Maccy
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Switching from CopyClip to Maccy: A Practical Migration Guide
Quick answer: Switching from CopyClip to Maccy takes about five minutes. Install Maccy App, set a hotkey, add your ignore rules, then quit and remove CopyClip. Your old clipboard history will not transfer, because CopyClip has no export feature , but Maccy Mac builds a fresh, searchable, local-only history from the first copy.
Reading time: about 7 minutes.
Why people leave CopyClip in the first place
CopyClip does one job well: it sits in the menu bar and remembers the last handful of things you copied. For many people that is enough. The friction usually shows up in three places:
- Finding old clips. A menu-bar list works for 10 items. At 100 you want to type a few letters and jump to the match.
- Keyboard-first use. If you reach for the mouse to open a menu, you lose the speed that makes a clipboard manager worth having.
- Non-text content. Screenshots, copied files, and rich text are where simpler managers tend to fall short. Check the current CopyClip feature list on its Mac App Store page before relying on this comparison.
Maccy Clipboard is built around the opposite assumption: you will open it with a hotkey, type a few characters, and press Enter.
CopyClip vs Maccy: what actually changes
| Area | CopyClip | Maccy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Distributed through the Mac App Store; check current pricing and tiers | Free and open source (MIT license). The Mac App Store build is a paid convenience option; GitHub and Homebrew builds are free |
| Opening it | Menu bar icon, optional hotkey | Global hotkey (default Shift+Cmd+C) opens a popup |
| Search | Browse the list | Type immediately to fuzzy-filter your history |
| Pinning | Check your version | Pin items so they stay at the top (Option+P) |
| Ignoring apps | Supported via app exclusion settings | Settings → Ignore → Applications |
| Data location | Local to your Mac | Local to your Mac; no account, no cloud sync |
| Source code | Closed | Open on GitHub, so you can audit what it does with your clipboard |
Where I have written , I am deliberately not asserting a CopyClip detail from memory. CopyClip has had more than one major version, and behavior differs between them. Confirm against the version you actually run.
Step-by-step: moving from CopyClip to Maccy
1. Save anything you still need from CopyClip
Because there is no import path between the two apps, open CopyClip once and scan your history. Copy out anything you genuinely need, such as a license key, a long snippet, or an address, and put it somewhere permanent. Snippets you reuse constantly belong in a text expander or a notes app anyway, not in clipboard history.
2. Install Maccy
You have three options:
- Homebrew:
brew install maccy - GitHub Releases: download the latest build from the project’s releases page and drag it to Applications.
- Mac App Store: convenient if you want automatic updates through the store.
Check the project README for the minimum macOS version of the current release. Recent releases have raised the requirement , so older Macs may need an earlier build.
3. Grant the permission Maccy needs
To paste directly into the frontmost app, Maccy asks for Accessibility access. On macOS, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and enable Maccy. Without it, Maccy can still copy the selected item to your clipboard, but you will need to press Cmd+V yourself.
4. Set your hotkey and open Maccy
Open Maccy’s settings (Cmd+, while Maccy is open, or via its menu bar icon) and choose a hotkey on the General tab. If your muscle memory is attached to a CopyClip shortcut, assign the same combination here so the switch is invisible.
5. Recreate your ignore rules
This is the step people skip and regret. If you excluded a password manager in CopyClip, do the same in Maccy: Settings → Ignore → Applications, and add 1Password, Bitwarden, Keychain-adjacent tools, or anything else that handles secrets.
Maccy also lets you ignore specific pasteboard types under the same Ignore tab. Many password managers mark their copies with a “concealed” or “transient” type so clipboard tools skip them. Maccy respects common ones by default, but I would still add your password manager explicitly rather than trust a default .
6. Tune history size
Maccy’s history size is configurable in settings (the default has been around 200 items ). If you want a shorter memory for privacy reasons, lower it. A smaller history also means less sensitive material sitting on disk.
7. Retire CopyClip
Quit CopyClip, remove it from System Settings → General → Login Items if it launches at startup, then delete it from Applications. Running two clipboard managers at once is a recipe for duplicate entries and race conditions, so do not leave both active “just in case.”
Daily workflow in Maccy (the 60-second version)
- Press your hotkey. The popup opens.
- Start typing. The list filters as you type.
- Press Enter to paste the highlighted item into the app you were using.
- Hold Option when selecting to paste without formatting (this behavior can be inverted in settings ).
- Pin anything you reuse with Option+P; delete an entry with Option+Delete.
What you will miss, and what you will not
Honest trade-offs matter here, so:
- No history import. You start empty. After a day of normal use, you will not notice.
- No cloud sync. Maccy is local-first by design. If you need the same clipboard across a Mac and an iPhone, Apple’s Universal Clipboard handles the live copy, but neither app gives you synced history.
- Less hand-holding. Maccy is a keyboard-driven tool with a compact interface. If you liked clicking through a menu list, expect a short adjustment period.
- Gain: auditability. Because the code is public, anyone can verify that clipboard contents are not sent anywhere. For a tool that sees every password you copy, that matters.
Troubleshooting the switch
Maccy opens but does not paste into my app
Almost always the Accessibility permission. Remove Maccy from the Accessibility list, re-add it, and relaunch.
My hotkey does not trigger Maccy
Another app is probably holding the same combination, possibly CopyClip if it is still running. Quit it, or pick a different shortcut. Also check System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts for conflicts.
Sensitive items are showing up in history
Add the source app under Settings → Ignore → Applications, then clear the existing history from Maccy’s menu so old entries are gone.
Is switching worth it?
If you copy a few things a day and CopyClip’s menu does the job, you do not need to change. If you find yourself scrolling for an item you copied an hour ago, want to search by typing, or prefer a clipboard tool whose code you can read, Maccy is a quick and low-risk move. The worst case is five minutes of setup and an easy rollback, since CopyClip stays available from wherever you originally got it.
What is the one thing you copy most often that you wish you could find faster? That is usually the best test for whether search-first history changes your workflow.