How MyClipCloud works in your browser

Step by step

1. Sign in with your email or Google on every browser you want to use. Each one is registered as a device with a random identifier (not a fingerprint) and a name such as "Chrome on Windows".
2. Automatic sync is already on. You can pause it or turn it off at any time in Privacy & data.
3. Copy. Select text anywhere in MyClipCloud and press Ctrl+C (⌘+C on Mac). In Chrome or Edge you can also copy in any other app or tab: when you switch back to MyClipCloud it saves what you copied (the browser asks once for clipboard permission). Your normal copy always happens.
4. The server stores it and gives it a sequence number, so every device applies changes in the same order and duplicates are ignored.
5. Your other devices catch up. Open sessions receive a notification (or check every few seconds when realtime is unavailable) and show the new item.
6. It is ready to paste. When the MyClipCloud tab is in front, the new item is put on that device's clipboard automatically — just press Ctrl+V anywhere. If the tab is in the background, it happens as soon as you open it.

What a website cannot do

Browsers restrict clipboard access on purpose. These rules apply to every website, including MyClipCloud:

• It only works while a MyClipCloud tab is open. A website cannot watch your clipboard in the background; copies made elsewhere are picked up when you return to the tab.
• Reading needs permission. Chrome and Edge ask once before a site may read the clipboard. Firefox and Safari ask on every read, so there MyClipCloud only syncs what you copy inside it, and Paste from device imports the rest.
• Writing needs the tab in front. Browsers only let the visible, focused page change the clipboard. Where that is blocked, a Copy it button appears instead.
• Mobile pages sleep. Phones pause pages that are not on screen, so updates arrive when you open MyClipCloud again.
• HTTPS is required for the modern Clipboard API (a "secure context").

How pasting behaves

Pressing Ctrl+V always pastes your device clipboard. With automatic sync on, that clipboard already holds the newest item from your other devices while MyClipCloud is open, so pasting just works. If you copy something new on this device, it wins and is synced to the others. Pause sync and MyClipCloud stops touching your clipboard.

When the browser says no

If clipboard access is blocked or unsupported, MyClipCloud shows the text already selected in a dialog so you can copy it manually, and tells you what happened. If the realtime connection is not available, it falls back to checking for updates every few seconds and says so in the status indicator.

Built-in safety checks

• Password, one-time code and payment fields are never captured.
• If copied text looks like a secret (API key, private key, token, card number or a short numeric code), MyClipCloud asks before syncing it. This check can miss things — it is a helper, not a guarantee.
• Copying an item back out of MyClipCloud does not create a new synced item, so nothing loops.

Sources

• MDN: Clipboard API
• MDN: Element copy event
• MDN: Secure contexts
• W3C: Clipboard API and events