It’s one of those things you don't even think about until it stops. You hit Command + C, move your cursor, hit Command + V, and... nothing. Or worse, it pastes something you copied three hours ago. It's incredibly jarring. We rely on the clipboard as a fundamental extension of our digital brains, so when copy and paste on Mac not working becomes your reality, it feels like the computer is gasping for air.
Honestly, it’s usually a software hiccup involving a hidden process called pboard. This is the "Pasteboard" daemon. It’s the background worker responsible for holding onto your data while you move between apps. When that worker goes on strike or gets stuck in a loop, your clipboard dies.
I’ve seen this happen across every version of macOS from Mojave to the latest Sequoia builds. It doesn't matter if you're on a shiny M3 Max MacBook Pro or an old Intel iMac; the plumbing of the clipboard remains largely the same, and so do the leaks.
Why Your Clipboard Suddenly Quit
Most people assume their keyboard is broken. It’s rarely the keyboard. If your "C" and "V" keys work fine when you're typing an email, the hardware is innocent. The issue is almost always the communication layer between the operating system and the application you’re using.
Sometimes, it’s a specific app like Microsoft Word or Photoshop that hijacks the clipboard. These "pro" apps often have their own internal clipboard managers that try to be smarter than macOS. They clash. They freeze. Other times, it's a "helpful" third-party clipboard manager like CopyClip or Paste that has encountered a database error and is now blocking the system-wide function.
The Force Quit Fix (The One That Actually Works)
When copy and paste on Mac not working drives you to the brink of a restart, try this first. You don't actually need to reboot your entire computer 90% of the time. You just need to kill the pboard process and let macOS respawn it.
You can do this through the Activity Monitor. Open it up (Command + Space, type "Activity Monitor"), and in the search bar at the top right, type "pboard". You’ll see a single process. Click it, hit the "X" at the top, and select Force Quit.
The magic happens instantly. macOS realizes the process is gone and starts a fresh one. Try copying something now. It usually works immediately.
Using the Terminal for Speed
If you’re comfortable with a bit of code, the Terminal is faster.
- Open Terminal.
- Type
killall pboard. - Hit Enter.
There’s no "success" message. The cursor just moves to a new line. But that command is like a "reset" button for your clipboard's brain.
Dealing with the WindowServer Glitch
Sometimes, the issue isn't just the clipboard; it's the entire windowing system. This is a bit more "under the hood." The WindowServer process manages everything you see on the screen. If you notice that you can't click certain buttons and your copy-paste is dead, WindowServer might be the culprit.
Be careful here. If you "kill" WindowServer, it will log you out of your Mac immediately. You’ll lose any unsaved work in open apps. However, if a standard restart doesn't fix your clipboard issues, a forced logout via killing WindowServer sometimes clears out deeper architectural stuck points that a "soft" restart misses.
App-Specific Drama: Looking at You, Chrome and Excel
Not all clipboard failures are system-wide. Have you noticed it only happens in Google Chrome? Or maybe just in Excel?
Chrome is notorious for this. Sometimes a rogue extension—especially those "Right Click Disabler" bypassers or certain ad blockers—messes with the browser's ability to access the system clipboard. If you find copy and paste on Mac not working only within a browser, try opening an Incognito window. If it works there, one of your extensions is the saboteur.
Excel has its own weirdness. It uses a "marching ants" border to show what's copied. If you press "Escape," that border disappears, and the clipboard is often cleared. It’s a design choice, albeit an annoying one. If you’re trying to copy from Excel to another app and it keeps failing, try keeping Excel open and the selection active until the paste is complete.
The Role of Universal Clipboard
If you have an iPhone and a Mac, you’re likely using Universal Clipboard. This is part of the "Handoff" feature. It’s supposed to be seamless. You copy a text on your iPhone and paste it on your Mac.
In reality, it's a common point of failure. If your Mac is waiting for a "handshake" from your iPhone over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, it might hang the local clipboard.
How to troubleshoot Handoff:
- Turn Bluetooth off and back on for both devices.
- Ensure both are on the same Wi-Fi network.
- Go to System Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff and toggle "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices" off and then back on.
Often, the "stuck" clipboard is just the Mac waiting for data from an iPhone that is currently in a dead zone or has Bluetooth disabled.
📖 Related: How Percy Spencer Invented the Microwave Oven by Accident
Deep System Resets: NVRAM and SMC
If you’ve killed pboard, restarted your Mac, and disabled Handoff, but you’re still seeing copy and paste on Mac not working, we have to go deeper. This usually points to a corruption in how the OS handles low-level hardware communication.
For Intel Macs, resetting the NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory) is a classic move. Shut down, turn it on, and immediately hold Option + Command + P + R for about 20 seconds.
On Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 chips), there isn't a manual NVRAM reset combo. Instead, these machines perform a similar check every time they boot from a full shutdown. If you've just been "sleeping" your laptop for weeks, do a full shut down. Wait 30 seconds. Turn it back on. This forced initialization fixes more than you'd think.
Permissions and Security Software
MacOS is increasingly restrictive. Some security software (like certain builds of Bitdefender or Norton) or enterprise-level "Data Loss Prevention" (DLP) tools can actually block the clipboard. They do this to prevent sensitive info from being moved out of secure apps.
If you're on a work-managed Mac, check with IT. They might have a policy pushed via JAMF or another MDM (Mobile Device Management) tool that restricts clipboard history or cross-app pasting.
Also, check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. If a weird app you don't recognize has permission to "control your computer," it might be intercepting keystrokes or clipboard data. When in doubt, revoke access to anything that looks suspicious.
Actionable Next Steps to Restore Your Workflow
Don't panic and reinstall macOS just yet. Follow this specific sequence to get your productivity back:
- Isolate the issue: Open the "Notes" app. Try copying and pasting there. If it works in Notes but not in your browser, the problem is the browser.
- The Quick Nuke: Open Terminal and run
killall pboard. This solves the vast majority of cases in under five seconds. - Check for "Clipboard Managers": If you use apps like Maccy, Paste, or Unclutter, quit them entirely. They are the most common cause of clipboard conflicts.
- Toggle Handoff: Turn off "Allow Handoff" in your System Settings. If the clipboard suddenly starts working, you know the issue is a sync conflict with your iPhone or iPad.
- The Safe Mode Test: Restart your Mac and hold the Shift key (or follow the Silicon instructions for startup options) to enter Safe Mode. If copy-paste works here, you have a third-party app starting up at login that is breaking the system. Remove your Login Items one by one.
The clipboard is a "quiet" feature. You only notice it when it's gone. Usually, it's just a hung process, not a dying machine. Most people find that the killall pboard command is the only tool they ever truly need to keep in their back pocket.