Bidirectional clipboard sync between Mac and Android over LAN. Copy on one device, paste on the other — no BLE, no cloud, no third-party servers.

1. Android resolves Mac via <hostname>.local mDNS — no hardcoded IPs
2. On startup, Android sends an initial ping so Mac immediately learns Android's IP
3. Android sends a keepalive every 30s so Mac never loses track of Android's IP
4. Each side runs a TCP server on port 59876 and polls clipboard every 0.5s
5. On change, pushes to the other device via length-prefixed TCP message
6. A 1.5s cooldown suppresses echo loops after receiving from remote
7. Mac uses launchctl asuser <uid> pbcopy/pbpaste — works correctly from launchd daemons

Mac

• Python 3 (system /usr/bin/python3)

Android

• Termux — F-Droid only, not Play Store
• Termux:API — F-Droid
• Termux:Boot — F-Droid

Play Store versions of Termux are outdated. Use F-Droid.

sudo cp clipsyncd_mac.py /usr/local/bin/clipsyncd.py
sudo chmod 644 /usr/local/bin/clipsyncd.py

Create ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.clipsyncd.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.user.clipsyncd</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/python3</string>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/clipsyncd.py</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/clipsyncd.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/clipsyncd.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.clipsyncd.plist

Edit clipsyncd_android.py and set:

MAC_HOSTNAME = "your-mac-hostname.local"

Get your hostname with hostname on Mac.

pkg install termux-api python
cp clipsyncd_android.py ~/clipsyncd.py
nohup python3 ~/clipsyncd.py > ~/clipsyncd.log 2>&1 &

Open Termux:Boot app once to activate it, then:

mkdir -p ~/.termux/boot
cat > ~/.termux/boot/clipsyncd.sh << 'EOF'
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
termux-wake-lock
nohup python3 ~/clipsyncd.py > ~/clipsyncd.log 2>&1 &
EOF
chmod +x ~/.termux/boot/clipsyncd.sh

Disable battery optimization: Settings > Apps > Termux > Battery > Unrestricted

Mac

# check status
launchctl list | grep clipsyncd

# live log
tail -f /tmp/clipsyncd.log

# restart
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.clipsyncd.plist
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.clipsyncd.plist

Android (Termux)

# check status
pgrep -f clipsyncd.py && echo running || echo stopped

# live log
tail -f ~/clipsyncd.log

# restart
pkill -f clipsyncd.py
nohup python3 ~/clipsyncd.py > ~/clipsyncd.log 2>&1 &

README and code contributions assisted by aider using local LLMs via Ollama:

MIT