ClipShare moves text, photos and files between your phone and your computer. Copy something on one, paste it on the other. No account, nothing to install.
It runs in any modern browser, so it works on Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone. Pair any two of them, or up to ten.
You will do this once. It takes about a minute, and you need both devices in front of you.
Open clipshare.dirtsimple.app in Safari on your iPhone and add it to your home screen before you pair it. Then close Safari and open ClipShare from the new icon.
iPhone keeps an installed app's data separate from Safari. If you pair first and install afterwards, you will have to pair a second time. Installing first avoids that completely.
Android, Windows and Mac users can ignore this and just follow the steps below.
Go to clipshare.dirtsimple.app and click Start a new ClipShare.
That is it for the computer. There is no sign-up form.
A square black-and-white pattern (a QR code) appears, along with a six-character
code like K7M2QP.
Open the normal camera app and hold it up to the screen. A notification will slide in; tap it to open ClipShare on your phone.
On most phones the camera reads QR codes automatically. If nothing happens after a few seconds, see If something goes wrong.
iPhone: make sure the ClipShare you are pairing is the one opened from your home screen icon, not a Safari tab. They are separate.
Your phone pairs itself and both devices now show the same ClipShare. Anything you send from one appears on the other.
Why the QR code matters. The QR code carries a secret key that lets your two devices read each other's messages. Typing the six-character code by itself is not enough, because the code alone does not carry that key. Always scan the QR code, or open the pairing link directly on the other device.
Type or paste into the box at the top, then press Send text. It shows up on your other device within a second or two.
Useful for links, addresses, wifi passwords, confirmation codes, a paragraph you are moving between machines.
Press File, then pick what you want to send. On a phone you can choose a photo from your camera roll, take a new one, or pick any file. A progress bar appears while it uploads.
Any type works: photos, PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, zip archives, audio, video. Up to 25 MB each.
New items appear on their own, usually within a second or two. You should not need to do anything.
If something does not turn up, tap the green ↻ (refresh) button at the top. That forces a check straight away. It is most likely to be needed on an iPhone after the app has been in the background for a while, because iOS pauses the connection to save battery.
Tap the text itself, or press the Copy button under it. It goes straight to your clipboard, ready to paste.
If your phone will not let the page copy for you, it will say "press and hold the text to copy" instead. That is a phone restriction, not a fault.
Under each one there is Save, and on phones usually Share as well. Save puts it in your downloads or photos; Share opens the normal share menu so you can send it straight to another app.
Photos are shown so you can see them. Other files show their name, type and size, and are saved rather than opened inside ClipShare.
Photos cannot be copied to the clipboard on iPhone. Apple does not allow web pages to put images on the clipboard, so ClipShare offers Save and Share instead. Nothing is broken; it is simply not something a website is permitted to do.
ClipShare works fine in a browser tab, but it is nicer as its own icon you can click or tap. This works on phones AND computers.
Do this BEFORE you pair, if you have not paired yet. It saves you having to pair twice.
In Safari, tap the Share button at the bottom (a square with an arrow coming out), scroll down, and tap Add to Home Screen. Then close Safari and open ClipShare from the new icon.
If you had already paired in Safari, the new icon will ask you to pair again. That is normal: iPhone keeps an installed app's data separate from Safari, so the icon starts out empty. Pair once more from inside the installed app (on your computer: Devices → Add a device, then scan) and it will stay paired from then on.
Do not press "Start a new ClipShare" in the installed app. That creates a second, separate ClipShare that cannot see your other devices.
In Chrome, tap the three dots in the corner, then Install app or Add to Home screen.
In Safari, click the Share button in the toolbar and choose Add to Dock. In Chrome, click the install icon in the address bar, or the three dots menu then Cast, Save and Share → Install page as app.
Remember that paste on a Mac is Cmd+V, not Ctrl+V.
In Chrome or Edge, click the install icon at the right-hand end of the address bar. It looks like a small monitor with an arrow.
Press Devices to see everything paired, when each was last used, and which one you are on now.
Pairing codes expire after two minutes and only work once. If yours runs out, press Add a device again for a new one. Do not post a pairing link anywhere public: anyone who opens it within those two minutes can join and read your clips.
Yes, and here is the honest detail rather than a slogan.
Think of a lockbox with two identical keys. When you pair a device, it gets a copy of the key. Everything you send is locked on your device before it leaves, and only unlocked once it reaches another device holding that key. The server in the middle stores a locked box it cannot open.
What the server cannot see: your text, your photos, your files, or their names.
What it can see: how big each item is, when it was sent, whether it was text or a picture, and which of your devices sent it. That much is unavoidable in delivering the message at all, and ClipShare would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
There is no password reset and no recovery, because there is nothing on the server that could unlock them. That is the trade for real privacy. ClipShare is for passing things between your devices right now, not for storing anything long term.
| Kept for | 7 days, then deleted automatically |
| What you can send | text, photos, and any file type: PDFs, documents, zips, audio, video |
| Size of one item | 25 MB (a phone photo is usually 3 to 5 MB) |
| Items kept | the most recent 20; older ones drop off |
| Total space | 100 MB per ClipShare |
| Devices | up to 10 |
| Sending | up to 60 items per hour |
If you do not use a ClipShare for 30 days it is deleted entirely.
Turn up your screen brightness and hold the phone eight to twelve inches away. If your camera app does not read QR codes, press Copy pairing link on the computer instead and send that link to your phone however you like: message it to yourself, email it, anything. Opening the link does the same job as scanning.
That device joined without the key, which happens if the six-character code was typed in rather than the QR code being scanned or the link opened. Press Unpair this device and pair again using the QR code or the link.
Open the menu (the three lines at the top right) and choose Remove all devices and start over. That deletes every clip and unpairs every device, so you can set it up again from scratch.
It asks twice, because it also affects your other devices and cannot be undone.
That is expected. iPhone gives an installed app its own private storage, so it cannot see the pairing you did in Safari. It is not broken and nothing was lost.
Pair it once more from the installed app: on your computer press Devices → Add a device, then scan the QR code with your iPhone camera. After that it stays paired.
Avoid pressing "Start a new ClipShare" on the phone. That makes a second ClipShare with its own separate clips. If you already did, just pair properly using the steps above and ignore the extra one; it deletes itself after 30 days.
Tap the green ↻ button at the top to force a check.
iOS pauses an app's connection when it has been in the background for a while, so a clip sent while your phone was locked can take a moment to appear. Opening the app and tapping refresh always brings it in.
If it is still stuck, close the app completely (swipe it away from the app switcher) and open it again. That also picks up the newest version of ClipShare.
Safari is stricter than other browsers about letting a web page write to your clipboard. If pressing Copy does nothing, select the text and use Cmd+C instead, or open ClipShare in Chrome, where it is not an issue.
Red means your device cannot reach ClipShare. Usually the internet connection dropped. It turns green again on its own once you are back online.
You have hit 100 MB. Delete a few items, especially large photos or files, using the Delete button under each. Everything clears itself after 7 days anyway.
Most likely they passed the 7-day mark, or 20 newer items pushed them off the list. Both are normal. If your device is asking you to pair again, its key was cleared, which some phones do to storage that has not been used in a while. Pair again to carry on; anything from before will not come back.
Yes, up to ten. Press Add a device for each new one. Everything paired shares the same clips.
You can, by pairing their device the same way, but remember it is shared in both directions: they see everything you send, and you see everything they send. For most people ClipShare is best kept to their own devices.
ClipShare was built by Joe Glines. I spend most of my time at the-Automator.com, where I teach people to automate the boring parts of using a computer. The motto there is "Work Smarter, Not Harder!", and this little tool is very much in that spirit: I got tired of emailing links to myself.
ClipShare is free, and there is nothing to buy here. If it saves you a bit of hassle, that is the whole point.