Third-party clipboard issues

Third-party applications such as clipboard managers, remote support tools, screen recorders, accessibility software, and phone companion apps can interfere with Remote Desktop Manager’s clipboard features. Common issues include:

• Copied credentials disappearing before they can be pasted.

• The username pastes correctly, but the clipboard is empty when pasting the password.

• The clipboard is cleared immediately after copying.

• The wrong value is pasted. For example, the clipboard manager’s cached value instead of the live credential.

This article explains how to diagnose the issue and which solution applies to each scenario.

Before changing any settings, use the Clipboard diagnostic tool to identify which process is consuming the clipboard:

1. Open the Help menu in Remote Desktop Manager.

2. Click on Clipboard diagnostic.

3. Copy a credential using Copy username and password (or whichever action is failing).

4. In the Status tab, review the list of processes that read the clipboard.

Once the interfering process has been identified, apply the appropriate solution.

Symptom: A clipboard manager consumes the PasteOnce sequence credentials can be pasted. Both the username and password are captured immediately, leaving nothing for the manual paste.

Why this happens: Clipboard managers monitor the clipboard within milliseconds of any change. They ignore the private clipboard formats that Remote Desktop Manager uses to signal “do not capture this”, so the existing blocklist is ineffective against them.

Solution (Remote Desktop Manager v2026.1 and later): No action required. Remote Desktop Manager automatically detects clipboard managers using time-delta classification:

• Any process that reads the clipboard within 500 ms of a value being copied is classified as a clipboard manager.

• Remote Desktop Manager feeds it a copy of the value (so clipboard history remains intact) without affecting the flow.

• The paste action also receives the value and advances the sequence normally.

This works with multiple clipboard managers running simultaneously. No allowlist or blocklist configuration is required.

If auto-detection is not working (for example, on high-latency virtualized desktops), increase the threshold via the ClipboardAutoReaderThresholdMs NoUI option (see Advanced configuration).

Solution (prior to v2026.1): Add the clipboard manager to the Blocklist in the Clipboard diagnostic tool. Note that this prevents the manager from capturing Remote Desktop Manager credentials in its history. See Blocklisting a process for instructions.

Symptom: A specific application is reading the clipboard and interfering, and it is not a clipboard manager (or Remote Desktop Manager is on an ealier version than 2026.1).

Known problematic applications:

1. Open Help – Clipboard diagnostic.

2. Copy a credential to reproduce the issue.

3. In the Status tab, identify the interfering process.

4. Right-click it and select Add to blocklist.

The rule is saved permanently. The process is silently denied access whenever Remote Desktop Manager controls the clipboard.

Symptom: The clipboard works sometimes but fails intermittently, particularly with Chrome-based browsers. The browser reads the clipboard multiple times internally before the user pastes.

1. Open Help – Clipboard diagnostic.

2. Select the Configuration tab.

3. In the Delays section, add the browser process with a delay of 150–200 ms.

4. If the issue persists, increase the delay to 500 ms.

The delay makes Remote Desktop Manager wait before advancing the PasteOnce sequence, giving the browser time to complete its internal clipboard operations before the value changes.

Symptom: Credentials copy incorrectly regardless of clipboard manager configuration, or a legacy application is fundamentally incompatible with Remote Desktop Manager’s default clipboard mechanism.

1. Go to File – Settings – Application – Clipboard – Advanced.

2. Change Clipboard copy method from Default to Legacy.

The legacy method uses a simpler clipboard mechanism that is compatible with a wider range of applications. Use this as a last resort if all the previous solutions do not resolve the issue.

These options are not exposed in the UI. They must be set via XML configuration or the registry. Contact Devolutions' support team if you need assistance applying them.

If none of the solutions resolve the problem:

1. Open Help – Clipboard diagnostic.

2. Reproduce the issue (copy a credential and attempt to paste it).

3. Click Send to transmit the diagnostic report to Devolutions' support team.

The report includes the list of processes that accessed the clipboard, the current blocklist and allowlist configuration, and relevant option values. Devolutions' support team can use this information to identify the interfering application and recommend the correct configuration for a specific environment.