Clipboard History Gone After Restart? Why and How to Keep It

That's normal. Windows clears clipboard history (Win+V) every time the PC restarts, and only the items you pinned survive. Microsoft documents this as the intended behaviour, so nothing is broken. To keep a clip across restarts, pin it in Win+V or save it somewhere permanent.

What survives a restart

Windows updates that restart the PC overnight count too. If Win+V was full in the evening and empty in the morning, check whether Windows Update restarted the machine.

How to keep an item after a restart

Pinning is the only built-in way to carry a history item through a restart.

1. Press Windows logo key + V.
2. Select the pin icon next to the item you want to keep.
3. Restart. The pinned item is still in Win+V.

To remove it later, open Win+V, select See more (...) next to the item, and select Delete. Clear all and Settings > System > Clipboard > Clear clipboard data leave pinned items alone, so delete them one by one. How to pin items in Windows clipboard history has more detail.

Pins aren't a safe place for passwords, though: a pinned secret survives every restart on purpose. If pins themselves vanished, that is a different problem; see pinned clipboard items disappeared.

Restart, shutdown, sleep and hibernate compared

Microsoft documents one event: history is cleared when the PC restarts. The other power actions behave like this:

Only the restart row is documented. Clipboard history runs in the Clipboard User Service (cbdhsvc), a per-user service that Windows stops and deletes when you sign out, and a shutdown ends the session in the same way, but Microsoft doesn't say what that does to unpinned items.

Does Fast Startup keep clipboard history?

Microsoft doesn't say. Fast Startup makes the next boot quicker by saving the Windows kernel to a hibernation file, but before it does that, Windows closes all apps and signs out every user, so your session ends just as it would in a full shutdown. Don't turn Fast Startup off or on for clipboard reasons; pin what you need instead.

Closing a laptop lid or pressing the power button often triggers sleep rather than shutdown, which is another reason not to rely on any power action except a restart.

To force a known full restart, for example when testing, run this in Terminal or the Run box:

shutdown /r /t 0

/r restarts the computer and /t 0 sets a zero-second delay.

Win+V is empty after starting up: quick checks

1. Press Win+V. If you see Turn on instead of a list, clipboard history is off. Turn it on; nothing was lost, because nothing was being recorded.
2. Copy a word in Notepad and press Win+V again. If the word appears, history works and yesterday's unpinned items were cleared by the restart.
3. Check your pins. If pins are gone too, you may be signed in to a different Windows account, or a reset or upgrade removed them.
4. On a work or school PC, the setting may have been turned off by policy. See clipboard history grayed out by organization.

If Win+V shows "Nothing here" even after you copy something, follow Win+V says "Nothing here"? How to fix it.

Why the restart wipe is useful

Microsoft doesn't explain the design, but the effect is a built-in expiry. Copies often include passwords, one-time codes and personal messages, and Microsoft's own advice is to avoid leaving sensitive information in clipboard history on shared devices. Clearing unpinned items at each restart limits how long that material sits around. Turning on Clipboard history across your devices doesn't change this; sync shares text with your other PCs, it isn't a backup of this PC's list.

Microsoft documents no setting or registry value that stops the restart wipe.

Keeping clips across restarts without pinning

If you regularly need yesterday's copies, use something designed to keep them:

• Text you'll reuse: put it in a note, a document or your project's README.
• Screenshots: save them as files. Windows logo key + PrtScn saves a full-screen shot to the Screenshots folder in Pictures.
• Passwords and keys: keep them in a password manager, never in clipboard history.
• Everything else: a third-party clipboard manager that stores history on disk.

Most clipboard managers keep history across restarts. Edge Drop, for example, keeps its history and pins after a restart unless you turn on Clear unpinned on restart in Settings → Behaviour, and its Auto-delete timer can remove old items after 1 hour to 7 days instead. Edge Drop vs Windows clipboard history compares the two, and best clipboard managers for Windows covers other options.

FAQ

Is there a way to make Windows keep clipboard history after a restart?

Only by pinning items. Windows has no setting to keep unpinned history across a restart.

Does clipboard history survive sleep?

Microsoft doesn't say. Sleep keeps your session running, so your items may still be there when the PC wakes, but don't rely on it for anything important. If copying itself stops working after the PC wakes, see copy and paste not working after sleep.

Do pinned items survive Windows updates?

They're designed to survive restarts, including update restarts. Microsoft doesn't document pins as a backup, so keep important text somewhere else too.

Related reading

• How to Pin Items in Windows Clipboard History
• Pinned Clipboard Items Gone in Windows 11? Causes and Fixes
• Copied Files Gone After Restart? Why and What to Do
• Windows Clipboard History Limit: Can You Go Past 25?

Sources

• Using the clipboard (Microsoft Support) — history cleared on restart except pinned items; deleting and clearing items.
• How to use clipboard history in Windows 11 (Microsoft) — pins survive restarts; avoid sensitive information on shared devices.
• Per-user services (Microsoft Learn) — Clipboard User Service (cbdhsvc) runs clipboard history; per-user services stop when the user signs out.
• Distinguishing Fast Startup from wake-from-hibernation (Microsoft Learn) — Fast Startup closes apps and logs off all user sessions before saving the kernel to Hiberfil.sys.
• Copy and paste using the Office Clipboard (Microsoft Support) — a copied item stays on the clipboard until you copy something else or shut down.
• shutdown (Microsoft Learn) — /r and /t parameters.
• Keyboard shortcuts in Windows (Microsoft Support) — Win+PrtScn saves a screenshot to the Screenshots folder.

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