Switching from Flycut to Maccy: What Changes and How to Move Over

Switching from Flycut to Maccy takes about ten minutes. Install Maccy, set its hotkey to match your Flycut muscle memory, copy out any old clippings you still need, then quit Flycut. Maccy adds image and file history, fuzzy search, and pinning. You give up Flycut’s bezel-style feel, and there is no import tool.

You’ve probably been pasting from Flycut for years without thinking about it: a hotkey, a small floating list, arrow keys, Return. It works. The usual reasons people look elsewhere are specific. They copied a screenshot and it wasn’t in the history. They wanted to find a snippet from last Tuesday without arrowing through forty entries. Or they just wanted a clipboard manager that feels at home on a current version of macOS.

This guide covers what actually differs between the two apps, what you lose, and how to move over without disrupting your day.

Flycut vs Maccy: what’s actually different?

Both are lightweight, open-source clipboard managers that live in the menu bar and open from a global hotkey. The differences are in what they store, how you find things, and how you paste. Some details vary by version, so items marked should be checked against the current releases before you publish or rely on them.

The short version is that Flycut is a text-first clipping stack and Maccy is a searchable history of everything you copy. That affects almost every daily habit, so the next sections walk through them one at a time.

What will you gain by switching?

History that includes images and files

If you’ve ever copied a screenshot, tapped a different shortcut, and then found it missing from your history, this is the biggest practical change. Maccy App keeps images and file references alongside text, so one list covers what you copied rather than just the text you copied.

Search instead of scrolling

Open Maccy Mac and start typing. Matching is fuzzy by default, so a few scattered characters from a snippet usually find it. If fuzzy results are noisy for your use (long code snippets, for example), switch the search mode to exact or regex in the settings . Flycut users who keep a short history won’t miss search. People with a history of a few hundred items will notice it immediately.

Pinned items

Pinning keeps a handful of items you reuse, such as a shell command, an email signature, or a long URL, at the top of the list so they never scroll away. Select an item and use the pin shortcut shown in the menu .

Control over what gets recorded

Maccy Clipboard lets you exclude whole apps, specific pasteboard types, and content matching a regular expression. Out of the box it also skips items that apps flag as concealed, which is how well-behaved password managers mark what they copy. That doesn’t make your clipboard a vault. Anything an app doesn’t flag still lands in the history, so add your password manager and any sensitive tools to the ignore list yourself.

What will you lose or have to relearn?

Honesty matters more than a clean sales pitch here. Four things change.

1. The Flycut feel. Flycut’s floating bezel and its quick keyboard movement through a short stack suit a certain style of working. Maccy is a pop-up menu with a search field. It’s fast, but it’s a different rhythm.
2. Your old history. There is no import path from Flycut to Maccy that I can confirm. Plan on a clean start (see the migration steps below).
3. Hotkey habits. Different default shortcuts mean your fingers will reach for the wrong one for a few days. Change one app’s shortcut rather than fighting it.
4. Operating system requirements. Recent Maccy releases target newer macOS versions than Flycut does . If you run an older Mac, check this before you install.

How do you migrate from Flycut to Maccy, step by step?

Treat this as a week-long overlap rather than a one-time cutover. The risk in switching clipboard tools isn’t the install. It’s discovering on Thursday that the snippet you needed lived only in the old app.

Day 0: install Maccy alongside Flycut

Download Maccy from the project’s GitHub releases page or install it with Homebrew:

brew install maccy

A paid Mac App Store version also exists . The open-source build and the App Store build are the same project, and buying the latter is one way to support development. Launch Maccy and grant the Accessibility permission when macOS asks. Maccy needs it to paste automatically into the frontmost app, and without it you’ll only be able to copy. The permission lives in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.

Day 0: resolve the hotkey conflict

Two clipboard managers fighting over the same shortcut will only make you miserable. Leave Flycut on its current shortcut and keep Maccy on its own default (Shift+Cmd+C) for now. If you want Maccy on your old muscle-memory shortcut, change it in Maccy’s settings and then quit Flycut so the two don’t collide. Check the combination against other apps too, since some apps use similar Shift+Cmd shortcuts for pasting without formatting or for other commands.

Day 0: rescue what matters from Flycut

Open Flycut and look through its list. Anything you’d miss, such as a long command, a template, or a credential you shouldn’t have been storing in a clipboard at all, should go somewhere deliberate: a notes app, a snippets tool, or a password manager. Then copy each one back into Maccy by pasting it somewhere and copying it again, and pin it there if you use it often.

Day 0: set Maccy’s ignore list

Before you start relying on it, open Maccy’s settings and find the Ignore section . Add your password manager, any banking or admin apps, and anything else whose copies shouldn’t persist. Doing this on day one means the history never contains anything you’d regret.

Days 1 to 5: use Maccy as the primary tool

Reach for Maccy by default, and open Flycut only when you can’t find something. If you never open Flycut after day three, that’s your answer.

Day 7: quit Flycut for good

Remove Flycut from your Login Items (System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions) and then quit it. Keep the app in your Applications folder for another week if you want a safety net, then delete it. If you want its stored clippings gone as well, remove its preferences after deleting the app .

Which Maccy settings are worth changing first?

The defaults are sensible, but a few changes make the switch smoother for former Flycut users:

• History size. If you came from a short Flycut stack, a smaller history keeps the list tidy. If you want a long archive, raise it. Check the current default and maximum in the settings .
• Paste behavior. If you liked Flycut dropping text straight into your editor, enable Maccy’s automatic paste option . Otherwise, selecting an item only copies it, and you press Cmd+V yourself.
• Search mode. Stay on fuzzy for general use. Move to exact or regex only if you regularly search for code or specific strings.
• Menu bar and popup position. Choose where the window opens and whether the menu bar icon shows. Small preference, but it decides whether the tool feels like part of your Mac.

Should you actually switch? A quick decision guide

Is Maccy safe to use with sensitive data?

Maccy stores its history locally on your Mac and doesn’t send your clipboard to a server. That’s the privacy baseline, and it’s the same baseline Flycut offers. The real risk with any clipboard manager is what it records, not where it sends it. Anything you copy is kept until you clear it or it ages out of the history. Use the ignore list, avoid copying secrets when you can, and clear the history when you’ve finished with something sensitive .

Frequently asked questions

Can I import my Flycut history into Maccy?

There is no built-in import tool that I can confirm. The practical route is to copy out anything you still need from Flycut and paste it into Maccy, then pin the items you reuse.

Can I run Flycut and Maccy at the same time?

Yes, as long as their hotkeys differ. Both will record what you copy. Running both for a few days is the safest way to switch, but quit one of them for the long term.

Is Maccy free?

Yes. The source is open and free to download from the project’s releases page or Homebrew. A paid App Store build supports development .

Does Maccy save images and files, unlike Flycut?

Yes. Maccy keeps text, images, and files in its history, while Flycut is focused on plain text.

Will Maccy record my passwords?

It skips items that apps mark as concealed, which password managers typically do. Add your password manager to the ignore list anyway, so the protection doesn’t depend on how each app behaves.

The bottom line

Moving from Flycut to Maccy is a small change with one real trade: you exchange a text-only stack for a searchable history that holds everything you copy. If you’ve been working around Flycut’s limits, the switch pays for itself within a day or two. If Flycut’s bezel flow is your favorite part, give Maccy a one-week trial and keep Flycut installed until you know.

You can download Maccy for free at maccy.at. What’s the one thing you’d miss most from your current clipboard manager? That’s usually the setting worth hunting for first.