How to Pin and Unpin Items in Edge-Drop

Pinning is the difference between a clipboard item that vanishes on the next restart and one that stays until explicitly removed. Edge-Drop pins survive the "clear unpinned on restart" cycle, survive manual "clear all unpinned" actions, and survive auto-delete timers. They are the persistent layer of the shelf. This article covers the pin and unpin gestures, what pins survive and what they do not, how Edge-Drop pins differ from Win+V pins, and what to pin and what not to. For the broader onboarding context, see hover, pin, and drag-out in ten minutes. For the related "what survives a restart" question, see how to clear unpinned history on restart.

What pinning does

A pinned item is one that Edge-Drop keeps across restarts and across "clear all unpinned" actions. The pin is a flag on the item's record in the local history store; when the shelf renders, pinned items appear in a dedicated section at the top of the shelf, separate from the unpinned history below.

The pin persists in config.json and the underlying history store under %APPDATA%\Edge-Drop\. The history store is encrypted at rest using Windows DPAPI / safeStorage. For the on-disk layout, see where Edge-Drop stores data on disk.

What pins survive

The key insight is that pins survive every routine clearance except an explicit delete of the item itself. This makes pins the right home for items the user wants available long-term: a frequently-pasted URL, a reusable image asset, a colour value, a return address.

For the broader "what survives a restart" treatment, see clipboard history cleared after restart — that is normal — the Win+V behaviour is similar but with a 25-item cap that Edge-Drop does not impose.

How to pin

The pin gesture is via the item's context menu in the shelf.

1. Open the shelf (hover at the configured edge, or press the toggle hotkey).
2. Locate the item to pin in the unpinned section.
3. Right-click the item (or hover, depending on the current version — check the in-app hint).
4. Choose Pin from the context menu.
5. The item moves to the pinned section at the top of the shelf.

The pin takes effect immediately. There is no confirmation dialog.

For users who prefer keyboard navigation, the context menu can usually be invoked with the menu key (or Shift+F10) when the item has keyboard focus. The exact keybindings depend on the current version; check the in-app changelog for the version installed. See how to read Edge-Drop's in-app changelog.

How to unpin

Unpinning is the reverse of pinning.

1. Open the shelf.
2. Locate the item in the pinned section at the top.
3. Right-click the item.
4. Choose Unpin from the context menu.
5. The item moves back to the unpinned section, in its original chronological position.

Unpinning does not delete the item. The item remains in the history, subject to the usual retention rules (auto-delete timers, clear-on-restart, manual clear-all-unpinned). If the user wants to remove the item entirely, the context menu also offers Delete, which removes the item from the history store regardless of pin state.

How Edge-Drop pins differ from Win+V pins

Windows clipboard history (Win+V) also has a pin concept, and the two are often confused. The differences:

The most consequential difference is the 25-item cap on Win+V. Win+V's history is a fixed-size ring buffer that holds at most 25 items, and pins count against that cap. A user who pins 10 items in Win+V has only 15 slots left for unpinned history. Edge-Drop has no fixed cap; pins do not displace unpinned history.

The second consequential difference is the formats. Win+V stores text, HTML, and bitmap only; files are not first-class history cards. Edge-Drop stores files as first-class items, which means a pinned file in Edge-Drop is a real drag-out-able asset, not a path reference. For the longer treatment, see pinned Win+V items are not a real library and what the Windows clipboard can and cannot store.

Good candidates for pinning

Items that earn a pin:

• Frequently-pasted URLs. A team dashboard, a status page, a docs URL. Pasted multiple times a day; pinning makes them one click away.
• Reusable image assets. A logo, a watermark, a default avatar. Dragged into Photoshop or Slack multiple times a week.
• Colour values. Hex codes for the brand palette. #1A1A1A, #F5F5F5, etc. Pasted into CSS, Slack, and design tools.
• Return address or signature block. Pasted into emails and forms.
• Frequently-used file paths. A monorepo root, a logs folder, a config file location. Useful when working across multiple terminals.
• Snippet templates. A meeting-notes template, a standup format. Pasted into a new note each time.

These items are stable (they do not change), frequently used (pasted at least weekly), and not secret (they contain no credentials). They earn their pin.

For the related "snippets vs clipboard" argument, see snippet managers for code: project files win — the conclusion there is that snippets belong in version control, not in clipboard history. Pinning a snippet in Edge-Drop is a convenience layer, not a replacement for the versioned snippet file.

Bad candidates for pinning

Items that should not be pinned:

• Passwords and API keys. Even with DPAPI encryption at rest, a pinned secret is a secret that survives every routine clearance. Use a password manager instead. See how to stop clipboard managers from saving secrets.
• One-time codes. They expire in minutes; pinning them is pointless and risks re-use after expiry.
• Customer PII. A pinned customer email or phone number is a privacy hazard if the machine is shared or accessed.
• Tokens with rotation. A short-lived JWT or session token. Pinning it preserves the expired token, which is misleading and risks accidental paste of a stale value.
• Drafts in progress. A draft that is being actively edited belongs in a notes app or an editor, not in a pinned clipboard item. Pinning freezes the draft at one moment in time.
• Anything that should be in version control. Code snippets, config files, documentation fragments. These belong in git, not in clipboard pins.

For the broader "what belongs where" treatment, see templates with fill-in fields need an expander and email signatures: clipboard is a bad home.

Pairing pins with filters

The shelf has filters: All / Text / Links / Images / Files. The filter state is independent per pinned section, so the pinned section can show only pinned images while the unpinned section shows all recent items. This is useful when the pinned section has grown large and the user wants to focus on one format.

For example, a designer with five pinned images and three pinned text snippets can click the Images filter to see only the five images in the pinned section, then click All to return to the full view. The filter does not affect the unpinned section's state.

For the full filter treatment, see how to filter text, links, images, and files.

Pairing pins with search and timers

Search in Edge-Drop searches the current view, which includes both pinned and unpinned items. A pinned item is findable by search just like an unpinned item — useful when the pinned section has grown large. See how to search clipboard history in Edge-Drop.

The auto-delete timer (off / 1h / 6h / 24h / 7d) controls how long unpinned items live; pins are exempt. A 24h timer paired with a few pins gives a shelf that auto-rotates recent history while keeping a small persistent layer. See how to set auto-delete timers in Edge-Drop.

Troubleshooting pins

A few failure modes:

• Pin does not survive restart. The pin was not actually saved — the item may have been moved to the pinned section visually but the pin flag was not written to the history store. Restart Edge-Drop and re-pin. If the issue persists, check that config.json is writable and that a second Edge-Drop instance is not running with a conflicting config.
• Pinned items disappeared. A "Clear all" action (if available in the version installed) clears pins as well as unpinned items. Check whether such an action was invoked. If not, check whether the history store file was deleted or moved. See where Edge-Drop stores data on disk.
• Cannot unpin. The context menu may not offer Unpin if the item is in the unpinned section already. Confirm the item is actually pinned (it should be in the pinned section at the top of the shelf).
• Pin command is greyed out. The item may be of a type that cannot be pinned (e.g., a transient format Edge-Drop does not persist). Check the in-app changelog for the version installed.
• Settings revert after restart. A second Edge-Drop instance is overwriting config.json (e.g., both a Store build and a GitHub build are installed). Uninstall one. See how to uninstall Edge-Drop cleanly.

For the broader troubleshooting path, see pinned clipboard items disappeared.

What pinning does not do

Pinning is a retention flag. It does not:

• Sync the item to other machines. Edge-Drop has no cloud sync. A pinned item on one PC is not on another PC.
• Encrypt the item separately. Pins are encrypted at rest with the same DPAPI protection as unpinned items.
• Protect the item from explicit deletion. The Delete command removes the item regardless of pin state.
• Change the item's format. Pinning does not convert a text item to a file or vice versa.
• Make the item searchable by tags. Search finds items by their content, not by pin state or tags.

For the broader product behaviour, see Edge-Drop settings map: Behaviour, Position, Appearance.

When NOT to use pins

Pins are not the right tool when:

• The user needs cloud sync of pinned items. Edge-Drop has no cloud sync. Win+V with sync on (and the privacy trade-off) is the right pick for cross-device pinned items.
• The user needs pinned items versioned. Use a notes file in git, not a clipboard pin.
• The user needs pinned items shared with a team. Use a shared snippet library or a wiki, not a per-machine clipboard pin.
• The user is on a 4 GB RAM machine. Edge-Drop's 130–160 MB footprint is a real cost; pins do not change that. See when not to use Edge-Drop.

Summary

Pin an item by right-clicking it in the shelf and choosing Pin. Unpin by right-clicking in the pinned section and choosing Unpin. Pins survive restarts, "clear unpinned" actions, and auto-delete timers; they do not survive explicit deletion. Edge-Drop pins have no fixed cap, support files as first-class items, and never sync to the cloud. Good pin candidates are stable, frequently-used, non-secret items: URLs, image assets, colour values, signatures. Bad candidates are passwords, one-time codes, customer PII, and anything that belongs in version control. Pair pins with filters and search to keep the pinned section navigable as it grows.

Related reading

• How to Search Clipboard History in Edge-Drop
• How to Filter Text, Links, Images, and Files
• How to Install Edge-Drop on Windows 10 and 11
• What Local-First Software Means for Clipboard Apps

Sources

• Microsoft Support — Using the clipboard on Windows — official description of the Win+V pin mechanism that Edge-Drop's pins extend with no 25-item cap
• Microsoft Learn — Data Protection API (DPAPI) — the at-rest encryption Edge-Drop uses for the history store that holds pinned items
• Electron — safeStorage — the Electron API Edge-Drop uses to wrap DPAPI for the history store
• Microsoft Learn — Standard Clipboard Formats — official list of clipboard formats that Edge-Drop captures and pins
• Edge-Drop — GitHub README — official source of truth for the pin/unpin gestures, the pinned section, and the retention rules for pinned items

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