iOS probs can’t edit text

Instead of tapping the word, try dragging the cursor to where you want to do the edit. Look at the steps under ‘Select and revise text’ from the article linked above. Here that article is once more for your convenience:

Type and edit text on iPhone

Best wishes.

Thank god im not the only one! I thought it was just me. This is driving me mad too and by all accounts a whole load of other people. It seems to me that Apple assumes predictive text will automatically autocorrect missspelt words but it does not. I am leaving words here to prove the point! However I’ve just discovered something while writing this. You will note the word misspelt above, that’s got the read line under it indicating it’s wrong. If I tap on it it goes red and offers alternative spelling. Tap to the right of the word and it goes back to the red line under the word. If you tap to the right of the word but drag to the middle or point where you want your curser to change the text and then let go, you can then do your correction. I assume this will work across all applications on your phone.

Hope that’s helps!

Hey there Jacksum,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. I understand you have some concerns editing text on your iPhone after updating. I’ll be happy to help with this.

Editing text has changed since updating iOS. I don’t see the magnifying glass on mine anymore. You'll see that feature is not mentioned in this article on how to edit text in iOS 13:

Type and edit text on iPhone

Cheers.

Yah that still doesn’t work. Why Apple changes things to make it more complicated or require more moves is beyond my comprehension. Tapping once used to work and now it doesn’t, despite what this article says. The original poster is right. I did find a work around that of course requires more moves, ugh! You now need to use the “turn you’re keyboard into a track pad”. Pure inefficiency. Sorry but everyone who worked and approved iOS 13 should be fired. The Apple is now rotten.

I too find this really infuriating. 13 was obviously prepared by people who just... don’t understand words! We don’t need auto correct. We can correct our own typos. I write a lot in iPhone and iPad. It is now a much less enjoyable experience. Why Apple!? Why did you do this ridiculous thing. It was much better when I could put my cursor exactly where I wanted. Why have you deprived us of a completely sensible and very useful feature? Believe it or not done of us can spell. Let’s us do what we want to do. It’s must be two lines of code to put this very valuable feature back. Do it. Do it today. Don’t you use your own products? This coupled with numerous other silly mistakes Apple has made in the last few years, is seriously making me think of moving to Android. And I hate android. My iPhone 6s will need replacing soon. Do you want to keep my business? It will take me a day to learn how to use an Android phone. I will save much mire than that if I can put my cursor where I want. It’s my cursor.

What a helpful comment. There is an extra move, Akrbtn, as we have to hit the word first before we can slide the cursor inside. We used to be able to just put a finger, hence the cursor, straight into the middle of the word. I think many other people in this thread will confirm that for you. Of course having things work the same way on iPad and iPhone makes sense, and I didn’t realise they were different. But the old method was better. As other commentators in this thread have noticed. What would be best is to be given the choice of how you want to do things. Programmable keyboards have been around for a long time. An innovative idea would be to bring that freedom to iOS. You can make many keyboard choices in windows and Mac. An excellent idea would be to have an interface between a computer and the iPhone. You could set up your keyboard choices on the computer and send them to your phone. I know Apple isn’t big on customisations, and there are advantages to that, but there are also disadvantages. I like to have options myself 😀

I agree. When you tap on the word to edit, it will highlight the entire word as if you were going to cut and paste it. It is taking me twice as long to work on my phone now. I am always leery of updates as my husband’s company doesn’t allow it until they get the bugs out but since the pending update install kept draining my battery (What is up with that?) I decided to do it because I was tired of plugging in my phone by 11 AM every day. Apple please listen to your users and fix this bug. It is obviously not working as there are multiple people that are having issues.

That response didnt help at all. When you try to press and place the cursor next to the letter, it only highlights the word and only occasionally enters into the “cursor” mode.

Why do you have to change something that works into something that doesnt work? I see as Apple is only creating problems only to feel needed to resolve them later

Absolutely! It’s the Classic Coke vs New Coke trick. Net year they will pretend they have improved text editing by bringing this ‘feature’ back. Apple are making so many horrible choices these days. I choose Apple for simplicity. Having just upgraded to an iPhone XS, which was a horrible experience, I’m really starting to think my years as an Apple consumer are coming to an end. It’s a real shame, but they keep making their products more and more horrible to use.

Hello Zuma,

That does seem to work, so many thanks for sharing! It is still not as good as just being able to put the cursor where I want it right away though. I now have to do two things to get inside a word, instead of one, and obviously I can't see through my finger so it's not as precise as it used to be. But you are right in what you have said, so many thanks. It's just such a shame that Apple have decided to make life more difficult for so many people. If only they had left the previous way of doing this alone everybody would be happy. This thread would not need to exist if they just kept the previous, excellent system they had in the first place. It makes me worry about what they will do next. Maybe they will just randomly decide to stop using QWERTY keyboards, forcing us to learn an entirely new system for no good reason? And why do they never tell you about these things? Why do we have to find out the hard way?

I'm thankful for your helpful reply Zuma, my negativity is aimed at Apple for messing with a really good system. What we now have is a work around for something which previously worked perfectly! It's so sad to see a company which used to be at the top of the game when it came to innovation make such foolish decisions which just make peoples lives more difficult. What on earth is happening to the company we used to rely on for its intuitive user interface? The mind boggles. I've been a dedicated Apple guy for many years, but I had to purchase a windows laptop recently because I couldn't trust Macbooks with their dodgy butterfly keys. I think Apple has forgotten that a huge number of people rely on keyboards to write with. I dearly wanted another Macbook, but now I'm using an excellent Dell XPS13. I don't replace my equipment until its really old or broken, and it is so upsetting to think that Apple are losing my custom by getting some really simple things so terribly wrong. I have been happy to pay the Apple premium until recently. They have a lot of work to do to repair the many mistakes they have made over the last few years. I really hope somebody at Apple is reading this. Windows computers have become really nice at the same time Apple has been losing its edge. Don't even get me started about the loss of the nice light up apple logo on Macbooks.... Who on earth thought getting rid of that was a great idea? I can only imagine they thought they would increase battery life, but the power that LED uses was so insignificant. Yet another great feature, albeit a stylistic one, has gone. I'm constantly finding Apple products are getting worse with every new update. They used to be something to look forward to, now they are something to dread. Please Apple, get back on your game.

Thanks again Zuma. This is becoming an interesting thread. Sorry to everybody if I'm going off topic at points, but I'm only saying these things in the hope that somebody in the infinite loop is paying attention.

Best wishes,

Lee

I couldn’t agree more. It’s can’t be that bit an issue, keeping functionality. I’d be really impressed if the keyboard was even more flexible. BTW, it was possible to do all these trackpad manoeuvres before, you simply used the magnifying glass feature which would pop up if you held your finger in place. 😀

This issue which just bugged the **** out of me, makes me wish Steve Jobs was still with us. He understood interface. Either Apple has an alternative motive, design crazy or just lost it’s marbles. it would seem there is an infinite amount of work to do on software and changing the interface needs to be vetted by the customer. I actually wonder if a rogue employee has decided to continually screw the product in order to p&ss the customer off to make other companies look better.

That works right now if I was in a box where I am typing. I tested it. However if I go to text anywhere where copying is permitted, and attempt to precisely capture text, that’s a problem. Maybe to some degree it’s all ways been an issue if there are protections on text copying. And I understand why Apple would wish to protect copyrights. If that is why these changes were made, then say so. If there will all ways be haters. But if I am attempting to copy my own previously created text, there should be no restrictions on editing it, character by character.

New editing is terrible. Fix it