CopyQ not capturing clipboard on Zorin OS 18 even after enabling autostart

General Help
1

Hi everyone,

I’m using Zorin OS 18 (GNOME desktop, Wayland session) and recently installed CopyQ from the default repositories. I also enabled autostart so that CopyQ launches automatically at login.

However, when I copy any text or image (Ctrl+C), nothing shows up in the CopyQ dashboard. It’s as if CopyQ isn’t detecting clipboard events at all.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

  • Verified that CopyQ is running (pgrep copyq shows the process).
  • Restarted the app manually — still no items appear.
  • Enabled autostart from settings.
  • Tried running CopyQ manually in terminal (copyq &).
  • Using Wayland (checked with echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE).

System info:

  • Zorin OS 18
  • GNOME Shell (default desktop)
  • CopyQ version: (you can check with copyq --version)

Possible causes I suspect:

  • Wayland clipboard access issue
  • Needs special environment variable (QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb)
  • Autostart entry not properly configured

Has anyone gotten CopyQ to work correctly on Zorin 18?
Should I switch to Xorg or use a different clipboard manager like GPaste or Pano?

Any help or workaround would be appreciated :folded_hands:

Thanks in advance!

2

these are the first things that I would try. If you have a specific need for CopyQ, that suggests troubleshooting it. However, generally a user will prefer something that stably works.
If another clipboard manager fills all needs - it is worth trying out those that work out of the box.

Switching to Xorg can solve many issues. While Wayland is touted as the Next Big Thing, it is currently incomplete, despite being nearly seventeen years in development.
Xorg is well stable and established.

3

CopyQ has problems with wayland. So switching to Xorg is the easiest method to solve this problem.
If you want to stay on wayland you could try to add an environment variable
env QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb copyq
as described in this link