support

PasteNote 1.0 · Requires macOS 15.5 or later

About PasteNote

PasteNote is a menu bar clipboard history and note utility for macOS. It stores supported clipboard content locally on your Mac and provides quick copy, pinning, notes, privacy mode, and configurable keyboard shortcuts.

PasteNote does not require an account and does not provide cloud synchronization.

Getting started

  1. Launch PasteNote.
  2. Read the first-launch privacy notice.
  3. Select Accept and Start Monitoring if you want PasteNote to begin recording supported clipboard changes.
  4. Use the PasteNote icon in the macOS menu bar to open the main panel.

If you quit instead of accepting, PasteNote will not begin clipboard monitoring.

Default keyboard shortcuts

  • Open clipboard history: Shift-Command-V
  • Open notes: Shift-Command-N
  • Copy clipboard item 1-10: Command-1 through Command-0
  • Pin clipboard item 1-5: Shift-Command-1 through Shift-Command-5

You can review, change, or clear shortcuts in PasteNote Settings → Shortcuts. PasteNote prevents the same shortcut from being assigned to two PasteNote actions. macOS or another app may still reserve a shortcut; choose a different combination if it does not work reliably.

Clipboard history

PasteNote can save text, images, and file references, depending on the content types enabled in Settings.

  • Select an item to preview it.
  • Copy an item to place it back on the system clipboard.
  • Pin an item to keep it in a floating window.
  • Delete an item when it is no longer needed.

For file items, PasteNote stores a reference to the original file. If the file is moved, renamed, deleted, or no longer accessible, PasteNote may not be able to open it.

Notes

Open the Notes tab to create and manage notes. Notes are stored locally on your Mac. You can edit, copy, preview, pin, and delete notes from the app.

Privacy mode

Use the privacy control in the main PasteNote panel to enable Privacy Mode.

While Privacy Mode is active:

  • New clipboard changes are not saved.
  • Content copied during that period is not imported later when monitoring resumes.
  • Existing history and notes remain available until you delete them.

Clearing clipboard history

Open PasteNote Settings → Storage → Clear All History and confirm the action.

This removes PasteNote clipboard records and locally managed original images and thumbnails. Notes are managed separately and are not removed by clearing clipboard history.

This action cannot be undone from within PasteNote.

Database recovery

If PasteNote cannot open its local database, it displays a recovery window instead of repeatedly crashing.

  1. Try Retry first, especially after resolving a disk-space or permission problem.
  2. Do not reset the store unless retry continues to fail.
  3. Reset is performed only after explicit confirmation. PasteNote attempts to preserve the previous store in a backup before creating a new database.

If the data is important, contact support before resetting and keep the Mac unchanged as much as possible.

Common troubleshooting

PasteNote does not record new clipboard content

  • Confirm that you accepted the first-launch privacy notice.
  • Confirm that Privacy Mode is off.
  • Check Settings → Storage and make sure the relevant text, image, or file type is enabled.
  • Copy a new item after PasteNote is running; existing clipboard content may not be imported automatically.
  • Quit and reopen PasteNote.

A keyboard shortcut does not work

  • Open Settings → Shortcuts and check whether the shortcut is assigned.
  • Try a different shortcut that is not used by macOS or another application.
  • Confirm that PasteNote is running in the menu bar.

An image cannot be saved

  • Check that the Mac has sufficient free disk space.
  • Confirm that PasteNote can write to its application container.
  • Recopy the image after resolving the storage problem.

A file item no longer opens

The original file may have been moved, renamed, deleted, disconnected, or made inaccessible. Locate the original file and copy it again.

PasteNote is not visible in the Dock

PasteNote is primarily a menu bar app. Use its menu bar icon to open the main interface.

About, privacy, support, and quit

Open the More menu in the PasteNote main panel to access:

  • About PasteNote
  • Privacy Policy
  • Help & Support
  • Quit PasteNote

Privacy policy

Read the PasteNote Privacy Policy

Contact support

Email:

When reporting an issue, please include:

  • PasteNote version and build number.
  • macOS version and Mac model.
  • Steps that reproduce the issue.
  • What you expected and what happened instead.
  • Whether the issue occurs with Privacy Mode on or off.

Do not send passwords, private clipboard content, confidential notes, or files unless necessary and you are comfortable sharing them.