Do clipboard managers save passwords on a Mac?

They can. Password managers are supposed to mark what they copy as concealed, and good clipboard managers skip marked copies. But not every copy is marked: we measured copies from Apple's Passwords app that arrive as plain text with no marker at all. FloatPill also refuses anything copied while a known password manager is the app in front.

Which password managers does it recognise?

Passwords, Keychain Access, 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass and Proton Pass. You can add any other app in Settings, and nothing copied from it is ever recorded.

Where is the clipboard history stored?

Only in the app's memory, on your Mac. It is never written to disk and never uploaded, so it is cleared when you quit FloatPill or restart the Mac.

Does it keep images and files?

No, only text: the last 50 things you copied. For images, files, pinned snippets or a history that survives a restart, a dedicated clipboard manager is the better tool.

A clipboard history on your Mac that skips your passwords

Updated 29 September 2026.

A clipboard history is one of those tools you stop noticing until the day you need the thing you copied ten minutes ago. It is also a list of everything you copied, and on most days that includes a password or two.

FloatPill keeps a clipboard history in the MacBook notch and goes out of its way not to record passwords. This page explains what it keeps, how it recognises a password, what we found while testing it, and when a full clipboard manager is the better choice.

What it keeps

The last 50 pieces of text you copied, newest first. Copying the same thing twice in a row does not add a duplicate.
Search as you type, to find the one you want.
One click to copy an entry back, ready to paste.
Copy all, to collect several snippets in one go, separated by a line.
Clear history, whenever you like.

It lives in the notch: move the pointer to the top of the screen, open the clipboard module, and it closes again when you move away. No window to find, no shortcut to remember.

How it recognises a password

There is an agreed way for an app to say “this copy is private”: it adds a marker to the clipboard, and clipboard tools are expected to leave marked copies alone. FloatPill skips them, and skips copies marked as temporary or automatically generated too.

That is where most clipboard managers stop. While testing, we found two ways a marked password can still end up in a history:

Reading too early. When one app writes to the clipboard, there is a brief moment when the text can already be read but its markers are not there yet. Read in that instant, a password looks like any other text. In our test, 7 marked copies in 400 slipped through that way. FloatPill never records a copy on the first look: it waits a quarter of a second and checks again, and only records a copy once it is complete.
No marker at all. Some copies from Apple’s Passwords app arrive as plain text, with nothing that says they are private. No filter based on markers can catch those, because the information is not there. So FloatPill also refuses anything copied while a password manager is the app in front: Passwords, Keychain Access, 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass and Proton Pass.

Your password manager is not on the list? Add it in Settings, or add any other app whose copies you would rather not keep. Nothing copied from those apps is ever recorded.

Where the history lives

Only in the app’s memory, on your Mac. It is never written to disk, never synced and never uploaded, so quitting FloatPill or restarting the Mac clears it. That is a deliberate trade: a history that survives a restart is a file someone else could read. The detail is in the privacy policy.

What it does not do

Text only. No images, files or rich formatting.
No pinned snippets and no history that survives a restart.
No keyboard shortcut to paste from the list: you open the notch and click.
No sync between Macs.

FloatPill or a dedicated clipboard manager?

This page is on our site, so the conflict of interest first. A dedicated clipboard manager is the better pick when:

The clipboard is the tool you live in: you want images and files, pinned snippets, a history that lasts for weeks, or paste from the keyboard.
You want it free. There are good free and open-source ones. If you pick one, check its settings for an option to ignore password managers, and turn it on.

And FloatPill is, when:

You want the last few copies at hand, not an archive.
You would rather not think about passwords landing in a list.
You would use the rest of the notch anyway: file tray, calendar and reminders, focus timer, voice memos with transcripts, Spotify and Apple Music controls, a YouTube video under the notch and your Claude and Codex usage limits. The clipboard comes with them, for €14.99 once.

Requirements

macOS 14 or later, on any Mac: on a MacBook the panel hides in the notch, on a Mac without one it draws a notch of the same size at the top of the screen. Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Seven days free with no account, no email and no card, then €14.99 once.

Try FloatPill, 7 days free See all the modules

More guides: Mac notch apps compared · YouTube picture in picture on Mac · Claude usage limits on Mac.