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MacOS Sierra's universal clipboard is awesome

It's so easy...as long as your device supports the feature.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
Matt Elliott

MacOS Sierra understands you have multiple devices and the occasional need to share data across them. Apple's desktop software now lets you easily share files via iCloud Drive, but for bits of text or even a photo or video, you can now use the universal clipboard to copy something on one device and paste it using another.

Sierra's universal clipboard requires no setup, but your devices need to be running MacOS Sierra or iOS 10. In addition, your Mac need to be a MacBook from 2012 or later, since those support Apple's Continuity feature. Here are the Macs compatible with the universal clipboard:

  • MacBook Air (mid-2012 and later)
  • MacBook Pro (mid-2012 and later)
  • MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, early 2015)
  • iMac (late 2012 and later)
  • Mac mini (late 2012 and later)
  • Mac Pro (late 2013)

If your devices meet the above specs, you're set. Now try copying something on your iPhone or iPad and pasting it on your Mac.

Universal clipboard uses iCloud, so you may experience lag if you copy from one device and immediately attempt to paste on another. Also, Sierra's universal clipboard is not a clipboard manager; it only lets you paste the last item copied.