Score:8

How do I disable middle mouse click pasting clipboard?

af flag

I am running Kubuntu 20.04.

I just noticed that clicking the middle mouse button pastes my clipboard; I don't like that.

I cannot find a way to disable this behaviour. I would like to keep middle mouse button click working, but disable the paste action.

Eric Duminil avatar
us flag
Two possible solutions : 1) Don't use it 2) Learn to love it, and understand the difference between "Ctrl+C"+"Ctrl+V" and "Selecting"+"Middle click". It's simple, efficient and very versatile.
cn flag
@EricDuminil on my mouse in work the scroll wheel does this for the very lightest of touches, so disabling could be quite handy
Eric Duminil avatar
us flag
@ChrisH: Thanks for the explanation.
Scorb avatar
af flag
@EricDuminil Many graphical programs use middle mouse to pan the view.
Eric Duminil avatar
us flag
@Scorb: Is there a conflict, though? As far as I know, the programs are still free to decide what to do with a middle click. It's not like those graphical programs pan the view and copy the text somewhere, is it?
Scorb avatar
af flag
@EricDuminil Figma does both.
Eric Duminil avatar
us flag
@Scorb: At exactly the same time?
Scorb avatar
af flag
Yes. When I pan the view in Figma with middle mouse, it also pastes the clipboard contents into the figma view.
Eric Duminil avatar
us flag
@Scorb That sounds like a bug in the app, then.
Score:7
cn flag

Right-click somewhere on the desktop and choose Configure Desktop and Wallpaper... from the context menu. This will open the Desktop Folder Settings window. There you can configure the mouse actions:

Desktop Folder Settings window

lemontree avatar
us flag
This only affects the desktop background, not any applications.
Score:2
us flag

The following solution globally disables paste on middle click for me while retaining all middle mouse button and clipboard functionality:

Follow the steps described in this answer, that is:

  1. Install xbindkeys xsel xdotool

  2. Place this in ~/.xbindkeysrc

    "echo -n | xsel -n -i; pkill xbindkeys; xdotool click 2; xbindkeys"  
    b:2 + Release
    
  3. Reload xbindkeys -p

In step 2. you may need to remove the + Release part as described in this post, depending on what works on your machine.

Set up xbindkeys to run on startup.

Then open Klipper, e.g. via the clipboard icon in the system tray > right click > Configure Clipboard. Uncheck the option 'Prevent empty clipboard'. Reboot and the problem should be solved.

The latter idea is thanks to milaq's XMousePasteBlock.

co flag
For anyone searching the internet for a solution that hasn't stopped working, this one works in 22.04. (Thanks!)
co flag
Funnily enough, this actually breaks middle mouse scrolling using a tablet input device. Guess I'm sticking with middle mouse paste after all.
Andrew Knackstedt avatar
kr flag
I use gnome and wayland and I thought I needed to do this to fix VSCode middle mouse paste to the vertical selection. Turns out there is a VSCode config that controls it as well, so if you're using VSCode to litmus test, be careful because it will still middle mouse click unless you have set `"editor.selectionClipboard": false` on your settings
Score:2

Steps for a solution:

  1. Identify the ID/IDs of your device with

    xinput list 
    
  2. Get the button map with

    xinput get-button-map <ID>
    
  3. Set the button action

    xinput set-button-map <ID> 1 <new action>
    

Repeat the last command for as many IDs as your mouse has. 1 stands for the mapping of left-click, then for middle click, etc. Use for <new action> number 0 to disable middle-click, number 1 if you want to make it equivalent to left-click, etc.

There are other possible methods.

Related:

  1. Any updates on disabling middle-click paste?
  2. How do I disable middle mouse button click paste?
  3. Disable mouse middle button click paste on KDE, keeping that button working
  4. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=100940
  5. https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/7a71fa/disable_middleclick_paste_and_just_paste/
  6. Disabling middle mouse button
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