Guide · macOS Tahoe & Spotlight
Spotlight keeps a list for a while. Copybook keeps the day.
How the built-in clipboard history in macOS Tahoe works, what it forgets, and when you want a page of your own.
How to check or change Spotlight’s clipboard window on Mac
- Open System Settings on your Mac and click Spotlight.
- Choose your clipboard history retention window: macOS Tahoe 26.1 lets you pick 30 minutes, 8 hours, or 7 days, or clear the history immediately.
- Once that window passes, Spotlight drops the item from the list.
Where Spotlight’s list stops short
- The pile expires: After 30 minutes, 8 hours, or 7 days, your copied links, notes, and colors are dropped.
- Everything sits in one flat list: Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon sit in the same ungrouped queue.
- Keys and passwords sit in the open: Copied API keys or tokens appear in plain text until the history expires or is cleared.
- Hex codes stay raw strings: Copying #ee7b6a doesn’t show a named color swatch you can search by name later.
How Copybook works alongside Spotlight
Copybook keeps every day on its own page in your Mac menu bar, names copied hex colors, fetches link page titles directly from your Mac, lets you group stickers on boards, and covers likely secrets until you reveal them. You can use both together.