Install Guide

This guide tells you how to get Pasterail, set it up, update it, and remove it. To learn how to use the app, read the Usage Guide.

What you need

• A Mac with macOS 26 or later.
• Touch ID, or the password of your Mac account. Pasterail uses one of them to open your history.

Get the app

Pasterail is only in the Mac App Store. It has a one-time price. There is no subscription and nothing more to buy in the app.

1. Open the App Store on your Mac and search for Pasterail.
2. Click the price, then Buy.
3. When the download is done, the app is in your Applications folder.

Do not install Pasterail from other websites. Only the copy from the Mac App Store is checked and signed by Apple.

Open it the first time

1. Open Pasterail from Launchpad or the Applications folder.
2. Look in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Pasterail shows a clipboard icon there (a sheet of paper on a clipboard).

Pasterail has no Dock icon and no main window. It lives only in the menu bar. macOS does not show a security warning, because the app comes from the Mac App Store.

Allow clipboard access

macOS asks before an app can read what other apps copy. Pasterail needs this permission to save the things you copy. Without it, the app cannot save anything.

1. Click the clipboard icon in the menu bar.
2. In the “Allow clipboard access” message, click Open Settings.
3. In Privacy & Security > Paste from Other Apps, set Pasterail to Allow.

What each choice does:

• Allow: Pasterail saves your copies. This is the setting the app needs.
• Ask: macOS shows an alert each time you copy something.
• Deny: Pasterail cannot save anything.

You can change your choice at any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Paste from Other Apps.

Pasterail never saves passwords from password managers, and it never sends what you copy over the network. See the Privacy Policy.

Unlock the history

Your history is always locked when the app starts.

1. Click the clipboard icon in the menu bar.
2. Click Unlock with Touch ID.
3. Touch the Touch ID sensor.

On a Mac with no Touch ID, or with the lid closed, the button says Unlock with Password. Then enter the password of your Mac account.

Pasterail asks for Touch ID or your password because your history can contain private text. If you cancel, the history stays locked. Copies you make while it is locked are still saved.

Updates

The Mac App Store updates Pasterail. To get updates without doing anything, turn on Automatic Updates in App Store > Settings. You can also open the Updates page in the App Store and click Update next to Pasterail.

Remove the app

1. Click the clipboard icon, then the Settings button (the sliders icon at the bottom). Go to History, click Clear History…, confirm, and use Touch ID or your password. This deletes all items and changes the key that protects your history. Old copies of the history files, for example in a Time Machine backup, can then never be opened.
2. Click the clipboard icon, then the Quit button (the power icon at the bottom).
3. In the Applications folder, move Pasterail to the Trash.
4. To also remove the empty history and the settings, open Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder…, enter ~/Library/Containers/app.pasterail.Pasterail, and move that folder to the Trash.

A small key stays in your Keychain after this. It cannot open anything, because step 1 changed it and the history files are gone.