When they going to fix the copy and paste in Firefox?

[Devastation36]

When they going to fix the copy and paste in Firefox? This has been on going for months now. When it does let me copy, then there are times when it will not let me paste. If I paste it to windows notebook and re-copy it it will then let me paste. I have cleared the cache, disabled add-ons nothing seems to help. The only thing Haven't tried yet is to uninstall Firefox and re-install it.

[JDTheBomb]

dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled in about:config was set to false for some odd reason

[JebusCrisco]

This fixed things for me. I've also been having issues with a password extension that I no longer have after changing this. Thank you!

[jscher2000]

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@JDTheBomb wrote:

dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled in about:config was set to false for some odd reason

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There are privacy guides (and user.js files) that recommend that change so sites cannot detect when you copy or paste. But they tend not to tell you about breakage on heavily scripted sites that can result from the change...

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

About

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uninstall Firefox and re-install it.

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For information purposes

Uninstall Firefox from your computer
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/uninstall-firefox-from-your-computer
Does not delete user data and settings, your user profile
You reinstall Firefox, then you normally get your user profile back https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

If you'd like create a new profile
about:profiles https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles#w_manage-...
Your current profile, this is the profile you're currently using; it can't be deleted ***.
Create a new profile
Simply enter the name you want and click Next.
Then stop Firefox start Firefox

And, it's a new profile

about:profiles
*** To return to a profile, then, Set as default profile
Then stop Firefox start Firefox

And don't delete your profile ***.

Don't delete your profile *** ? why

In a second step, if you wish
Go to about:profiles
Then
Your old profile ***, go to Root Directory [Open folder]
Explorer will open in the profile folder
Your newly created profile, go to Root Directory [Open folder]
Explorer will open in the profile folder
Then shut down Firefox

information is stored in my profile
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data#w_what-information-is-s...

Copy the data of your choice from your old profile to your newly created profile

Start Firefox

If you are in the profile ***
Then about:profile
Set as default profile your newly created profile
Then stop Firefox start Firefox

And if it's your newly created profile @ ok for you

Then, in a third step, if you wish
Go to about:profiles
Removing a profile ***
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles#w_removin...
You can remove an existing profile as follows

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Delete Files

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This action deletes the profile, Root Directory + its Local Directory

[jscher2000]

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@Devastation36 wrote:

When they going to fix the copy and paste in Firefox? This has been on going for months now. When it does let me copy, then there are times when it will not let me paste. If I paste it to windows notebook and re-copy it it will then let me paste. I have cleared the cache, disabled add-ons nothing seems to help.

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Hi, is this a problem with the right-click context menu? Users have reported that starting recently, items on this menu will be grayed out, but the keyboard shortcuts still work:

• Copy = Ctrl+C (on Mac, Command+C)
• Paste = Ctrl+V (on Mac, Command+V)
• Paste without formatting = Ctrl+Shift+V (on Mac, Command+Shift+V)

In those situations, users report that clicking in the address bar then back in the document sometimes fixes the menu.

Does that sound like your situation, or are the keyboard shortcuts not working for you, either?

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One difference between copying from a page in Firefox and copying text in Windows Notepad is that Firefox typically puts both HTML code and text on the clipboard, and Notepad only puts text on the clipboard. Maybe this is a clue to figuring out why pasting isn't working consistently (some issue with the HTML Firefox is pulling off the clipboard).

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Generally speaking, uninstall/reinstall can't fix problems caused by settings. One method to rule in/out an issue with settings or add-ons is:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to test your problem site(s).

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Take a quick glance at the page and make a mental note of which Profile has this notation: This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted. That is your current default profile.

Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like Test2024, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

Firefox will switch your default profile to the new one, so click the Set as Default Profile button for your regular one to avoid an unwanted surprise at your next startup.

Scroll down to Test2024 and click its Launch profile in new browser button.

Firefox should open a new window that looks like a brand new, uncustomized installation. (Your existing Firefox window(s) should not be affected.) Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system to get a clean test.

Does copy/paste work any better in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, you can close the extra window without affecting your regular Firefox profile. (Test2024 will remain available for future testing.)

[SickRice]

open a new tab, change to it and back to the original. copy will work (or if you have allready a tab open, switch to it and back to the one that no woking will do the trick

[rdurost]

6/03/2024 and the idiocy continues.  You broke it, you fix it.

[gcmn]

I'm experiencing this same issue. I've recently switched to FF, but this is a deal-breaker that is going to cause me to switch back if it isn't fixed.

Symptoms are that copy and cut via the right click menu or the keyboard shortcuts don't actually copy anything to the clipboard (cut does delete the selected text). Copying from another program and then pasting into Firefox works. `dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled` is set to `true` (just had to manually type that config key after reflexive copy-paste failed...). I tried the fresh profile suggested by jscher2000 (just had to manually type the username...) but the issue persists.

The last time this happened a few weeks ago, it went away when I restarted my computer. Sorry, but I'm not going to reinstall Firefox or refresh and reconfigure all my add-ons every few weeks. Improved add-ons (especially the ability to have them on mobile) was why I switched in the first place.

[Luca_Pavan]

I’m not sure if I’m having the same problem as you describe, because I often use the mouse wheel to paste (so highlighting text and pasting by clicking the mouse wheel), this doesn't require clicking Copy from the context menu or Ctrl+C precisely. Are you sure you aren't using both copy and paste Ctrl+C/Copy methods and the mouse wheel alternating them often making confusion with the text actually copied? To me seems happening right this, I might being confused between the 2 and then sometimes doesn't paste anything or paste a text that I don't expect.

[ccccmmmm]

I have the same problem. For a while, using the context menu didn't work, but the keyboard shortcuts worked. Now even the keyboard shortcuts won't work anymore. Dismay.

[randFireFox]

I just hit this problem again. cut and paste stopped working when using Google Docs with Firefox. I've got Firefox 126.0.1 on Linux Mint. I try to copy the name of a Google Doc and paste it as the title, and I get the window that uselessly tells me that cut and paste from the menus are disabled, but I can use Ctrl-c and Ctrl-v (which I can't because I get the same error window when I use them).

I really want to use FireFox because i like the community software model and FF's better privacy features, but I am going to have to go back to Chrome until this is fixed. I see Internet posts going back years about this problem. I as a user need this fixed so it will stay fixed.

[boreal]

This open-source addon may be helpful to others, it seems to be resolving some of the issues w/r/t Firefox not copying: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/force-copy/ 

[rdurost]

6/24 and this most basic functionality has not been restored.

Yes, I know Firefox is a free product supported by volunteers, but I also know that if I was a volunteer programmer who worked on the update that intentionally or unintentionally (my bet is on the former, something to do with content protection?) had brought about this outrage, I wouldn't sleep until it had been fixed or at least EXPLAINED (e.g. "we're being sued over not preventing subversion of copyright protection, so we were forced to do this").

I suppose Mozilla might have been forced to agree to not only disabling the most direct way of copying text, but to sign an NDA that they will not disclose the lawsuit or their requirement to comply.

If that's the case, somebody outside the "blame zone" needs to drop an anonymous dime to bring this to light.

[konio124]

Nothing has changed, there is still a problem with copying, is it that difficult to fix?

[mechanysm]

Having this same issue, its exactly as described and its been ongoing for months, I have several add-ons ublock Origin and Bitwarden, also the Dark Reader addon which was added long after this issue started happening.

The description is correct, not sure what triggers it but you go to copy some text from a page and on right click you have a greyed out copy button, only recently found out that clicking in the address bar resolves it, which is that the text remains selected, you click the address bar then right click the already selected text you want to copy again and it allows you to copy it.

Personally I have no desire to move off of firefox or to another browser but when recommending firefox to others this is certainly a downfall I would mention at the moment as initially it was annoying but for how long this bug has been present its now extremely frustrating.

Yes I realize you can use keyboard shortcuts but why this a workaround at best, I would compare to not being able to make a phone call with you mobile phones normal speaker and mic but it works just fine if you use a Bluetooth headset.

On top of this I recently moved from Windows to an Arch based distro and the issue persists...

Please take this issue a little more seriously, every new release I look through the changes wondering what benefit most of them have when I can't copy of a page 25% of the time! lol its just silly.

[neetbux]

I'm really frustrated this copy issue still hasn't been resolved yet. Why isn't it getting priority?

[DreamingVoid]

Not sure if it is the same, but when I load a new tab and navigate to a page, the context menu's "Copy" is disabled until I click outside the page (I've used the address bar and search bar) and back in. Once clicked back in, the context menu entry is no longer disabled.

Ctrl+C works even when the context menu entry is disabled.

[noway]

How I can duplicate copy problem:

1. Go to google.ca and search for steelers news

2. Below the search box, change from All to News

3. Click on one of the search result links.

4. On the new page, highlight a word and right-click on it.  The copy option on the dropdown menu is grayed out (on many of the search result web sites.  Not all, but often enuf to be a hassle)

Workaround: highlight the address bar first, before selecting the text below and right-click copy. (or use a search engine other than Google)

[uid65534]

Still broken for me.

The issue seems to be time-gated. If I select text and immediately press Ctrl-C (within ~500ms), it doesn't copy. If I select text, wait for over one second, _then_ press Ctrl-C, it works fine always. This isn't easily reproducible though else I would file a bug report. I have seen this on both Windows and macOS builds (on entirely separate profiles and Mozilla accounts).

This is a very frustrating bug. I came to Firefox from Chrome because of the MV3 mess and the continued march towards locking down the browser but Firefox has so many little bugs and feature misses like this it makes it hard to recommend.

[GuruRamon]

You are so correct

[mikerj]

With each of the frequent updates I've been hoping this gets fixed but if anything it seems to have become worse rather than better.  This should be a high priority for the dev team, it's infuriating for users.

[srhaymes]

Yup, the copy problem only seems to only be getting worse over time.  It used to happen once and a while and now it is almost every time that I have to copy. Repeatedly creating a new tab and going to the webpage takes 3 or 4 tries to get copy to work. Restarting Firefox works, but it you are logged into any websites, you need to log back in. After months of this, one would think that this BUG would be fixed by now.

[randFireFox]

FWIW I have switched to Chrome for now. Not a fan, and would like to come back. I'll monitor this discussion thread and switch back if a fix is confirmed.

[LazyQuad]

I just switched from chrome about 6 months ago and this is a deal breaker..  Its definitely infuriating! My dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled is set to True but its still not working.

Believe it or not  I'm probably going to Edge - never thought I'd ever say that hahaa.

[srhaymes]

I have had the same problem on 2 Firefox installation for months now so it is NOT an installation problem that can be fixed by a reinstall. I update whenever Firefox tells me that there is an update. One would think that after several months of updates, Mozilla would fix this problem as copy and past is a real basic 101 type feature, but NO. I am a long time Mozilla user and contributor.  I need basics to work and not new bells and whistles!

[Btls_and_Crm]

Here's something I don't understand. Ctrl+c and v shortcuts weren't working and those functions were greyed out from the edit menu and the right-click context menu. I used a wikipedia page as testcase trying to copy text and paste it into the site's search field.

Taking a cue from a previous post here, I searched about:config for settings that included the word "clipboard". I found this one was set to 2:
accessibility.windows.suppress-after-clipboard-copy
and I pseudo-randomly decided to set it to 1, restarted Firefox and returned to that wikipedia page. Ctrl + c and v worked but the menus still had them greyed out. I reset the setting back to 2 and restarted again. All was fixed. The keyboard shortcuts worked and the menu items were no longer greyed out. Hopefully it is a permanent fix.

[CoMmAnDrX]

The fix is temporary, without going through the steps you did, just relaunching the browser would have netted the same results. Mozilla needs to fix this.

[CoMmAnDrX]

7 months and Mozilla still hasn't addressed the Copy & Paste issue with Firefox!

[Nikakto]

Guys, just use modern browser with active supporting by developers. Firefox is not one of them. Firefox dev team worse the ie have in past.