How to back up your Maccy clipboard history

Where Maccy stores your history

Two locations matter:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Maccy — the history database (your clips).
• ~/Library/Preferences/org.p0deje.Maccy.plist — your settings (optional to back up).

The ~/Library folder is hidden by default; reach it via Finder’s Go → Go to Folder and paste the path.

Manual backup (recommended)

1. Quit Maccy so the database is not being written.
2. Open Go → Go to Folder and enter ~/Library/Application Support.
3. Copy the entire Maccy folder to an external drive, another folder, or cloud storage.

That copy is your complete history backup.

Restore from a backup

1. Quit Maccy.
2. Replace the Maccy folder in ~/Library/Application Support with your backed-up copy.
3. Relaunch Maccy — your history reappears.

Use Time Machine

If Time Machine is on, your Maccy folder is already included in regular backups. You can restore it from a Time Machine snapshot the same way you would any other file — handy if you did not make a manual copy.

Moving history to a new Mac

Install Maccy on the new Mac, quit it, then copy your backed-up Maccy folder into the same path on the new machine. This is the manual route in how to migrate clipboard history to Maccy. For pinned items specifically, iCloud sync can carry them automatically — see sync vs local storage.

Tip: back up before following any fix that rebuilds the database, such as crashing on startup.

Where Maccy stores your history

All clipboard history is stored in a single SQLite database file:

~/Library/Application Support/Maccy/Maccy.sqlite

This file contains every item you have ever copied (up to your history size limit), plus your pinned items. Backing it up means backing up this file.

Manual backup to a local folder

# Create a dated backup on your Desktop
cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Maccy/Maccy.sqlite \
   ~/Desktop/maccy-backup-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).sqlite

Run this in Terminal whenever you want a manual snapshot. Add it to a script and run it weekly if you copy a lot of important material.

Automated backup with a launchd job

Create a plist to run the backup automatically every day:

# Create the backup directory
mkdir -p ~/Documents/MaccyBackups

# Create the launchd plist
cat > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.maccy.backup.plist << 'XML'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plist version="1.0"><dict>
  <key>Label</key><string>com.maccy.backup</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/bin/cp</string>
    <string>/Users/YOU/Library/Application Support/Maccy/Maccy.sqlite</string>
    <string>/Users/YOU/Documents/MaccyBackups/Maccy-latest.sqlite</string>
  </array>
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict><key>Hour</key><integer>2</integer></dict>
</dict></plist>
XML

# Load the job
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.maccy.backup.plist

Replace YOU with your macOS username. This backs up at 2 AM daily.

Using iCloud sync as automatic backup

The simplest backup strategy: enable iCloud sync in Maccy Preferences. Your history is then stored in iCloud Drive and synced continuously. If your Mac is lost, stolen, or reinstalled, your clipboard history comes back automatically on the new setup.

Enable in Maccy Preferences → General → Sync clipboard history via iCloud. See the iCloud sync guide for details.

Using Time Machine

If you use Time Machine, Maccy’s database is backed up automatically as part of your full Mac backup — it is in your home library, which Time Machine includes. No separate configuration needed.

To restore Maccy history from Time Machine:

1. Open Time Machine
2. Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Maccy/
3. Go back to the snapshot you want
4. Select Maccy.sqlite and click Restore
5. Quit and relaunch Maccy

Restoring from a backup

1. Quit Maccy completely (right-click menu bar icon → Quit)
2. Replace the current database with your backup:

   cp ~/Desktop/maccy-backup-2026-06-01.sqlite \
      ~/Library/Application\ Support/Maccy/Maccy.sqlite

3. Relaunch Maccy
4. Your history from the backup date is now restored