Suddenly, selected text is copied to clipboard

[cavenewt]

I started using PopClip a few months ago and find it incredibly useful. I also use ClipboardHistory, one of the numerous clipboard managers available.

When I first started using PopClip I do not remember selected text being automatically copied to the clipboard. My main uses of PopClip are changing capitalization, removing spaces, or adding hyphens. Recently I started noticing my ClipboardHistory being littered with these bits of text that I had applied PopClip actions to.

In another thread Nick implies this is a bug in MacOS (I’m on Catalina). The only update I may have done recently was maybe a security update or something minor, not a system upgrade. Sequential Paste just FASTER! - #4 by nick

I would like for this not to happen if possible, but it’s an annoyance, not a dealbreaker. I could see it being problematic on for someone not using a clipboard manager because it would change the sole contents of the clipboard.

[nick]

Are you finding that the selected text is being copied and actually left on the clipboard? Or only appearing in the history?

PopClip uses the clipboard as its way to see what text you have selected oin some apps. Specifically, will get the app to copy, look at the text, then put back the original contents. It all happens in a few milliseconds.

But some clipboard managers are so fast at detecting the changed clipboard, that they show this very brief clipboard change in the history. Normally you don’t notice but having a clipboard manager can make it show up. (Not all clipboard manager are affected, indeed a couple have specifically added a mechanism to make sure it doesn’t happen for PopClip clipboards.)

[cavenewt]

Thank you for that explanation – it explains a lot. And yes, the contents of the clipboard are changed.

I use ClipboardHistory by Agile Route. I tried adding PopClip to its ignored apps list, and restarted CH, but it still happens. No doubt because CH is only looking at the frontmost app for its exclusion list.

I don’t see PopClip putting back the original contents of the clipboard, if that’s what you meant. Experimentally, I quit ClipboardHistory and then applied PopClip to some selected text. It still copied it to the clipboard, without doing an explicit Copy command. So it doesn’t appear to be Clipboard-History-specific. I experimented in Mail, TextEdit, and Safari (under Catalina).

Did I misunderstand what you meant about PopClip restoring the contents of the clipboard?

[cavenewt]

I just ran across this discussion from last year.

Idea: Restore Clipboard

Depending on the intention of the extension, sometimes I don’t want PopClip to modify the text on my clipboard. I understand that changing the way the app works entirely would be a lot of work, but I wonder if in the extension we could specify an option to restore the clipboard to the original after pasting?

[nick]

It sounds like you are experiencing a bug rather than the expected behaviour. When I’ve debugged this in the past, PopClip is trying to put back the contents but the macOS clipboard for some reason does not accept the update. It has only happened to me once or twice in the last 10 years or so, so I’ve never been able to reliably reproduce the fault to debug it. And then, usually it goes away again quite quickly. Very frustrating. Does the problem persist past reboots?

BTW Clipboard History is one of the clipbpoard managers that does work well with PopClip (when it’s all behaving itself).

[cavenewt]

I feel so special!

I think it does persist past reboots, because I started noticing it a week or two ago. But I’ll try a reboot and see, because I wasn’t paying close enough attention and I don’t reboot that often.

Thanks for the reply. You’re very attentive