Why is the Clipboard History app creating image files buried in the /private/var/* directory?

D

DavdC

Bit poster
I found that this app, part of Parallels Toolbox, was adding image files (heic and jpeg copies) of things I copied out of the app to deep directories in /private/var/folders/* and also attempting to encrypt those image files. I can't imagine why this would be needed, and it actually looks a little shady to me.
Can you help me understand why your app would be doing this?
 
Hello,
Clipboard History is a part of Parallels Toolbox. It allows you to save the history of data in Clipboard. But Clipboard History doesn't encrypt data.

/private/var/folders/ - it is temporary directory that should be cleaned by macOS after restart.

If you don't want to use Clipboard History tool you can clean all data that was saved and turn the tool off:
1) Open Clipboard History tool, right click on any item and choose 'Delete All'.
2) Open preferences of Clipboard History (cogwheel in right top corner) and turn OFF the option "Open when Mac starts".
3) Quit from the tool.

After this the tool will stop collecting your Clipboard Data and will not be started on macOS startup.
 
Last edited:
Hello, thank you for your reply. I appreciate your explanation, and it does appear that the files are temp and cleared after a restart.
And it's possible that the app that reported that the Clipboard History app was 'encrypting files' was incorrect- however, its report did lead me to the temp directory and there were two image files in there, one an HEIC and one a JPEG of the same bit of data that had been transferred through the app. This was NOT image data that I copied and pasted, it was text information: So, I still have this same question: why were image files of information copied through Clipboard History created and saved in a temp directory?
 
DavdC said:
So, I still have this same question: why were image files of information copied through Clipboard History created and saved in a temp directory?
Click to expand...
Saving image files in temporary directory is a part of Clipboard History logic:
- When you're using clipboard the data from it is copied into temporary directory.
- Then after some preparations the data is moved into place where it will be stored later. Moving files means that they are should be removed from temporary folder.
- In your case by some reason the files where not moved and still on temp folder. Highly likely these files are not considered by Clipboard History as one of the elements in history of Clipboard.

Why are you so interesting of files that are left in temporary directory?
 
What I'm interested in is why text information that went through the app was being made into image files. Text copied from a spreadsheet and being pasted into a spreadsheet was converted into an image file. I don't understand why the app needed to change text to a picture.
 
DavdC said:
I don't understand why the app needed to change text to a picture.
Click to expand...
Finally I caught what you've meant in previous posts... The tool itself doesn't not perform such conversion but it could be a result of using (by Clipboard History) some of system services.

Could you please send one of this file (you can send private message)?
 
Unfortunately I can't, because they are gone after a restart. Like you said they'd be. Are there any log files or anything like that that might help?
 
I haven't found any interesting in your report.
Let's wait for another replication of this issue. When you face it out please:
- save suspicious files from /private/var/folders/* (and post it here)
- check if Clipboard History contains these data (text? images?)
- make another Technical Report right after replication (and post it here)
 
Hi- Thanks again for the attention to my question- I was wondering if you had an explanation, and it seems one is not easily found.
You have the report of what happened for your software engineers to look into if they want to.
I'm not interested in using that piece of Parallels Toolbox any further myself, so I'll end my inquiry now. All the best to you.
 
sergk said:
Hello,
Clipboard History is a part of Parallels Toolbox. It allows you to save the history of data in Clipboard. But Clipboard History doesn't encrypt data.

/private/var/folders/ - it is temporary directory that should be cleaned by macOS after restart.

If you don't want to use Clipboard History tool you can clean all data that was saved and turn the tool off:
1) Open Clipboard History tool, right click on any item and choose 'Delete All'.
2) Open preferences of Clipboard History (cogwheel in right top corner) and turn OFF the option "Open when Mac starts".
3) Quit from the tool.

After this the tool will stop collecting your Clipboard Data and will not be started on macOS startup.
Click to expand...
Hello, help me please. There was a problem with clipboard history (Parallels ToolBox). When you run clipboard history, it takes up all the free RAM and even more. Clear history - it doesn't work, I can't do step 1 (from the comment above) because I can't enter the clipboard history settings. Reinstalling ToolBox (with subsequent reboot of the operating system) did not help. How to be in such a situation. Where are the files stored in which information for the clipboard history is stored, maybe they can be deleted, or is there a function to clear the clipboard history in your personal account?
 
Hello,

Pavel17 said:
Hello, help me please. There was a problem with clipboard history (Parallels ToolBox). When you run clipboard history, it takes up all the free RAM and even more. Clear history - it doesn't work, I can't do step 1 (from the comment above) because I can't enter the clipboard history settings. Reinstalling ToolBox (with subsequent reboot of the operating system) did not help. How to be in such a situation. Where are the files stored in which information for the clipboard history is stored, maybe they can be deleted, or is there a function to clear the clipboard history in your personal account?
Click to expand...

Try this:
1. Quit from Clipboard History tool (or kill it from Activity Monitor application)
2. Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G.
3. Type "~/Library/Application Support" in dialog and press Enter
4. In opened directory find "ClipboardHistory" folder and remove it. Note that all history will be cleared in this case. If you need to save it, archive this folder before removing it.
5. Launch Clipboard History again.

If you need to save your history then:
1. Quit from Clipboard History tool (or kill it from Activity Monitor application)
2. Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G.
3. Type "~/Library/Application Support/ClipboardHistory" in dialog and press Enter
4. In opened directory find item that has significant size (differs from other items), it could be hundreds of megabytes of even gygabytes.
5. Remove it.
6. Launch Clipboard History again.
 
sergk said:
Hello,



Try this:
1. Quit from Clipboard History tool (or kill it from Activity Monitor application)
2. Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G.
3. Type "~/Library/Application Support" in dialog and press Enter
4. In opened directory find "ClipboardHistory" folder and remove it. Note that all history will be cleared in this case. If you need to save it, archive this folder before removing it.
5. Launch Clipboard History again.

If you need to save your history then:
1. Quit from Clipboard History tool (or kill it from Activity Monitor application)
2. Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G.
3. Type "~/Library/Application Support/ClipboardHistory" in dialog and press Enter
4. In opened directory find item that has significant size (differs from other items), it could be hundreds of megabytes of even gygabytes.
5. Remove it.
6. Launch Clipboard History again.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help, your advice helped, I assumed that these files are saved in the system cache, I cleaned the cache files - it didn't help, but it turned out I deleted the wrong files) thanks again)
 
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