Phone Link copy and paste not working: 8 fixes, and what to use instead

Phone Link does calls, messages and notifications with almost any Android phone, but copy and paste only with these, according to Microsoft:

• Samsung Galaxy phones with One UI 2.1 or later (like the Galaxy S21, Note20 and Z Flip)
• Some HONOR phones (like the Magic4 Pro and Magic6 series)
• Some OPPO, OnePlus and Realme phones (OPPO Find, OPPO Reno and others)
• ASUS ROG Phone 8, vivo X Fold3 Pro, Xiaomi 14T series and Surface Duo

With an iPhone, Phone Link has no copy and paste. With a Pixel, Motorola or another Android phone that isn't on the list, the option doesn't appear. In both cases skip to the alternative.

1. 1On the PC, open Phone Link and click the gear icon (Settings).
2. 2Go to Features → Cross-device copy and paste.
3. 3Turn on Allow this app to access and transfer content I copy and paste between my phone and PC.

Copy something on the phone and press Ctrl + V on the PC. The other way, copy on the PC and paste on the phone.

Copy and paste only works while the phone and the PC are linked. A quick test: if your recent messages, photos and notifications show up in Phone Link, the connection works. If not, close Phone Link on the PC and Link to Windows on the phone, open both again, and check that both use the same Microsoft account.

If Link to Windows can't use mobile data, copy and paste only works when the phone and the PC are both on Wi-Fi. That's why it often works at home and not elsewhere. To allow it, on most Android phones go to Settings → Advanced features → Link to Windows and turn on Use mobile data (on some phones it's Sync over mobile data). It uses a little of your data plan.

Android puts apps to sleep to save battery, and Link to Windows stops passing what you copy. In Settings → Apps → Link to Windows → Battery, choose Unrestricted or Don't optimize (the name changes by phone). On Samsung, also check that Link to Windows isn't in Sleeping apps.

• Only text and images. Files, contacts or anything else won't paste.
• Images over 1 MB are resized, so they arrive smaller.
• Very long text can fail: copy it in parts.
• From a Samsung Secure Folder you can't copy to the PC.
• Some apps lose the formatting of copied text.

There's one shared clipboard: every copy, on the phone or the PC, replaces it on both. If you copy something on the phone and then copy something else on the PC, the first one is gone. Phone Link doesn't keep a history.

Update Phone Link from the Microsoft Store and Link to Windows from the Play Store (on Samsung it updates with the Galaxy Store). If you use Microsoft Edge, update it too. As a last step, restart the PC and try again.

If your phone isn't supported, or you have an iPhone, you need something that doesn't depend on Phone Link. Colurus is a clipboard in the cloud that works on iPhone, Android and PC, in the browser. It's the closest thing to a universal clipboard between Windows and any phone, and it keeps what you save, so it's also a clipboard history.

1. 1Open colurus.com on the phone and on the PC, and sign in with the same Google account.
2. 2On the phone, copy something and tap Paste, or tap Choose image for a photo or screenshot. On Android you can also share to Colurus from any app. Phones don't let apps read the clipboard in the background, so you send each thing with one tap.
3. 3It shows up on the PC right away: click it to copy it. From the PC, press Ctrl + V in Colurus and it's on the phone.

For a one-off without an account, the free online clipboard passes a text or an image with a 6-character code. Every other way, compared: how to copy and paste between Android and Windows.