Buffer

What is Buffer?

Buffer is a clipboard manager for macOS that helps users keep, search, and reuse items they have copied. It is designed for people who regularly work with text snippets, links, screenshots, and images and want quicker access to clipboard history than the built-in Mac clipboard provides. Buffer opens from the menu bar or with a keyboard shortcut, making it easy to pull up recent clipboard items while working across apps. It supports text and image history, lets users search past clips, and can extract text from copied images with on-device OCR. Users can also organize important items with tags and bookmarks, edit saved text inline, and paste multiple selected items together. Buffer is published by Samir Patil and is offered as a native macOS utility focused on local, on-device use.

Key features

• Keep a searchable history of copied text and images
• Open clipboard history quickly from the menu bar or a keyboard shortcut
• Extract text from copied images with on-device OCR
• Organize saved clips with tags and bookmarks
• Edit saved text snippets directly before reusing them
• Paste multiple selected clipboard items in one action

Safety overview

Status: Safe

Buffer stores and manages clipboard contents on your Mac, so it may contain copied text, links, images, or other sensitive snippets until you clear them. Accessibility access is a normal permission for a clipboard tool that opens globally and pastes into other apps. Its offline, local-first design reduces cloud privacy concerns, but you should still avoid keeping highly sensitive copied data longer than you need.

Recommendation: Keep Buffer if you actively use clipboard history, quick paste workflows, or copied-image text extraction on your Mac. If you no longer use it, removing the app will stop its clipboard history and related convenience features.

Common paths

• /Applications/Buffer.app

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