What is CopySage?
CopySage is a diagnostic tool that helps you inspect what's currently in your device's clipboard (pasteboard). It provides a detailed breakdown of any content you've copied — showing you not just the content itself, but exactly how it is encoded and what formats are available.
When you copy something on your device it is stored in the system pasteboard. Apps often place several representations of the same content into the pasteboard at once for compatibility with different paste destinations. CopySage reads all of these representations and analyses each one, giving you a complete picture of what's there.
Supported Data Types
CopySage detects and displays detailed information for all common pasteboard content types:
Text
Content with encoding details and character counts.
Images
Dimensions, format, and color space information.
URLs
Web links and deep links broken down by component.
Colors
RGB, HSB, and hex values for copied color data.
Dates & Times
Parsed date and time values with timezone info.
Numbers
Numeric values with type and precision details.
Files
File type, size, and document metadata.
Raw Binary
Hex viewer for raw binary clipboard data.
How to Use
Copy content
Copy any content from any app on your device — text, an image, a URL, a color, or anything else.
Open CopySage
Launch the app. It will show the last known pasteboard state.
Paste to refresh
Tap the paste button in the top-right corner to update the view. You will be asked to allow clipboard access each time — this is a system requirement and cannot be avoided. Because CopySage reads all data types from the pasteboard, it must request permission every time it reads.
Browse detected items
Scroll through the list of detected pasteboard items. Each item shows its type and a brief summary.
View details
Tap any item to open its full detail view — content preview, encoding, format, and all available representations.
Use Cases
CopySage is useful whenever you need to understand exactly what is on your clipboard:
Debugging pasteboard interactions
Developers can inspect exactly what formats an app writes to the pasteboard when copying content.
Understanding copy formats
Find out what UTI types and data representations an app uses — useful when building paste handling in your own app.
Troubleshooting paste failures
When paste doesn't work as expected between two apps, CopySage can show you what's actually in the clipboard so you can diagnose the mismatch.
Inspecting rich content
See all the data that comes along when you copy from a web page, document, or design tool — often much more than just plain text.
Learning how the clipboard works
Great for developers new to iOS who want to understand the pasteboard system and UTI type system hands-on.
Privacy
For more information see our Privacy Policy.
Need help?
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