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Support

Help with Paste Tense, your recovery key and security reports

Write to us — a person reads every message.

Never send us clipboard contents, passwords, your recovery key, your key file or your history files. We never need them to help you, and email is not a safe place for them.

Getting help

To help us help you quickly, include:

  • your Mac model and macOS version (Apple menu › About This Mac);
  • your Paste Tense version, if you know it (the Mac App Store shows it);
  • what you did, what you expected, and what the panel or menu bar said — the status and any message, word for word.

A description is enough. If you send a screenshot, check first that it shows no clipboard items.

Common questions

Nothing is being recorded

Paste Tense records only after you have chosen a folder and pressed Start. Check the status at the top of the panel: if it names a problem — the folder is unavailable, or macOS needs your permission to let Paste Tense read what other apps copy — it also says what to do. On macOS 15.4 and later, allow Paste Tense when macOS asks about pasting from other apps.

Something I copied isn't in the history

That is usually deliberate: the item was marked as concealed or temporary by the app it came from, it came from an app you excluded, recording was paused or set to skip the next copy, or it was a picture copied from inside an app rather than a file (to keep a picture, copy its file in Finder).

I see "Locked" and my items show as encrypted

Your history is encrypted and locked. Recording goes on; click Unlock to read it, with Touch ID, your Mac login or your separate password.

My Mac is gone, or I'm on another computer

Unencrypted weeks are plain text files: open them in any editor. For encrypted weeks you need a copy of your archive folder (for example your backup folder), its key file paste_tense_key.ptkey, and your separate password or recovery key. Open them in the decryptor at decryptor.pastetense.app, or in the copy you saved from the app.

Your recovery key

Paste Tense makes a recovery key when you set up encryption with your Mac login. With a password of your own, create one in Settings › Privacy › Encryption — it takes one click. The recovery key is the way back into your history if you forget your password, or if the Mac that unlocks it with your login is lost, replaced or reset.

  • Save it when it is shown. Print it, write it down or keep it in your password manager.
  • Keep it away from your archive. Not in your archive folder, not in your backup folder, not in the same cloud account. Anyone with both can read your history.
  • Check you can find it — now, not on the day you need it.
  • A Mac-login unlock works only on that Mac. Its key is held in that Mac's Keychain. To read your archive anywhere else, you need the recovery key or a separate password.

What can never be recovered

Paste Tense keeps nothing on any server, so there is no account to reset and no copy for us to restore. In particular:

  • An encrypted history without its keys. If the password (or the Mac with the login unlock) and the recovery key are both lost, the history cannot be opened by anyone, including us.
  • Deleted or removed items that are not in your backup folder, Time Machine or another backup.
  • Items that were never recorded — skipped because they were marked secret or came from an excluded app, copied while paused, or not text or files.

Reporting a security issue

If you believe you have found a security or privacy problem in Paste Tense, the offline decryptor or this site, please email support@pastetense.app with a subject starting "Security:". Describe the issue and how to reproduce it, using made-up data only — never a real secret. Please give us a reasonable time to fix it before you share it publicly. We will reply and keep you informed.

Our security and responsible disclosure policy has the details, including the scope and our safe harbour for good-faith research. This site also publishes /.well-known/security.txt.

The Privacy Policy, the Licence Agreement, Our Promise, refunds and every other policy are listed on the Legal page. Refunds are handled by Apple: see Refunds.