You pick an item in the Relic window, Relic says it copied, and the app you were typing in stays empty. Pasting for you is the one thing Relic does that needs the system's permission, so it is the one thing that can be switched off from outside. Here is the order to check.
The setting that does it
One row decides whether picking an item pastes or only copies. With it off, Enter puts the item on your clipboard and stops there, and you press Ctrl›V yourself.
It is on by default, so if pasting has never worked for you, this is the first row to look at. There is more about what it changes in Paste on select.
On a Mac: the permission
macOS asks before any app may press keys on your behalf. Until you grant it, Relic copies the item and tells you to paste it yourself. It says this once:
The whole grant lives in one block in Settings:
- Open the blockGear icon, then General. Scroll to Accessibility. The line at the right of the row reads Allowed, Not allowed yet, or Checking….
- Press Allow Relic to pasteThe button opens the right pane of System Settings for you. Once the permission is granted the same button reads Open Accessibility settings.
- Turn Relic on in System SettingsPrivacy & Security, then Accessibility. Find Relic in the list and switch it on.
- Come back and press Re-checkmacOS does not tell Relic when the answer changes, so the Re-check button is how the line updates. It should now read Allowed.
Everything else works without the permission. Picking an item still copies it. Relic also uses the same permission to grab what you have selected when you press Ctrl + Shift + E, so that shortcut falls back to whatever is already on your clipboard until it is granted.
On Linux: Wayland and terminals
On a Wayland session the compositor does not let an app press keys for another app, and there is no permission to ask for. Relic says so once and then stops asking:
Check which session you are in:
If it prints x11 and pasting still does nothing, that is a different problem. If it prints wayland, either switch session at the login screen or paste by hand.
Into a terminal, the paste chord is different. Most Linux terminals ignore Ctrl›V and paste on Ctrl + Shift + V instead. Relic already knows this when it pastes for you. When you are pasting by hand into a terminal, use the longer chord.
The other app will not take it
Sometimes the paste lands and the other app throws it away. That is usually a format problem. Copies keep their bold, links and colours, and a few apps refuse anything but plain text.
Right-click the item and take the plain version:
Copy as > Plain text is the one-off fix. To make every paste plain, turn off Paste with formatting. More in Copy as.
Two more format cases:
- An image into a text box. Nothing will paste. Drag the row out of the Relic window into the app instead, or save the image and attach the file.
- A file into an app that wants text. A copied file pastes as a file. Open the item and copy its path if the app wants the path.
The picker opens in the wrong place
The mini picker normally opens next to your mouse. Open history at the cursor asks it to open next to the text cursor instead, which only works when the app you are in tells the system where the cursor is. Plenty of apps do not, browsers and web-based editors most often, and there the picker falls back to the mouse, which is the best it can do. It is a Windows and Mac row; Linux does not have it.
If the picker opens on the wrong screen, move your mouse to the screen you want before you press the keys. More about the picker itself is in The mini picker.
If none of this helps, open Settings›About, press Copy diagnostics, and send it to support@relic.space with the name of the app you were pasting into.