Forum Discussion
Issue with Copy/Paste Restriction in Intune MDM on Android Devices (Clipboard Editor Interaction)
Hi all,
I’m currently experiencing an issue while setting up Intune MDM on Android devices related to restricting copy and paste to unmanaged apps.
Specifically, the issue occurs when users copy text from the Teams app and try to paste within teams app.
Here's what happens:
After copying text, a message "Your organisation's data cannot be pasted here" immediately appears in the clipboard hud. The copied data seems blocked from being viewed, as the error message appears even before a paste attempt.
Despite this, users can manually paste the copied content by long-pressing or selecting "Paste" from the text box. However, when trying to use the "paste from clipboard" feature, the warning message above is pasted instead of the copied content.
We’ve set the Intune policy to allow copy/paste within managed apps, but the clipboard interaction seems to be problematic, especially with Gboard. It appears that Gboard, possibly due to Android 13 and 14’s Clipboard Editor, is treated as an unmanaged app, causing Intune’s data protection policies to block its access to the clipboard in a read-only state.
Just to clarify: I want users to be able to copy and paste txt within managed apps only. So the allowed behavior of pasting with long press is fine, but I want to get rid of the block that we're getting.
Here’s what we’ve tried:
Added various exclusions to the Intune policy, including Gboard, Clipboard Editor, and other related apps (full list below), but the issue persists.
Testing different configurations hasn’t led to a final solution, and there seems to be limited documentation specifically addressing this clipboard component in relation to Intune's data policies.
We’ve escalated the issue internally but wanted to see if anyone in the community has encountered a similar problem or found a solution.
Here’s the list of exclusions we’ve already added to the policy:
- Clipboard: com.android.clipboard
- SMS: com.google.android.apps.messaging
- SMS: com.android.mms
- SMS: com.samsung.android.messaging
- Native phone app: com.android.phone
- Google Play Store: com.android.vending
- Android system settings: com.android.providers.settings
- Android system settings: com.android.settings
- Google Maps: com.google.android.apps.maps
- Gboard: com.google.android.inputmethod.english
- Samsung: com.sec.android.inputmethod
- Gboard: com.google.android.inputmethod.latin
- Gboard: com.google.android.apps.inputmethod.hindi
- Gboard: com.google.android.inputmethod.pinyin
- Gboard: com.google.android.inputmethod.japanese
- Gboard: com.google.android.inputmethod.korean
- Gboard: com.google.android.apps.handwriting.ime
- Gboard: com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
- Gboard: com.samsung.android.svoiceime
- Gboard: com.samsung.android.honeyboard
- Gboard: com.android.inputmethod.latin
- Teams app: com.microsoft.teams
Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
This is my first time posting so apologies if this is the wrong space.
6 Replies
+1
We have the same issue. Would love to have a solution to turn off clipboard all together on GBoard so we don't even need to make exceptions. Wrap G-Board app in Intune SDK!
Even i don't think this will hit (and thank god i don't use Intune), did you try to configure gboard (managed app config) and allow copy/paste there?
Also check if you don't block copy/paste with any other policy (feature control it's in our MDM).
Hey Moombas,
Doubled checked that we didn't have it blocked with any other policy.
Will try this if we dont already have it, (though think we might of): configure gboard (managed app config) and allow copy/paste there.
If not I'll get the config setup and see if that changes it.
Thanks for the tip!Be aware that there seem currently some issues regarding managed app config and gboard (not showing them).
See this related post: https://www.androidenterprise.community/discussions/conversations/managed-configuration-to-gboard-has-disappeared-from-mdm/10972
Exact same issue. Thinking of just raising the "Cut and copy character limit for any app" to 20 just so they can at least copy and paste a name or phone number.
That so far has been the solution we've put forward for now.
Last time I asked Microsoft it seems they still are unsure of the issue and have basically put it on android to work out which is frustrating since it seems to be an issue with Intune.
If our devices weren't BYOD then this wouldn't be an issue, but since we're adding the app protection and not fully onboarding users devices, it seems there's currently no solution for this.
