Clipboard capture, pins and how long items last

With Watch the clipboard on, everything you copy (⌘C) lands in the Junk Yard as a new card: text, pictures, web links, and files or folders. Passwords copied from a password manager are never captured. Each scrap clears itself after its auto-clear time — one day unless you choose otherwise — so the board stays tidy.

A small dot in the menu bar blinks green for a moment each time a new scrap is caught, so you know it landed.

What happens when you copy something

%% caption: What the Junk Yard does with each thing you copy
flowchart TD
  A[You copy something] --> B{Capturing on and Watch the clipboard on?}
  B -->|No| X[Nothing is saved]
  B -->|Yes| C{Marked as a password or as temporary?}
  C -->|Yes| X
  C -->|No| D{Same as the last thing caught?}
  D -->|Yes| X
  D -->|No| E{What is it?}
  E -->|One file or folder| F[A file card]
  E -->|Several files| G{More than your multi-file limit?}
  G -->|Yes| X
  G -->|No| H[One card for the whole group]
  E -->|A picture| I[A picture card]
  E -->|Text| J[A text card, or a link card for a web address]

• Text is kept as plain text. Formatting from the place you copied it isn't kept; notes you write yourself with New note can have formatting.
• Pictures — screenshots, copied images — show a thumbnail.
• Web links are recognised when what you copied is a single web address. The card shows the link and clicking it opens it in your browser. They appear under the Links filter.
• A file or folder is kept as a reference to the original, with its Finder icon and name. Copy the card back and you get the actual file, ready to paste into Finder or an email.
• Several files copied together land as one card. Up to four show on the card itself; open the card to see the whole list, where you can Copy all, or open, copy or show any single file in Finder. A copy of more files than your limit is skipped so the board stays quick. The limit is set by Capture a multi-file copy of up to in Settings → Junk Yard — 25 files to begin with, and anything from 5 to 250.

If you later move a file that's on the board — for example to your external drive with Storage Studio — the card follows it and shows a Moved note. If the original is gone for good, the card is marked Missing — the original is gone.

What is never captured

• Anything a password manager, or any other app, marks as a secret or as temporary. It's skipped on purpose and never lands on the board.
• Copies made while Capturing is off. The Capturing switch in the board's header stops all clipboard capture — it shows Capture off — and it overrides Watch the clipboard.
• Copies made while Storage Studio is in Minimum performance mode. These are skipped rather than saved for later; when capture resumes, it starts from whatever is on the clipboard at that moment.

You can turn Watch the clipboard off and still add things yourself: New note, Add image and Embed file in the header, or the Save clipboard to Junk shortcut (⌃⇧C by default). See Junk Yard shortcuts.

How long a scrap lasts

Every scrap has an auto-clear timer, and its card shows the time left next to a small clock. Choose the default for new scraps with Auto-clear new scraps after in Settings → Junk Yard; it starts at one day. The choices run from 5 minutes up to 6 months, grouped as Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks and Months.

To change one scrap, open its lifetime menu and pick a time under Auto-clear after. The time counts from when the scrap was added, not from when you changed it.

Pinning

Pin to top keeps a scrap at the top of the board so it's easy to find; Unpin returns it to the normal order. Pinning is about order, not keeping: a pinned scrap still clears on its timer. If you want something to last longer, give it a longer auto-clear time.

How many scraps are kept

Settings → Junk Yard → Keep up to sets the most scraps the board holds — from 50 to 500, starting at 250. When it's full, the oldest scrap drops off to make room. Pinned scraps are kept ahead of the rest, so the oldest unpinned scrap goes first.

To empty the board in one go, use Clear all Junk — in Settings → Junk Yard, or the trash button in the board's header. You'll be asked to type a word to confirm before Delete every scrap removes everything, pinned scraps included.

See also: Searching and editing Junk Yard items · Opening the Junk Yard from the screen edge · The Junk Yard won't open or stops capturing · Privacy: what stays on your Mac