Spotlight Clipboard not recording text and images after macOS 27 upgrade

The current version of macOS is 27.0.1. Based on your post you are running an older version, so the first step is to update your Mac to the current version.

See: Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support

The second step is to toggle the setting to Show Results from Clipboard off then back on, with a reboot in between.

• Go to System Settings
• Click on Spotlight
• Scroll down to the Results from System section
• Toggle the setting off.
• Select Apple menu > Restart...
• After the Mac boots up, follow the first three steps above and toggle the setting back on.

If that does not work, then see if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode. That process performs some system cleanup and clears caches, and also disables 3rd party extensions that may cause problems.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

If that does not correct the issue, test in a new user account. A newly-created user account will have all settings at default, and if the issue does not occur in that new account then it provides guidance on what may need to be changed to correct the issue.

Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Once the testing is complete, the new account can easily be deleted.

Delete a user or group on Mac – Apple Support

Those steps will help to isolate the problem.

It might help to download and run EtreCheck, written by a long-time forum member. The free version is fine. Post the full report using the Additional Text button. No personal information is revealed. 

Troubleshooting is needed because this does not appear to be an intrinsic issue with macOS 27.0.1. I cannot replicate your issue. In Safari, I selected the title of your post and copied it, then selected and copied several individual paragraphs in your post. They show up in reverse order in a clipboard search for 'spotlight' in Spotlight.

Thanks for the detailed troubleshooting steps.

I tried all the above steps. Here are the results.

1) Turn off and turn of Clipboard setting

Did not work.

2) Boot into safe mode

Did not work. Same result: clipboard did not show anything copied from Safari web page.

3) Create a new fresh user

Did work, however, did not point into any specific solution.

Created a new profile, fresh account. No previous settings. Did not turn on siri. Simply booted, started a new safari window, opened this post, copied something and opened spotlight for the first time. It showed the settings and continue button. Clicked on it and opened clipboard. It asked to enable the setting. Enabled it. And then copied something from safari again. Now opened spotlight clipboard, and it was shown in the list. But then came back to my own account and it did not show.

4) Disabled SIRI

I thought the issue could be new SIRI as I had deliberately skipped Siri activation in the new profile. So I deactivated Siri in my own account. But that did not help. Again the clipboard contents did not show the last thing I copied.

Please guide me what other steps are required further to fix this issue on my own account. (Also, new profile created, I had not logged in into any Apple ID. So that was also different compared to my primary profile.)

I am on macOS 27.0.1. I see nothing wrong in Spotlight clipboard history.

I just copied an image to the clipboard, then I launched Spotlight from the Menu Extras panel 🔍. Next, I pressed cmd+4 to display Spotlight history, and there was the small thumbnail image with its name.

I then opened an image in Preview, and copied it to the clipboard. Same result as the first paragraph.

When I copy text from Pages, it appears in the Clipboard as an icon with the title of it bearing the text until it is truncated. You won't be able to see this text with Quick Look or any other means as it is intended to be pasted.

If you want to see the text copied to the clipboard, you will find it in the Finder > Edit menu > Show Clipboard. This only shows the last content copied to the clipboard.

That's okay if you don't see anything wrong in Spotlight on 27.0.1.

I still do.

And that's why this post on the community to seek help.

Let us not post anything condescending. If you can help, that's great. Otherwise, request you to move on to the next thread without any comments here.

Let me share the videos for better understanding.

This is how settings is configured:

And this is what happens when I open clipboard in spotlight after copying something:

https://vewo.io/v/9d7e52c3acae

Yes! This is exactly what is happening to me ever since I upgraded to 27, the first ever "stable" version that was released for public. I have been trying to find a non-technical way to go back to 26 ever since.

I haven't been able to find any solution to fix the clipboard. Tried a lot of things people suggested on different forums, but none work for me.

I've started facing this issue, right after upgrading from 27.0.1 to 27.2.

Earlier, it was working fine for me, when I was on 27.0.1.

Here's a video proof of the issue: https://anonmp4.art/v/CpcY3z1vkTw1xkQ

Timestamps:

• 00:15 Clipboard history doesn't work
• 00:42 Copied entry shows up momentarily, but instantly vanishes.