Why is the Mac Copy/Paste experience so inconsistent?

Question

When I command-shift-4, I expect a copy of that portion of the screenshot to go to the clipboard. And then I expect to paste what I copied. However, half the time it properly copies, and I can paste the image correctly. The other half of the time, when I paste, I see the previously copied item. Then, I see the screenshot appear in the lower right, and then it appears on my desktop, and I have to either a) re-copy and re-paste or b) drag the desktop image to my destination. Am I not doing the right method? Note: I'm a Mac user for >15 years.

ggm · Accepted Answer

I too see this inconsistent behaviour. It looks like Apple implemented two strategies: an "old" one which respects the traditional clipboard, and a "new" one which uses small overlay panes in some notional sweetspot and gives you a 3 second (or thereabouts) window of time to drag-and-drop the screenshot.
I don't think they workshopped how they play together, or how a user controls when which one is invoked or what desktop switching to find another context to "paste" into.
Grrrr. No solution, just validating your perception.

solardev · Answer

Sorry to ask, but are you sure you're holding down the right hot keys? If I remember right, command shift 4 should should save to the desktop. Command control shift 4 should save to the clipboard.If in doubt, use https://shottr.cc/ instead. The dev is pretty active here on HN.