Technical Support General

Copy and Paste Not Working on Mac? Here’s How to Fix a Stuck Clipboard

1. Quit out of the Mac app(s) where copy/paste are not working as expected.

2. Open Activity Monitor application, it is found within the /Applications/Utilities/ folder, or you can hit Command+Space bar and type Activity Monitor to launch it via Spotlight.

3. In the Search box of Activity Monitor, type p board

4. Click on the p board process and then click the (X) in the Activity Monitor toolbar, then click on Force Quit button

5. Exit Activity Monitor.

Sometimes that can mean Mouse Keys are enabled, or that some other app is conflicting with the standard keyboard shortcuts. If for whatever reason copy and paste is still not working after this trick, go ahead and restart the Mac by going to Apple menu and choosing Restart.