I upgraded to MacOS Sierra yesterday, and since then I cannot copy paste across apps.
For eg. copying text from chrome allows me to paste it in chrome, but pastes nothing on safari or my text editor.
This probably has something to do with Universal Copy/Paste ? How can I disable it? Can't do any productive work without copy/paste
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), macOS Sierra (10.12)
So here is my current understanding of the cause of this and a solution that is little bit better than what has been proposed here by others.
There is are two system processes
/usr/libexec/pboard
/System/Library/CoreServices/pbs
Looks like these processes are responsible for holding and maintaining the paste buffer ( OS X name for the clipboard). These processes also maintain a system socket that other application talk to, that's how they can exchange the cut and paste material
There was a change introduced in the past few month that causes this processes to to fail and quit sometimes. They may or may not get automatically restarted by the OS X. But even when they do get restarted,
But even after the process is restarted the other applications are still trying to talk to the old socket. For which nobody is listening to.
So my solution is to check if these processing are running, if not restart them. And then restart the applications for which the Cut and Paste is broken.
This is not ideal solution, it's pain to restart Google Chrome and PyCharm with dozens of tabs and windows open, but that's bit better than restarting everything
I never experienced this problem until two weeks ago. Now it is getting highly annoying. Restart does help but only for a few hours.
I see few instances of this problem:
1) Cut and paste doesn't work at all
2) Contents of the clipboard get stuck. So no new cut/copy is possible, but I can paste stuck content. Sometimes quitting the application that copied the stuck text works.
I noticed that when cut and paste stops working it dragging and drop.
My Copy / Paste stopped working after updating to High Sierra. I read that installing Microsoft Remote Access would fix it which it did not. I then read another post referring to Clip Managers affecting certain systems. I uninstalled the Manager I was using and that fixed the issue. I then had to find another Manager that would conflict and cause Copy / Paste to stop working. In time I guess all Manager apps will fix this issue.
Try safe mode if your Mac doesn‘t finish starting up
How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac
Best Regards.
Try the advice you've been given about Safe Mode. I'd be extremely surprised if this failed to work correctly in Safe Mode.
If it does work correctly, try again in normal mode.
If it still fails after that, then it is likely that some other software that is installed on your mac is causing the problem.
If that is the case, run Etrecheck (an utility by a respected member of this community) and post its report here, so we have a better idea of your hardware and software setup so we can better help.
Open text edit via spotlight , click on new document write some thing in the text edit : for example you tube videos , select it , click on edit from top menu bar and again click on paste , or can press command + option + V .
Thanks !
I would simply shut down the machine and then boot the machine as normal.
Restarting seems to have solved it.
leroydouglas wrote:
I would simply shut down the machine and then boot the machine as normal.
pastelsky wrote:
Restarting seems to have solved it.
pastelsky—I am glad to hear this solved your problem. Good computing.
Restarting does not really help this. It has just started recently for me. I have shut down several times and I have a hard time copying and pasting between apps. I am not even trying to use the universal copy and paste between devices. I can't copy test from anything to paste in textedit, ultraedit, textmate..Nothing
Try restarting in Safe Mode. Does copy and paste work? Now try restarting again normally. Does it work?
I Am afraid this feature may be like Airdrop. Inconsistent behavior at best. The copy and paste has worked for me successfully a couple times. Howevet the last couple times I tried it has failed to work. YMMV.
Send Apple feedback may be the best we can do in an effort to resolve your issue
SEnt from my iPhone
Same problem for me. Trying in Safe Mode, rebooting, etc has not worked at all. Very frustrating that such a basic function cannot be performed. I would hope this can be addressed by Apple people soon. I use this function (or, I guess, I USED to use this function) all day long.
I have the same problem. I have to log out and log in again to workaround. It's really annoying!!!
BTW, the "Paste Selection" in iTerm2 works though.
I found a solution to my problem--download the Microsoft Remote Desktop (free) from App store. Installing that solved the HIGHLY IRRITATING AND UNNECESSARY problem. C'mon, Apple... Feeling like not updating anything any more...
Agreed! I am still having this problem. Started right after upgrade. Has nothing to do with other software. This is an apple problem. Restarting fixes it but then it starts again right away.
Safe Mode is not an option for normal work. This is significantly interrupting my ability to do work!
Someone below suggests installing Microsoft Remote Desktop but I have never used that and see now reason why that would be relevant.
Copy/Paste broken in MacOS Sierra
