diff --git a/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/NoteBody/TinyMCE/TinyMCE.tsx b/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/NoteBody/TinyMCE/TinyMCE.tsx
index 566ffa3a3..6a233248f 100644
--- a/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/NoteBody/TinyMCE/TinyMCE.tsx
+++ b/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/NoteBody/TinyMCE/TinyMCE.tsx
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ import { focus } from '@joplin/lib/utils/focusHandler';
 const md5 = require('md5');
 const { clipboard } = require('electron');
 const supportedLocales = require('./supportedLocales');
-import { isLink } from '@joplin/utils/url';
+import { hasProtocol } from '@joplin/utils/url';
 
 const logger = Logger.create('TinyMCE');
 
@@ -1195,7 +1195,7 @@ const TinyMCE = (props: NoteBodyEditorProps, ref: any) => {
 					editor.insertContent(result.html);
 				}
 			} else {
-				if (BaseItem.isMarkdownTag(pastedText) || isLink(pastedText)) { // Paste a link to a note
+				if (BaseItem.isMarkdownTag(pastedText) || hasProtocol(pastedText, ['https', 'joplin', 'file'])) { // Paste a link to a note
 					logger.info('onPaste: pasting as a Markdown tag');
 					const result = await markupToHtml.current(MarkupToHtml.MARKUP_LANGUAGE_MARKDOWN, pastedText, markupRenderOptions({ bodyOnly: true }));
 					editor.insertContent(result.html);
diff --git a/packages/utils/url.test.ts b/packages/utils/url.test.ts
index cec4d73db..6538e6f97 100644
--- a/packages/utils/url.test.ts
+++ b/packages/utils/url.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { fileUriToPath } from './url';
+import { fileUriToPath, hasProtocol } from './url';
 
 describe('utils/url', () => {
 
@@ -28,4 +28,40 @@ describe('utils/url', () => {
 		expect(fileUriToPath('file:///c:/AUTOEXEC.BAT', 'win32')).toBe('c:\\AUTOEXEC.BAT');
 	}));
 
+	test.each([
+		[
+			'https://joplinapp.org',
+			'https',
+			true,
+		],
+		[
+			'https://joplinapp.org',
+			'http',
+			false,
+		],
+		[
+			'https://joplinapp.org',
+			['http', 'https'],
+			true,
+		],
+		[
+			'https://joplinapp.org',
+			[],
+			false,
+		],
+		[
+			'',
+			[],
+			false,
+		],
+		[
+			'joplin://openNote?id=ABCD',
+			['http', 'https', 'joplin'],
+			true,
+		],
+	])('should tell if a URL has a particular protocol', (url, protocol, expected) => {
+		const actual = hasProtocol(url, protocol);
+		expect(actual).toBe(expected);
+	});
+
 });
diff --git a/packages/utils/url.ts b/packages/utils/url.ts
index f67bb0aa5..52987b4aa 100644
--- a/packages/utils/url.ts
+++ b/packages/utils/url.ts
@@ -101,9 +101,13 @@ export const isDataUrl = (path: string) => {
 	return path.startsWith('data:');
 };
 
-export const isLink = (text: string) => {
-	if (!text) return false;
-	const linkRegex = /^(https?|file|joplin):\/\/[^)\s]+$/;
-	return !!text.match(linkRegex);
-};
+export const hasProtocol = (url: string, protocol: string | string[]) => {
+	if (!url) return false;
 
+	const protocols = typeof protocol === 'string' ? [protocol] : protocol;
+	url = url.toLowerCase();
+	for (const p of protocols) {
+		if (url.startsWith(`${p.toLowerCase()}://`)) return true;
+	}
+	return false;
+};