How to Make Maccy Launch at Login on Your Mac

How do I set Maccy to open at login?

1. Click the Maccy icon in the menu bar, or press the default shortcut ⇧⌘C.
2. Choose Settings… (or press ⌘, while Maccy’s menu is open). On older 1.x builds this is called Preferences….
3. On the General tab, tick Launch at login.
4. Close the window. The change applies immediately, with no restart of Maccy required.

The menu wording and layout shift slightly between Maccy Clipboard versions, but the Launch at login option has lived on the General tab for as long as I can recall.

How can I confirm it actually worked?

Don’t trust the checkbox alone. Confirm it from macOS’s side:

1. Open System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions (macOS 13 Ventura and later).
2. Look under Open at Login or Allow in the Background. Maccy should be listed with its toggle on.
3. For the real test, log out and back in (or restart) and check whether the icon appears in the menu bar without you touching anything.

On macOS 12 Monterey and earlier, the equivalent location is System Preferences → Users & Groups → Login Items.

Where does Maccy’s setting differ from adding it manually?

You can also add Maccy yourself through the Login Items list. It works, but there are practical differences:

Method	Where you set it	Pros	Cons
Maccy’s own checkbox	Maccy → Settings → General	One click, stays in sync with the app, easy to find	Depends on macOS accepting the registration (see troubleshooting)
macOS Login Items list	System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → “+”	Works even if the in-app toggle misbehaves; you control it from one central place	Maccy’s checkbox may not reflect it; two places to manage
Management tools (MDM, scripts)	Your device-management setup	Useful for managing many Macs	Overkill for a personal machine

For one Mac, use Maccy’s checkbox. Fall back to the manual list only if the checkbox fails.

Why won’t “Launch at login” stay enabled?

Most failures come down to a handful of causes. Work through them in this order, since the early ones are the most common and cheapest to fix.

1. Maccy isn’t in the Applications folder

If you launched Maccy straight from a downloaded disk image or the Downloads folder, macOS may register a location that disappears later. Move the app to /Applications, quit it, reopen it from there, and toggle the setting off and on again.

2. The background item is switched off in System Settings

Since Ventura, macOS lets you disable background items per app. If Maccy’s toggle under Login Items & Extensions is off, the in-app checkbox can’t override it. Switch it on there.

3. The toggle is stuck out of sync

Untick Launch at login in Maccy, wait a second, and tick it again. If it still fails, remove Maccy from the Login Items list in System Settings, then re-enable it from inside Maccy.

4. A corrupted login-items database (last resort)

If several apps misbehave at login, macOS’s background-task database may be damaged. The command sudo sfltool resetbtm resets it, followed by a restart. Be careful: it clears all apps’ login and background item approvals, so you’ll need to re-approve things afterward. Try everything above first.

5. Installed through Homebrew

Installing with brew install maccy puts the app in /Applications like a normal install, so the checkbox works the same way. The same troubleshooting applies.

What happens to my clipboard history after a restart?

Your saved history persists across restarts. It’s stored on disk locally, not just in memory. What launching at login changes is whether Maccy is capturing new copies. Without it running, anything you copy in that gap never enters the history.

Can I start Maccy at login but keep it out of sight?

Maccy already lives in the menu bar rather than the Dock, so it’s unobtrusive by default. If you want to hide the menu bar icon as well, Maccy has an appearance option for that, and the app stays reachable via its global shortcut (⇧⌘C by default). Note that if you hide the icon and forget the shortcut, reopening the settings is awkward. Launching Maccy again from Spotlight or the Applications folder brings up its settings.

Quick troubleshooting table

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Checkbox unticks itself	App not in /Applications	Move it there, relaunch, re-tick
Ticked, but Maccy doesn’t start	Background item disabled in System Settings	Enable it under Login Items & Extensions
Maccy listed twice	Manual entry plus in-app setting	Remove the duplicate, keep one method
Many apps ignore login settings	Corrupt background-task database	Last resort: sudo sfltool resetbtm and restart

Is it worth turning on?

For nearly everyone, yes. Maccy uses very little memory while idle, and the cost of forgetting to launch a clipboard manager is exactly the moment you needed it. The one reasonable reason to skip it is a deliberate privacy workflow: if you only want clipboard history during specific sessions, launch Maccy manually instead. Because Maccy is open source and keeps its data local, it’s also easy to audit what it’s doing in the background.

Frequently asked questions

Does Maccy start automatically after installation?

No. You need to enable Launch at login yourself in Settings → General.

How do I stop Maccy from launching at login?

Untick Launch at login in Maccy’s General settings, or switch it off under System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions.

Why is Maccy not showing in the menu bar after a restart?

Either it didn’t launch (check the Login Items list), or the menu bar is full and macOS is hiding the icon, which is common on MacBooks with a notch. Try the ⇧⌘C shortcut to see whether it’s running.

Does Launch at login slow down my Mac’s startup?

Not noticeably in typical use. Maccy is a lightweight menu bar app.

Does Maccy work on Apple Silicon and Intel the same way?

The login behavior is governed by macOS, not the chip, so the steps are the same. Supported macOS versions depend on the Maccy release you’re running.

Next step: now that Maccy is always running, tighten what it remembers. Which apps should it ignore, such as password managers? That’s the next setting worth a few minutes.