Text highlighting "trackpad mode" bug

Question

Level 1

8 points

Text highlighting "trackpad mode" bug

Hello everyone,

I'd like to ask if anyone has my same problem: when using the keyboard in "trackpad mode", I found out that highlighting text is problematic. I don't know if it's a bug, but I found it very annoying, especially since I switched from an iPhone 7 with 3D Touch!

Basically, with my old phone, once I activated the highlight function, by moving the cursor the text was selected from the starting point, backwards or onwards; once I picked a direction, if I went back towards the starting point the text was deselected.

With my new iPhone 13, on the contrary, once I picked a direction, if I try to go back towards the starting point, the highlighting starts again from the starting point (moving the other blue "cursor" forward), adding new selected text instead of removing it!

I hope you understand what I mean, it's kinda difficult to explain 😅 If I was unclear I may provide a video showing what I mean.

Thank you in advance!

Jacopo

iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 15

Posted on Sep 26, 2021 11:40 AM

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Answer 1

DerekM87

Community Specialist

Sep 30, 2021 10:00 AM in response to jacopo14

jacopo14,

Thanks for the video.

The expected behavior for this feature is to long or deeply press to highlight text initially,, then slide your finger forwards or backwards to start selecting it. Provided you do not lift your finger, it should deselect text from where the vertical line is currently.

To clarify, when you attempt to do this, instead of deselecting from where the vertical line indicating a "cursor" of sorts is, it will always start selecting additional text from the beginning of the portion you've highlighted?

If this is indeed the case, we'd recommend reaching out to Apple Support directly for additional assistance, as this does appear to be unexpected behavior.

You can see contact options at the link below.

Get Support

Take care.

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Answer 2

jacopo14 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 28, 2021 2:44 PM in response to karina184

Hello,

sadly I could not explain the problem very well, so I made a video that may help.

https://youtu.be/cxjyH18FJpU

My goal here is to select the text from “Ut enim…” to “… consequatur.”.

I purposely select more text, by highlighting the next sentence too (from “Duis” to “pariatur.”). Once I figure out the “mistake”, I would like to deselect the excessive text by going backwards on the trackpad.

Sadly, in doing so, the gesture acts on the cursor at the beginning of the highlighted text (“Ut enim”, the beginning of the first sentence), and it causes to select all the text up to the very top!

Similarly, once I try to change direction again by going “downwards”, the second cursor moves and it selects all the text until the very bottom!

I hope this is clearer now, thank you 🤞🏻👍🏻

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Answer 3

karina184

Community Specialist

Sep 27, 2021 11:58 AM in response to jacopo14

Hi jacopo14,

We see there is some confusion over highlighting text on your new iPhone.

We apologize, however we are a bit unclear as to what you're attempting to accomplish. To clarify, if you highlight text on your current iPhone it now inserts text unexpectedly instead of highlighting it? Also are you referring to a long press on the keyboard to activate this feature?

Additionally, take a look over the following tips for editing or selecting text on your iPhone.

Select, cut, copy, and paste text on iPhone

Let us know if this information helps, and we'll continue from there.

Take care.

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Answer 4

jacopo14 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 1, 2021 3:56 AM in response to DerekM87

That’s exactly what happens.

I guess it’s a unexpected behavior and I’ll reach out for support!

Thank you,

Jacopo

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Text highlighting "trackpad mode" bug

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