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How to copy and paste on an iPhone

How to copy and paste on an iPhone

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It’s easy to perform these basic actions on your Apple device — but you have to know how.

Illustration of a phone with a photo of a cat featured on-screen.

I’m always moving bits of information around on my iPhone — between documents and screens and apps — but I’m not always sure I’m doing it in the best way, especially since Apple has regularly changed the way that copy and paste works through successive versions of iOS.

That’s why I wanted to look at all the different options iOS currently gives you for copying and pasting text and images, without the familiar shortcuts you get on a computer keyboard. Those options are outlined below and will take you from basic copy and paste through to some more advanced tricks.

A note: I’m writing this guide using an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 17.2.1, the latest version of the software at the time of writing.

Three paragraphs of text, two paragraphs highlighted, keyboard at bottom of screen.

Three paragraphs of text, two paragraphs highlighted, keyboard at bottom of screen.

Screen with “Testing some text pasting...” at top and a pop-up listing Paste / Select / Select All / AutoFill below that, and a keyboard at bottom.

Screen with “Testing some text pasting...” at top and a pop-up listing Paste / Select / Select All / AutoFill below that, and a keyboard at bottom.

To copy and paste text, you first need to select it:

  • To select non-editable text (such as text on a webpage), press and hold on any part of a word until it’s highlighted.
  • To select editable text (when the on-screen keyboard is showing), double-tap on a word to select it, or triple-tap on a paragraph to select it.

Whichever method you use, you can keep your finger pressed down and then move it to expand the selection. You’ll also see handles at each edge of the selection, which you can tap and drag to change where the selection starts and stops. (Note: some apps handle text selection differently, but the press and hold action will usually work.)

Once you’re done, a pop-up bar will appear above your selection. What appears in the bar  can vary:

  • Depending on the app and the text, you may see a Select All option listed. Tap this to select all the text on a page or in a section.
  • If you see Cut and Copy options, just tap either to perform the action. If Cut isn’t showing, the text can’t be moved.
  • If you prefer gestures, pinch closed with three fingers on the selection to copy the text, or pinch closed with three fingers two times to cut it.

You’re then ready to paste the text:

  • With the on-screen keyboard visible, tap on the screen where you want the text inserted.
  • Pick Paste from the pop-up bar that appears.
  • You can also pinch open with three fingers to paste text.
  • If you’re working on an editable document and want to move the text, you can simply select the text, tap and hold it, then drag it to a new location.

Photo on top of man looking at TV and below pop-up menu with Share..., Save to Photos, Copy, Copy Subject, Show Text

Photo on top of man looking at TV and below pop-up menu with Share..., Save to Photos, Copy, Copy Subject, Show Text

Photos on top, several icons below, and below that selections for Copy Photo and Add to Share Album.

Photos on top, several icons below, and below that selections for Copy Photo and Add to Share Album.

  • Press and hold on the image.
  • Tap Cut or Copy on the pop-up bar that appears. (Cut will only appear if you’re working in an editable document).

Apple Photos doesn’t work in the same way. To copy an image using that app:

  • Tap the image thumbnail to make it full screen.
  • Then tap the Share button (the square with the arrow, lower left), and choose Copy Photo.

That sends the image to the clipboard. To paste it somewhere else:

  • With the on-screen keyboard showing, tap where you want to paste the image.
  • Tap Paste on the pop-up bar.

If the app that you’re pasting the image into supports image resizing, you’ll see handles around the image that you can use to change its size. Note that you can’t use the pinch gestures with images as you can with text.

Icons followed by a menu headed by the word Copy.

Icons followed by a menu headed by the word Copy.

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