# Copy/drag from file list not working as expected (Mac)
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-drag-from-file-list-not-working-as-expected-mac/60007
**Category:** Mac
**Created:** [February 8, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-drag-from-file-list-not-working-as-expected-mac/60007 "2023-02-08T22:41:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ngervae](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ngervae)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-drag-from-file-list-not-working-as-expected-mac/60007/1 "2023-02-08T22:41:47Z")
Not sure whether to use Bug Reports or Mac category!
MP3Tag Version 1.7.4 (75)
MacOS Monterrey 12.6.1 (21G217)
If I select multiple rows or columns in the file list and copy, then paste into another app (or drag the selection), I do not get every column's data in tab-delimited format as I would expect. Instead I get only some columns' data, separated by spaces.
Worse, if I paste into a spreadsheet (Numbers), I only get one row's data! Or if I drag them, I get some weird button that plays the file (I think it actually embeds the audio file into the spreadsheet?). I should get the copied/dragged rows' file list data dropped into the spreadsheet table, as text.
Either way this makes it very hard to paste the data into a spreadsheet, for example.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2023, 5:10am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-drag-from-file-list-not-working-as-expected-mac/60007/2 "2023-02-09T05:10:41Z")
You have to use the `Export` function to have the tag info copied out to a file, usually in a format like csv. Then you can open that in Wxcel and have te selected data available in columns and rows.
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### Author:  [@ngervae](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ngervae)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2023, 5:15am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-drag-from-file-list-not-working-as-expected-mac/60007/3 "2023-02-09T05:15:57Z")
It's good to have that as a workaround, thanks. But, the Copy command could also do the expected thing, and save all those steps. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2023, 6:11am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-drag-from-file-list-not-working-as-expected-mac/60007/4 "2023-02-09T06:11:31Z")
If you use copy and paste in macOS, it's up to the target app to decide which contents from the pasteboard take priority. Mp3tag provides a variety of representations of the files you're copying:
- file promises for copying in, e.g., Finder or other file-management related apps
- file URLs for apps that take URLs
- a textual representation that is created using a [format string](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-strings-and-available-placeholders/51688) that is configurable via **Preferences → Export → Copy Format**
Regarding Numbers: I don't know how to make it paste into separate columns (I'm not a Numbers user). A quick test showed that copy-/pasting tab-delimited data from a plain text file also does not separate it into different columns. Do you know how to make this work?
However, pasting to a CSV file or using **File → Export...** as indicated by @MotleyG works (you can also drag&drop the CSV file).
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### Author:  [@ngervae](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ngervae)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-drag-from-file-list-not-working-as-expected-mac/60007/5 "2023-02-09T22:07:25Z")
Well, the source app is responsible for providing data in whatever formts it can, and the target app decides which of those to use.
Anyhow, I did not know about the preferences setting! Thank you for that info. I will at least be able to get the data out, even if it isn't as straightforward as just being able to copy & paste the data that I see in the file list. It's a lot quicker to set up the columns there than to type the format string in the preferences panel. (Apple's Music app has definitely set a precedent for my expectations.)
(As for Numbers, it does its best to interpret raw text, and temporarily shows a button that allows you to adjust how it does things, between fixed-width fields and columns delimited by various characters. I do not know why it is only taking the first row of pasted data though, that is pretty clearly a bug in Numbers. But, I can paste into a text document in TextEdit and then into Numbers.)