I love competition in the market just as much as the other guy. I’m comfortable with IE7, Opera, FF, and if the need be, Safari.
For the most part, I use Firefox nightly for general web browsing, and IE7 for forums and blogs. However, invariably, without fail, every single time a I install Firefox, within a month I am forced to either format or use IE7/Opera instead. This has been going on ever since I started using "Firefox" 3 years ago.
The Bug? No longer being able to cut and paste. AFAIK (from my programming experience), cut and paste is a simple API, you tell it what to copy and the PC does the rest. So imagine my frustration whet every single install of Firefox goes senile on me, and starts to forget to copy every now and then. It continues to get worse.
I don’t normally bug non-reproducibles. There really is no point IMO since they rarely are acted upon. But today I was posting something, then decided to cut and paste it into IE to use ieSpell.. *poof* it was gone. A page disappeared in a world of zeroes and ones. Enough is enough, I went to bugzilla to post it, then on instinct did a search… And I couldn’t believe my eyes! Over 20 separate reports, the first of which was posted in March 2002!! That bug report alone had over 60 comments and complaints, coming in steady for four years! Yet even now there is no solution. It exists in all builds, stable or otherwise, nightly, hourly, and more.
I have taken this particular bug on as my mission. If I have the time, I’ll go through the source, but I think the best way to help is to bring it to attention. Firefox cannot expect to beat the competition without seriously thinking about 4 year old bug reports with no solutions and constant complaints and feedback.
Please help making the world of internet browsers and the competition between them a better place! Link to this post, vote the bug on bugzilla, check out the code, seed and digg the story!
*UPDATE*
A fix is now available! Please see our post here for details and download links to a good version of Firefox, courtesy of NeoSmart Technologies!
Did you try the 5 R’s? …oh wait, that’s for iPods! PS: Your blog’s commenting doesn’t like FF either! I think you’re cursed!
I have used firefox years and nothing has happened like this yet. Eric Wilson
That is strange, I have been using "firefox" for the same amount of time and I have had to install it once on any pc I use, and it works without fail until …… I reformat and install it all over again. To be honest, i don’t use any other browser (aside from the occasional IE for a specific .asp page or something). Strange.
Yeah it is weird. That’s why its a non-repro…. but it defenitely isn’t a figment of my/our imagination…
I have seen it on Linux and Windows. Maybe it has something to do with running a nightly once?
You aren’t dreaming on this one. Happens all the time on my XP system where I end up having to copy a few random lines of Outlook to get the copying going again…
I HATE this bug! I’ve had it on several different computers and for the most part it’s non-reproducible. I’ve started using Avant Browser because of it. It’s a real shame because besides this horrible bug I like firefox the best out of all the browsers.
I’ve seen this on both the computer’s I’ve used and other computers around the officeIt’s very frustrating =\
Weird. It must be a conflict with another software package… as I’ve **never** had this problem. So what gives?
I have that exact problem too! Argh! Stupid FF….FF
I’ve also experienced this bug in Thunderbird too. Not as often but it does happen.
i have the same problem…. to be quite frank as a programmer too, it sucks.
Doesn’t Mozilla/Firefox use the GTK toolkit? Perhaps its because its a GTK bug and not Gecko related. I’ve noticed other GTK apps have this copy/paste behavior.
Now for another commment. I’ve had this same bug, but the need to reinstall, since I started using FF (about 2 years ago). I recently installed 1.5 and to my relieve I’ve not seen it yet. (Knock on wood) It is definitely there. For me so far it has been found on 3 different computers all with english w2k pro installations. I also do not understand where it comes from nor why someone at Mozilla hasn’t take it more seriously. It’s probably the difficulty in reproduction which is killing the solution for this annoyance. Unfortunatelu I don’t have the knowledge to go through program sources but my God I’d wish some programmer suffering this bug would.Regards,
I get this occasionally but it’s pretty rare and doesn’t seem to get worse as this author seems to imply. I can stand it when the rest of FF is so much better than the competition. I also know that a great deal of people that DO use firefox don’t have this problem.On a side note, my friend kept telling me that it was my wireless keyboard. But I’ve never had ANY other problems with the kb. NOW i can tell him that it defiantly isn’t my keyboard.
That is wierd, maybe you just have some virus that a computer hacker has installed to terrorize you when your using firefox???
Make sure you’re not using a program in the background that may be keeping track of the copy/paste API calls. I had similar problems when using GetRight and other various download management tools that keep an eye on the clipboard.
same as above… Long time user of Firefox and have never had a problem with Firefox not copying/pasting.
I use ZIP-archive build nightlies exclusively on W2K and don’t have a problem with copy & paste – EVER. Typically I install a new version every week, but there are ‘special’ versions that I use for over 6 months. I never use IE 5.0 and never bothered to install 6.0 – it’s either Firefox or K-Meleon 100% of the time.
Ed
been using firefox for almost 3 years, and just tried the copy and paste thing right now, and it seems to work, and has worked for as long as I can remember… :-D
Strange, I use FF on every PC i work on, and i never noticed this bug. Is there a special action taken before the bug turns up, or does it happen randomly?
Thank you for mentioning this! I’m glad it’s not just happening to me; I thought maybe it was some weird thing going on with my computer.
Yes! I’ve seen this many times on my own system! It’s one of the reasons I switched to Opera a few months ago. My system ran Windows 2000 at the time.
I hope it gets fixed.
And you think IE6 didn’t have rendering bugs for years that are only just being addressed with IE7? ;)
Oh hay there, copy/paste rage buddy.
This is seriously my biggest Firefox complaint. You’re not alone, you’re not insane, it happens to me too. :(
I’ve started to see it from time to time in Thunderbird too.
I’ve seen this problem as well, but only at work. I use Firefox a lot more at home and have never seen the same problem. Maybe it’s a machine-specific issue? There’s not much difference between my work computer and my home computer, though.Give the Mozilla guys (and community) a break, though. This bug is obviously very, very hard to reproduce, and therefore very, very hard to fix. Plus, I can guarantee that bugs that occur for only 1-5% of the user base (if that) are going to fall to the wayside a lot faster than those that occur for much larger numbers.Hopefully we’ll see a fix at some point, though, because as you’ve pointed out, it sure is annoying when it happens.
I’d say ….see if u can discover any form of similarity between your system specs, and others who’ve had this problem. Things like this happen all the time with drivers for misc items like Gamepads and webcams….where certain chipsets, or even certain versions of chipsets on motherboards had issues…when nobody else is able to reproduce it. May not be the issue, but, then again it may.I’ve also used firefox for awhile now on both windows and linux with few issues. I have experienced what you speak of in terms of it not copying and in fact dumping my clipboard alltogether… but, not on my system, and it never became a real issue as in your case. yet, I work on many many systems, and mine is formatted and reinstalled probably 4-5 times a year because i’m always learning/changing/experimenting ;-p
Actually it also happened to me on several occasion. Sometimes, the following workaround allows me to overcome this : I simply copy, copy and copy again until the clipboard finally fills up.
I think this may have to do with another application running that would block access to the clipboard, since I have on or two other applications that have also a problem filling the clipboard, but this time with an explicit error message.
Hope this can be solved.
.merle1.
I don’t believe this is a bug with firefox, I think it has to do with Word. Word has it’s own clipboard, and lots of times you cannot paste anything into word, unless it was open you performed the copy/paste. Try it next time and tell me what happens.-morganix
Glad I’m not the only one. Thought it was just something with my machine or some other apps I might have been running. But this happenes to me too…
PEBCAK? :DI’ve been using Firefox since it first released and never have encountered this bug. So, maybe you should go out on a limb and test a final release. Just to be a bit daring. :)But, I think the worst bug in Firefox, that is why I’m using Camino now, is the horrible memory leakage. When having two tabs open, when viewing very simple web sites, Firefox shouldn’t be using almost 400MB of RAM.
at least now I know Im not the only one who’s been having that problem
I can also add that Firefox has been more buggy when I’ve been using it in Windows then in any other OS.
i’ve never had this problem, nor have i ever heard of someone having the problem before.i’ve used every version of firefox and never come across something like thisit must be your computer/OS
I have experienced this bug, on every install of firefox I have had, on over 14 different systems.
It happens to me too but on minor occations only, since I have a slow PC and usually quite a few tabs open, I usually think its FF not able to handle all the requests at once — webpage scripts, loading pages that kind of thing (I’m just guesing.)
I have been using Mozilla Firefox for about a year and a half now and I haven’t experienced anything like that.
“That bug report alone had over 60 comments and complaints, coming in steady for four years!”
Well, in my opinion, 60 comments/complaints spread over 4 years isn’t a lot. It could be an internal issue with few computers that interfere with firefox. I bet if you use a different PC to install it on, it will work.
it must be just you. I’ve been using firefox for years now and I’ve never experienced this problem.
Been using Firefox since its launch and have never had this issue, nor have I seen this issue on any other computer.
I’ve seen the same problem here, both on Windows and OS X.On Windows I’ve also had similar problems with Cut/Paste in the Eclipse IDE too, but I don’t know if this is related or not.
hmm.. every once in awhile i select text and copy in ff.. and then when i paste, it pastes whatever was in the cache before copying from ff, meaning it didnt copy from ff.. but i dont think it ever deleted the cache like your complaining of..and besides, this doesn’t happen frequently and when it does happen, i’ve always been convinced that it was my fault, believing that i didnt have the ff window in focus when attempting a copy (ctrl-C), but there’s a chance that it was actually a ff bug..but no, i’ve never needed to reinstall ff, and have had no significant problem with it. it does however freeze up and crash spontaneously sometimes.. but that is most likely do to a rouge extension (session saver?) and the #1 culprit: windows media player plugin. i would give anything to fix the problem with windows media player, but that problem isnt ff-specific, i have the same problem with any browser that uses the plugin.in the end, ff is the one browser i couldn’t live without. i love it.
Funny, I have experienced this problem as well, and from top of my head it was "worse" in older versions of Firefox (around 1.0), and it happens less to me 1.5.0.1.
And indeed, with Firefox 1.5.0.1 I get "Error: please type a comment."…
I have been using FF for 2 or 3 years on multiple comps, all types of linux builds and windows builds and never ever had a problem like this… maybe you should reformat your computer and just download the stable builds and nothing else.
I have this problem too. It is a pain in the ass. It isn’t consistent either.
Copy/Paste can be simple, or it can get more complex, under windows atleast. Depending on how Firefox handles the copy/paste, it can copy objects (images, for example), rich text, plain text, etc. When it closes, Firefox may choose to remove the objects it’s set in the clipboard. For example – it’s possible to copy an image from IE into Word, or a range of cells from an excel document into a word document. In either case – the application can choose to clean the clipboard of the object it has set there, some applications do this automaticly when they close. Check out the Clipboard reference on MSDN for some info on how clipboard works in Windows (should be almost identical from Win 3.x through to Vista) MSDN Page PS: Using Firefox 1.5.0.1 I can’t post using using your blog commenting system, same as the comment from someone else above.
In the SkyOS port of Firefox, this bug is a big issue and it happens to almost everyone who has used Firefox on SkyOS. I believe the OS developer is working on a way around it but that’s only gonna work with SkyOS.
I have this problem too, on Windows XP. It also happens when you copy from the Address field. It’s really annoying.Reselecting the text and selecting Copy again usually works after a few times.
Simple solution, don’t close Firefox before trying to paste.
My Cut and Paste dont work either. I thought it was just something to do with my system!
Yes. It happens to me too. But infrequently. Very frustrating when it does. I agree that such a fundamental error should have been resolved a long time ago.
It happened to me more than once! Never thought of it as a bug ! The bug still exists with 1.5.0.1 too
Happens to me too.. I thought I was crazy, or had some oddball problem. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn’t anymore.. or I have to explicitly use the right-click paste method.. A CTRL-V, or SHIFT-INSERT does not work. Also related – Sometimes I am unable to highlight and right-click “Copy” text on a webpage.. The “copy” button does not show up in the right-click menu.
I’ve seen that problem show up before on a few computers (permanently) and I’ve had it happen intermittently on my work machine. I’ve been running firefox at home for a long time now and ive never seen it happen on any of my home machines… Strange bug, but yeah, thats been bothering me on and off for years…
This has happened to me many times in the past although it hasn’t happen whilst I have been 1.5 … maybe an extension causing it?
I have noticed this bug in Ubuntu, but in Windws never came across it. OR maybe its for the reason that i use Opera 9 (weekly builds in Windows ) and FF in Ubuntu.
Just hope this is a good wake up call for FF team and sorts it out.
I don’t such bug on a Mac too.
I have been using Firefox for almost a year now both at work and at home and I’ve never had this happening to me -at least not from what I can remember. Not being able to copy something does ring a bell…….. so I guess I’ll keep my eyes open.
I have never had this problem on any computer I have ever installed it on.
Yeah I’ve seen this bug on windows quite frequently, it just stops loading the clipboard..completely frustrating as it is the only application I’ve ever seen this behaviour from. Sometimes switching tabs "reactivates" the clipboard. I’ve never seen this with my linux box but I’ve been using galeon for years until quite recently.
I’m with ya fella… I’ve had the same experiences copy and pasting… I thought it might have been photoshop, but now testing it I realise its been firefox all along!
I don’t want this to sound like I’m some random Firefox fanatic and I’m trying to shift the blame here but Ive noticed this behavior on my PCs too. However, it only happens with Microsoft Office programs like Word. Almost as if Word is clearing the clipboard when it launches. Could this (at least partially) be the cause of the issue you’ve been having?
You don’t have a winXP remote desktop session open in the background?In this case i’m having the same problem.. everytime!
This even exist on the Mac. Not to the point where you have to reinstall, but you do have to restart the application. Annoying!!!
I spend many hours each day in FF without this problem. I’ve had very little problems using this code base (even back when it was called Firebird/Phoenix). It must be a rare conflict with your setup.
I’ve never run a nightly, and I have seen this bug on Linux and Windows too.
In my experience, if I find that the copy failed (these days, I daren’t close Firefox until I’m certain that the copy-paste has gone through okay) I’ll go back to the Firefox window and choose “Copy” from the context menu instead – that usually works fine.
One observation though – I don’t find that the clipboard is empty, I just find that it still contains whatever was on there before. I think that for some reason the Ctrl-V action is just not getting interpreted – perhaps it’s a focus issue, or some other event handler stealing the message?
extension: autocopyget it.yeah rly!
Wierd problem but I have been using firefox for a long time in both windows and linux and something like this has never happened. Why do you use a nightly when you are not a developer or tester. Use the latest stable
I have been using Firefox for about 3 years now and I never had that problem. So what you need to do is write an article on how your computer sucks and not Firefox.
I thought it was just my PC – I can work around the problem by copying and pasting from Firefox to notepad then copy and paste from notepad to firefox. As long as I use notepad in the middle it seems to be ok.
What programming experience do you have? Cut and paste is usually an OS level "API," not an application level thing.
From time to time, this is a problem on my computers. If I copy many times, it does get pasted at last. Some times I hold Ctrl C for a long time, repeating the copy command. In the end the text is copied to my clip board.
It is very anoying, and the problem only occours in Firefox. It is a problem to copy things from web pages, adress bar and even the search box in the top right corner.
PS! I was not able to comment you’re blog, using Firefox or ie6.
I’ve seen this problem on my desktop PC, firefox on several other machines works fine. Did a complete reinstall the other day which fixed it for a while but it has now stopped working again. No idea what causes it!
aah at last: firefox is the guilty app! (and i thought it was windows) i experience the same behaviour now and then, mostly when there is a link on a page without the <a href> and i copy and paste it in a new tab (yes i know, there is an extension for autolinking) or when i copy an adress for use in IE. and i use official releases only. nice (at least in some way) to hear that other users experience the same.
I think the problem is at your end — if you want to copy something, please do it when the program is still running. why close firefox immediately after copying without pasting them first?The thins is, for portability, firefox implements a cut and paste routine that is universal, which, unfortunately, will mean it does not integrate well with whatever OS you use.And for goodness sake, PLEASE account for lagging in your computer. If you want a keypress to work instantaniously, I’m sorry to say that RT computers do not exist yet in hardware. Sometimes, when load is high, you can have a computer go so slow that some operations fail to take place, and this problem plagues windows/linux/os x for all I know.I hope I’ve answered your question.
I have had the same problem as you, sometimes finding that when I go to paste a copied item, it just wasn’t copied. Fortunately, it’s not too hard to fix for me – I often use multiple windows (which can be, when I’m into some serious surfing, upwards of 30,35.. windows – I love FF’s tabs, they just keep the Windows taskbar so clear!), so I just flick back to the webpage, recopy, and flick back to wherever I wanted to paste the item.
I’ve never really even thought about the problem as a result, but yeah, you’re right; somewhere deep down in that FF code, there’s a bug, and it won’t leave till someone does something about it.
I’ve been using firefox from 1.0.5 to 1.5 with 10 extension installed and I never have the copy and paste problem. can it be something screwed from installing IE7? have you tried uninstalling IE 7?