Apple’s Universal Clipboard is great until one of your devices runs Windows. Copy something on your iPhone and there’s no built-in way to paste it on your PC, or the other way around. Microsoft’s Phone Link doesn’t fill the gap either: it shares the clipboard with Android phones, not iPhones.
That leaves third-party tools and a few workarounds. Here’s what works, fastest first.
The short answer
| Method | Direction | Speed | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syncra | Both ways, with history | A few seconds | Free plan; Premium subscription |
| Microsoft Edge Drop | Both ways, inside Edge | Manual send | Free with a Microsoft account |
| Email or notes to yourself | Both ways | Slow, several steps | Free |
| KDE Connect | Mostly PC to iPhone | Same network only | Free, open source |
For anything you do more than once a day, use a clipboard sync app. The workarounds are fine for an occasional link.
Method 1: Sync your clipboard with Syncra
Syncra keeps one clipboard in sync across your iPhone and Windows PC through the cloud. The devices don’t need to be on the same network.
Set it up (about 2 minutes)
- Install Syncra on your iPhone from the App Store and create an account.
- Install Syncra on your PC from the download page (Windows 10 or later) and sign in with the same account.
- That’s it. Both devices now share one clipboard history.
Copy on your PC, paste on your iPhone
- Copy anything on Windows as usual (
Ctrl + C). Syncra picks it up automatically. - Open Syncra on your iPhone. The item is at the top of your history.
- Tap its copy button, then paste wherever you need it.
Copy on your iPhone, paste on your PC
iOS doesn’t let apps read the clipboard in the background, so on iPhone there’s one extra tap. Use whichever of these suits you:
- Open Syncra after copying. It spots what’s on your clipboard and asks whether to add it. Turn on Auto-sync Clipboard in Settings to skip the confirmation.
- Use the share sheet. In Safari, Photos or most other apps, tap Share → Syncra to send the link, text or photo straight to your history.
On the PC, the item appears in Syncra’s list. Click Copy and paste with Ctrl + V.
Limits worth knowing: the free plan keeps your 10 most recent items on up to 3 devices, and photos, screenshots and files sync too, up to 10 MB each. Premium raises that to 1,000 items on 10 devices, with larger image and file limits.
Method 2: Microsoft Edge Drop
If you already use Microsoft Edge on both devices, its built-in Drop feature can send text, links and files between them. On the PC, open Drop from Edge’s sidebar. On iPhone, tap the ⋯ menu in Edge and choose Drop. You need to sign in to Edge with the same Microsoft account on both.
It’s free and needs no extra app, but it isn’t clipboard sync. You paste into Drop on one side and copy out of it on the other, and it only works inside Edge.
Method 3: Email or a notes app
The classic workaround: paste the text into an email to yourself, or into a note that syncs to the web (such as iCloud Notes at icloud.com or OneNote), then open it on the other device and copy it again.
It works anywhere and needs nothing new, but it takes five or six steps per item, and your inbox fills up with messages to yourself.
Method 4: KDE Connect
KDE Connect is a free, open-source app that links a phone and a computer on the same Wi-Fi network, with clipboard sharing among its features. It has apps for iPhone and Windows. On iPhone, though, it can’t stay connected in the background, so sending your iPhone clipboard to the PC is limited and often manual. It works much better with Android phones.
What about Phone Link and iCloud for Windows?
- Phone Link connects an iPhone to Windows 11 for notifications, messages and calls. Its cross-device copy and paste is for Android phones only.
- iCloud for Windows syncs Photos, iCloud Drive, passwords and bookmarks. It doesn’t sync the clipboard, and Universal Clipboard isn’t available on Windows.
Which should you use?
- You move things between your iPhone and PC every day: a clipboard sync app. Syncra is free to try on both.
- You live in Microsoft Edge: Edge Drop is a decent free option.
- It’s a one-off: email it to yourself.
Comparing more tools, including ones for Mac, Android and Linux? See the best cross-platform clipboard managers.