diff --git a/DOCS/interface-changes/clipboard.txt b/DOCS/interface-changes/clipboard.txt
index 98c7ec94fc075..9a1582d5ef5ee 100644
--- a/DOCS/interface-changes/clipboard.txt
+++ b/DOCS/interface-changes/clipboard.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-add `--clipboard-enable` and `--clipboard-monitor` options
+add `--clipboard-monitor` option
 add `clipboard` property
 add `current-clipboard-backend` property
 add `--clipboard-backends` option
diff --git a/DOCS/man/options.rst b/DOCS/man/options.rst
index 63a308389cffa..bb9bbccc3dfa8 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/options.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/options.rst
@@ -7896,29 +7896,17 @@ Miscellaneous
 
     Conversion is not applied to metadata that is updated at runtime.
 
-``--clipboard-enable=<yes|no>``
-    (Windows, Wayland and macOS only)
-
-    Enable native clipboard support (default: yes). This allows reading and
-    writing to the ``clipboard`` property to get and set clipboard contents.
-
-``--clipboard-monitor=<yes|no>``
-    (Windows, Wayland and macOS only)
-
-    Enable clipboard monitoring so that the ``clipboard`` property can be
-    observed for content changes (default: no). This only affects clipboard
-    implementations which use polling to monitor clipboard updates.
-    Other platforms currently ignore this option and always/never notify
-    changes.
-
-    On Wayland, this option only has effect on the ``wayland`` backend, and
-    not for the ``vo`` backend. See ``current-clipboard-backend`` property for
-    more details.
-
 ``--clipboard-backends=<backend1,backend2,...[,]>``
     Specify a priority list of the clipboard backends to be used.
     You can also pass ``help`` to get a complete list of compiled in backends.
 
+    If the list is not empty, it enables native clipboard support for the
+    specified backends. This allows reading and writing to the ``clipboard``
+    property to get and set clipboard contents.
+
+    Native clipboard support is enabled by default. To disable this, remove
+    all backends in this list with ``--clipboard-backends-clr``.
+
     Note that the default clipboard backends are subject to change,
     and must not be relied upon.
 
@@ -7941,3 +7929,16 @@ Miscellaneous
         protocol, or if the ``wayland`` backend is disabled.
 
     This is an object settings list option. See `List Options`_ for details.
+
+``--clipboard-monitor=<yes|no>``
+    (Windows, Wayland and macOS only)
+
+    Enable clipboard monitoring so that the ``clipboard`` property can be
+    observed for content changes (default: no). This only affects clipboard
+    implementations which use polling to monitor clipboard updates.
+    Other platforms currently ignore this option and always/never notify
+    changes.
+
+    On Wayland, this option only has effect on the ``wayland`` backend, and
+    not for the ``vo`` backend. See ``current-clipboard-backend`` property for
+    more details.
diff --git a/player/clipboard/clipboard.c b/player/clipboard/clipboard.c
index ccf57a8a01e4d..4c894870c3d8c 100644
--- a/player/clipboard/clipboard.c
+++ b/player/clipboard/clipboard.c
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 #include "player/core.h"
 
 struct clipboard_opts {
-    bool enabled;
     bool monitor;
     struct m_obj_settings *backends;
 };
@@ -70,14 +69,12 @@ static const struct m_obj_list backend_obj_list = {
 #define OPT_BASE_STRUCT struct clipboard_opts
 const struct m_sub_options clipboard_conf = {
     .opts = (const struct m_option[]) {
-        {"enable", OPT_BOOL(enabled), .flags = UPDATE_CLIPBOARD},
         {"monitor", OPT_BOOL(monitor), .flags = UPDATE_CLIPBOARD},
         {"backends", OPT_SETTINGSLIST(backends, &backend_obj_list),
          .flags = UPDATE_CLIPBOARD},
         {0}
     },
     .defaults = &(const struct clipboard_opts) {
-        .enabled = true,
         .backends = (struct m_obj_settings[]) {
             {.name = "win32", .enabled = true},
             {.name = "mac", .enabled = true},
@@ -163,7 +160,7 @@ void reinit_clipboard(struct MPContext *mpctx)
     mpctx->clipboard = NULL;
 
     struct clipboard_opts *opts = mp_get_config_group(NULL, mpctx->global, &clipboard_conf);
-    if (opts->enabled) {
+    if (opts->backends && opts->backends[0].name) {
         struct clipboard_init_params params = {
             .mpctx = mpctx,
             .flags = opts->monitor ? CLIPBOARD_INIT_ENABLE_MONITORING : 0,