The Copy-Paste feature we have on our computers was designed, exclusively to make things easier for people who wish to reproduce the content from one place to another platform.
Almost every kind of data can be copied from one location and pasted in another, in any volume. If you see a beautiful poem on a website and wish to share it with your friends, you can copy it and share it with them.
You needn’t have to type the poem word by word and send it to them, which can take a lot of time. The Copy-Paste feature was introduced for situations like this. This feature lets you copy and transfer images, videos, documents, text, and many other formats of files, making your file transfers easier and quicker.
This is quite a common feature. But we are clueless about what can be done when you cannot copy and paste some content you wish to recreate or reproduce while working on your Mac.
What is a Clipboard?
Before we get into this, it is important for those who do not understand what a clipboard is, to get familiar with it. The Clipboard is a tiny part of your CPU memory that stores the information you copy to paste elsewhere.
The term is the same for every Operating System (OS) and User Interface (UI). The clipboard can hold onto text or media of any type and size, for a temporary period of time till the computer is switched off or a new file is copied, every time the copy feature is activated.
Why Does it Show “Sorry, No Manipulations with clipboard allowed”?
This error can only be noticed on Apple computers. Since Apple is known to offer a lot of security to its users. They do not let their users copy content from websites they deem unnecessary.
This is not a common problem, since MacKeeper whitelists many websites. You might see the Sorry, No Manipulations with Clipboard allowed pop-up message, when you try to copy things from a not-very popular website.
This can be troublesome when the object or content you are looking for is on a website that is not considered to be a safe one by the MacKeeper. If you need to share a link or a serial key, from that website, you might think that you have to type all the characters in the link, carefully.
It can be very frustrating to notice mistakes on it. This is the most common reason, and there are many other reasons for this error.
In short, it can be very annoying when copy-paste does not work, when you need it, and throws a “Sorry, no manipulations with clipboard allowed sign at you”. There are ways to resolve this problem on your mac.
Different ways to Fix the issue of Sorry, No Manipulations with clipboard allowed”
Every problem has a fix and so does the “Sorry, no manipulations with clipboard allowed” error on your Mac.
The following are your options to use when this problem comes up on your Mac:
- Reboot the MacBook
- Check if you have a pending Software update
- Open the Clipboard through the Explorer
- Use the Activity Monitor
- The Terminal Fix
- Use third-party apps to fix this issue
Fixing the Sorry No Manipulations with Clipboard Allowed
Now, the reasons you face this problem can be many. But a small number of solutions can help you out. These are the things you can do to fix the copy-paste error on your MacBook.
Method 1: Restart the MacBook to try fixing Sorry, No Manipulations with clipboard allowed problem
For most computers, be it Windows, Mac, or Linux there are a lot of changes made when the system is rebooted as it involves the faulty programs resetting themselves to the compatible settings. Restart your system to solve any simple problem, irrespective of the OS or build.
Method 2: Look for Pending Software updates
Sometimes, not allowing you to use a specific feature might be the computer’s way of telling you that you have a pending software update. Check for updates on your Mac. If you find any updates, download and install them. Restart your computer and then try to copy and paste the content you want.
Method 3: Use the Clipboard through the Explorer to fix the error
The Explorer on your Mac is a file management platform that shows you where the files you need are located. This is the Mac equivalent of This PC (or My Computer in older OSs) for Windows. This method to solve the copy-paste not working error on your Mac involves Explorer.
These are the steps you have to follow:
- Launch Explorer on your Mac and choose the Tab menu from it.
- Choose the Internet option from the menu.
- From this, open the Security option. You will see that a custom button is displayed on your screen.
- From the list that appears, locate the Scripting category.
- Then, click the Allow tab and the Enable button to see the clipboard.
Method 4: Use the Activity Monitor to fix Sorry, No Manipulations with clipboard allowed error
If the above methods do not work, you can try using the Mac Activity Monitor to solve the copying and pasting error on your Mac. The Activity Monitor is like the Task Manager on Windows. You will be able to see all the processes that are running in the background and foreground of the Mac computer.
Launching the Activity Monitor on your Mac
Before we start using the Activity monitor, there are two ways to launch it on your Mac.
- Open the Finder and follow this path:
Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor
- Use Spotlight to launch the Activity Monitor
This is how you can employ the Activity Monitor to help you solve this error.
- Open the Activity Monitor on your Mac.
- In the search box on the top right corner of the screen, type board or type pboard, without any quotation marks.
- You will see the pBoard process name as the search result, in the activities list.
- Press the X sign on your search bar (top right corner) to clear it.
- Double click to open pBoard and select Force Quit to end the process.
The pBoard task, which you saw in the Activity Monitor may be stopping you from copying the files that you want to copy and paste. Once this is stopped, it may fix the issue.
Method 5: The Terminal Fix to fix Sorry, No Manipulations with clipboard allowed problem
This is the last alternative for you to fix this problem on your Mac. The Terminal fix involves killing the pBoard task on your computer to fix the copy-paste not working problem while working on your Mac.
It is essential to close all the applications that run on your foreground before you kill this process.
These are your steps to kill the process on a Mac.
- Open the Finder tool.
- Go to Applications.
- Click on Utilities to launch it.
- In Utilities, choose the Terminal. The spotlight software can also be used to get to the Terminal.
- Type killall pboard in the search bar in the Terminal.
- Hit the Enter key, when you are done.
- Exit the Terminal and restart your system to save the changes.
- Check if the Mac copy-paste feature is functioning normally without any problems.
Method 6: Use Third-Party Apps to fix Sorry, No Manipulations with clipboard allowed on Mac
Like most other purposes and errors, the Sorry, No Manipulations with Clipboard Allowed problem also has exclusive software to fix it. You can always search for them in a search engine to get good results. This will get your clipboard allowed on Mac; therefore, you get the copy-paste not working feature fixed.