Why does my iPhone keyboard ask “Allow Paste from Other Apps”?
A second, separate iOS prompt that can still show up after Full Access is already on — what actually triggers it, why the system’s own Paste menu never sees it, and the Settings switch that makes it stop asking.
You already went through the Full Access screen, confirmed the warning, and gone back to typing expecting the keyboard’s own Paste button to just work. Instead a small system window drops in over everything: “Allow ‘[App]’ to Paste from ‘[Other App]’?” with Allow and Don’t Allow underneath. It looks like one more permission gate stacked on top of the one already cleared — and it is, but it is a separate gate, owned by a different part of iOS, and it has nothing to do with any one keyboard specifically.
Full Access and this window are two different systems
Full Access, covered in the guide to what Full Access actually is, is the switch that decides whether a keyboard extension is even allowed to touch the clipboard API in the first place. It is a one-time, per-keyboard setting that lives in Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards. The “Allow Paste” window is a newer, unrelated layer iOS added system-wide starting with iOS 16 — it is not a keyboard feature at all, and any app on the phone that has ever tried to read something copied somewhere else has run into the exact same window, long before any third-party keyboard was involved.
Clearing Full Access only gets a keyboard extension as far as being technically capable of asking the clipboard for its contents. Whether a given read is let through quietly or stopped for a confirmation is a separate decision, made per app rather than once for the whole phone — which is why this window can still appear well after Full Access has already been on for weeks.
What actually makes the prompt appear
iOS is not asking permission for every paste. It only interrupts when the text sitting on the clipboard was copied by a different app than the one now trying to read it. Copy an address out of Messages, then paste it moments later into a form field a keyboard is helping fill in, and the source and the reader are two different apps, so iOS steps in to check. Copy something and paste it back inside the same app session, and there is often nothing to confirm, because the source and the reader already match.
There is also a narrower, technical reason a keyboard’s own Paste button is more likely to trip this than ordinary pasting is. iOS quietly skips the check for two specific paths: the standard Edit menu that pops up when you long-press or double-tap a text field, and any button built from Apple’s own ready-made paste control. A keyboard’s toolbar Paste icon is neither of those — it is custom code inside the extension reading the pasteboard directly, the same distinction that makes it need Full Access in the first place while the system’s own paste menu never does. That is why the ordinary long-press Paste in a text field can go on working without a single prompt, while a keyboard’s own Paste button is the one thing that stops to ask.
Making it stop asking
- Get asked at least once. The per-app override for this only shows up in Settings after that app’s keyboard has already triggered the “Allow Paste” window on its own — there is nothing to switch in advance.
- Open Settings and scroll down to the app itself in the main list — the app that contains the keyboard, not a screen tucked inside “Keyboard”.
- Tap in and look for “Paste from Other Apps”. It offers Ask, Allow and Deny in place of the default of Ask.
There is no middle ground: leaving it on Ask is what produces the window every time, choosing Allow removes it going forward for that app, and choosing Deny makes a keyboard’s Paste button look broken again — nothing pastes, no error appears — because the read is refused before it ever reaches the keyboard’s own code.
Why this only ever happens after Full Access, never instead of it
A keyboard extension that has never been granted Full Access cannot reach this prompt at all. Its attempt to touch the clipboard is stopped at the earlier gate, with no system window to answer and no button that even tries — exactly the situation covered in the guide on why a keyboard’s Paste button does not work in the first place. Seeing “Allow Paste from” is actually a sign the first gate already passed. It is the second, independent one still asking its own question.
Where Kibo fits
Kibo’s Full Access stays off by default, and it is read in exactly one place: the Copy word, Copy line and Paste buttons on the keyboard’s own toolbar. Turn Full Access on and tap that Paste button on something copied in a different app, and this exact system window is what shows up — nothing about Kibo’s own code decided to ask. Whether it asks again comes down to what is set under Settings → Kibo → Paste from Other Apps, the same as for any other app on the phone. Kibo is free to download.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my iPhone ask “Allow Paste” even though I already turned on Full Access?
They are two separate permissions. Full Access lets a keyboard extension touch the clipboard API at all; “Allow Paste from” is a separate, newer iOS-wide check that decides whether one specific read goes through, and it can still ask after Full Access has been on for a while.
How do I stop my iPhone from asking to paste every time?
Settings → the app that contains the keyboard → Paste from Other Apps → Allow. That silences the prompt going forward. Choosing Deny silences it too, but by quietly blocking the paste instead of allowing it.
Why does long-press Paste in a text field never show this prompt, but a keyboard’s own Paste button does?
iOS skips the check for the system Edit menu and for buttons built from Apple’s own ready-made paste control. A keyboard’s toolbar Paste button is custom code reading the clipboard directly, which is exactly the path the check was built to catch.
Try it on your own keyboard
Kibo is a free custom keyboard for iPhone with real mechanical key sounds, a wardrobe of themes and RGB backlight effects. No account, no ads, and it works with Full Access left off.