Apple about frequent notifications for clipboard access iOS 16: 'Not intended'

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Apple has added several privacy improvements in iOS 16, but has slipped a bit when it comes to one specific notification. Users complain about a frequent message in which you have to give permission to paste something from your clipboard. After days of silence from Apple, it is now clear why this notification appears so often.

Paste notification from iOS 16 clipboard

If you copy a link from Safari and want to paste it into WhatsApp, chances are that you will receive a message in iOS 16 in which you have to indicate that you allow pasting into WhatsApp. That sounds good in itself: Apple gives you more control over which apps have permission to your clipboard. It's an extra measure on top of the notification Apple introduced a few years ago, which shows that apps secretly read your clipboard. Your clipboard can contain sensitive data, such as a password, so extra control is better for your privacy. But there is no general setting in which you can indicate once per app whether the app is allowed to access your clipboard.

In fact, some users get the warning again and again, so you have to give permission every time you paste something from your clipboard. That causes quite a bit of irritation, especially because you choose to stick something somewhere. Why is Apple so aggressive when it comes to this feature? an email exchange via MacRumors shows that it is a bug.

Clipboard notification for pasting appears to be a bug

A reader decided to send an email to Tim Cook and Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief. The email was forwarded to Ron Huang, a senior executive at Apple and one of the creators. He indicates that the frequent reports “absolutely not expected behavior” and that they are going to get to the bottom of it. Apple would not have come across this multitude of reports internally, but Huang does indicate that the reader from the e-mail is certainly not the only one.

In the email, Huang indicates that Apple should definitely look into this and that a solution will be worked on so that apps like Mail work properly again without you being interrupted every time by a notification with permission to paste from your clipboard. “To be continued”, is how Huang concludes his email. Presumably the notification is only meant if an app automatically reads your clipboard to paste something and not if you initiate this yourself via the copy/cut/paste menu.

We expect Apple to fix this issue in a future iOS update, perhaps iOS 16.0.2 or iOS 16.1. iOS 16.1 is currently available in beta, but it will be a while before it becomes available. It therefore seems logical that Apple will solve this earlier in a smaller bug fix update. Apple may also be able to fix one of the other bugs and issues in iOS 16.

See also

Bugs and issues in iOS 16? These fixes help (usually)

With every new major iOS update, it can happen: major bugs or annoying issues. Even with iOS 16, bugs and problems can appear, despite the extensive testing in recent months. Here we list the most common problems and bugs of iOS 16 for you.