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Apple Expands Spotlight Clipboard Settings in macOS Tahoe 26.1

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Apple quietly added a small but notable enhancement to Spotlight in macOS Tahoe 26.1, which was released on Monday. The update introduces new clipboard history controls for Spotlight, allowing users to decide how long copied items remain accessible in search results.

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Previously, Spotlight could optionally retain clipboard contents for up to eight hours, but the latest update expands that flexibility with three options – 30 minutes, 8 hours, or 7 days. There's also a new "Clear Clipboard History" button in System Settings ➝ Spotlight, giving users the ability to manually wipe stored clipboard data without having to wipe Spotlight search history wholesale.

The changes should be welcomed by anyone wanting finer control over how long potentially sensitive information is retained by Spotlight, and it puts the feature more on par with third-party clipboard management apps. Apple did not mention the change in its macOS 26.1 release notes, suggesting it may be just one of several under-the-radar refinements to macOS Tahoe 26.

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Top Rated Comments

sniffies Avatar
sniffies
8 months ago
Still barebones clipboard compared to Raycast's, but the 7-day history is definitely a much needed improvement.

Other improvements I'd like to see:

[LIST=1]
* Single-step keyboard shortcut; ⌘-space-4 just ain't cuttin it
* Full contents of copied data
* Copied image size and dimensions
* Number of characters/words for copied text
* Allowlist and blocklist for apps; for example, allow copying from Passwords app
* 30-, 60-, 90-day history
* Copied data filtering; for example, show text only, images only, links only, etc.
* Copied data previewing (not opening); for example, preview images, links, etc.
* Pinning, which would prevent pinned entries from getting cleared beyond history limit
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaus Avatar
cmaus
7 months ago

so what happens to our passwords copied with 1password? do they get indexed for everyone to find?
I just tried it with 1Password 7:
I clicked on a saved password, hence copying it into my clipboard, and: Spotlight did not add it to its clipboard history. 👍
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
svish
8 months ago
Glad to see more controls. Ability to manually wipe is very great. Will be updating my Macs soon.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
W
WWP99
8 months ago
I just want it to work. Spotlight is so poorly designed that I can never find a file I literally type the name of. Have to use third-party apps, which are much better.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jarman92 Avatar
jarman92
8 months ago

so what happens to our passwords copied with 1password? do they get indexed for everyone to find?
Do you think Spotlight...publishes its index publicly?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Devnul0 Avatar
Devnul0
8 months ago

so what happens to our passwords copied with 1password? do they get indexed for everyone to find?
Hopefully whatever it is that password managers do to keep the things that they stuff into the pasteboard from getting involved with Continuity (copy on one device, paste on the other), will keep them out of the hands of Spotlight. But realistically it needs to be tested to be sure, because Apple has shown us some really stupid things.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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