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Level 2

272 points

Mail edit drag n drop bug

Drag and drop to edit text when composing a message in Mail sometimes does a cut and paste, other times does a copy and paste. The correct function is to always cut and paste. This has been confirmed in notes posted by Dee Run and by James WIlson7, although those notes are now archived. A response to Dee Run by Goldenshoes suggests careful clicking can provide a workaround. However, there should be no need for such finess: if drag n drop moves text, it should always perform a cut and paste. The fact that it sometimes does a copy and paste is a bug.

This is a minor problem, but it is an irritating defect which I have observed through several versions of OSX: I don't remember how long, maybe back to 10.4 or earlier. I suspect the fix will be fairly simple, such as insuring a bit is set properly before the edit is carried out. I have reported the problem several times and keep hoping, but no fix yet.

It is important for the user experience that drag n drop always perform as advertised. It seems more requests for a fix will be necessary to get this repaired. It might be helpful if others confirm here their observation of this problem. Please join me in bringing this to the attention of Apple through the feedback in Mail.

Mac Pro 3,1, Mac OS X (10.6.7), HP Photosmart C6180, Canon SD 950 IS, Canon Vixia HF100

Posted on May 20, 2011 8:44 AM

34 replies

Tom Ritch Author

Level 2

272 points

Dec 2, 2015 10:51 AM in response to Tom Ritch

For the record, in El Capitan OS X 10.11.1 the Mail edit drag n drop bug apparently continues unchanged.

Dec 2, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Tom Ritch

I'll confirm it is continuing in OS X 10.11.1 for me...

Mar 17, 2016 11:06 AM in response to Tom Ritch

It's still happening in 10.11.3

I find consistently that the erroneous copy and paste only happens if I drag the highlighted text forwards (further along or down) in the email I'm writing, not if I move it backwards! If you drag and drop a section of text backwards and then, while it is still highlighted, drag it forwards, even beyond its original position, it is correctly cut and pasted! 😕

I'm sending an error ticket to Apple. They did correct a previous bug I complained about in the early versions of El Capitan Mail, whereby highlighting part of a received email before replying still produced a draft with all of the received text in it (but only if this was done in a new window rather than the preview pane AND only if the received message was already part of a thread).

Tom Ritch Author

Level 2

272 points

Apr 23, 2016 2:02 PM in response to Antony Warren

Bug still present in 10.11.4.

Thanks for checking discovering more about the bug, Antony Warren.

Thanks also for reporting back here and to Apple. Maybe with enough reports they eventually will fix it.

Apr 24, 2016 10:00 AM in response to Tom Ritch

Weirdly, mine cured itself again, so cut & paste in new emails works normally, before updating to 10.11.4, and it's still OK afterwards. No idea why

Tom Ritch Author

Level 2

272 points

Apr 24, 2016 3:48 PM in response to Antony Warren

My comment that the bug still exists was based on memory. I had noted the problem remained every time I looked.

Yesterday I tried to reproduce the problem with a junk test email (typed gibberish text to have something to test) and could not reproduce the issue.

It has always been intermittent, working properly sometimes and incorrectly other times. Maybe it is fixed. Maybe under the conditions we are testing it does not appear as readily.

I think of your results, and mine now, as two encouraging data points. When we have many reports of correct behavior, and none of incorrect, I will be more inclined to believe the bug has been fixed. Looking back through this and a couple of linked threads, I see people have reported optimistic results before, only to find the bug still exists.

This bug has existed since OS X 10.5. It has been reported by myself several times, and I presume by others. Apple has acknowledged (quietly, and I do not have a ready reference) the issue that accumulation of bugs such as this and many others has led to a generally perceived decline in the quality of of their software. An announced primary goal of El Capitan is to correct such issues. This gives me hope that Mail drag and drop will be among the many issues fixed in El Capitan.

Hopefully others will report their experience. Many data points not seeing the bug would suggest it has been fixed.

Tom Ritch Author

Level 2

272 points

Apr 26, 2016 11:30 AM in response to Tom Ritch

Nope, still not fixed.

In composing an email yesterday I experienced the bug. After seeing it by accident as I composed and edited a new email, I tried select, drag and drop on a number of text segments. I believe I confirmed the pattern noted by Antony Warren, that the bug only affects dragging forward or down, not dragging backwards or up. However, I am not sure this completely explains the intermittent appearance of the bug.

750 H2C

Level 1

66 points

May 6, 2016 1:52 AM in response to Tom Ritch

Still there for me too. 10.11.4/9.3.

May 24, 2016 7:28 AM in response to Tom Ritch

Further experiments suggest to me that the bug is only present when editing emails that are part of an existing thread. New emails, or replies to single email messages that are not yet part of a thread, do the cut and paste correctly when highlighting and dragging text.

Jul 6, 2016 4:02 PM in response to Antony Warren

Thanks for the observation. I am still seeing the bug in 10.11.5. Apple Mail (Version 9.3 (3124)).

I noticed it again when editing a message to which I was replying. I selected text and dragged it to another part of the message, and the text was copied and duplicated rather than moved.

After reading your discovery, I tried composing a new message, and found that the drag and drop worked properly. I then went back to the message that was part of a thread to which I was replying, where it wasnt working properly, to find that it worked properly *after* I had successfully tried the drag and drop in a new message.

In other words, drag and drop editing in Apple Mail (Version 9.3 (3124)) wasn't working properly *until* I tried it in a new message. After this, it worked properly in a message that previously would copy-paste rather than cut-paste when text was selected and dragged to another part of the message.

This seems to be an odd bug.

Tom Ritch Author

Level 2

272 points

Aug 29, 2016 12:04 PM in response to Tom Ritch

For the record, bug still exists in OS X 10.11.6.

Aug 29, 2016 12:09 PM in response to Tom Ritch

Yes, it does... Wonder if, in all this time, anyone at Apple with any say in these things has ever

looked at this thread...

Tom Ritch Author

Level 2

272 points

Aug 29, 2016 12:47 PM in response to mycrzyhrse

Thank you,mycrzyhrse. Your comment measures me that someone else is interested.

Officially, "all here are only users." Actually, Apple monitors discussions. i think Apple's participation is more to maintain the form of the discussion group, and not to extract information to pass to Apple QA or developers.

Knowing this, I filed Feedback Assistant Problem Report #404235, including a link to this thread, on September 9, 2014. Also, Feedback Assistant Problem Report #57056, including a link to this thread, on September 4, 2014. Also, Feedback Assistant Problem Report #510381, including a link to this thread, on January 15, 2015. Also, Feedback Assistant Problem Report #1444332, including a link to this thread, on October 3, 2015. Also, Feedback Assistant Problem Report #1532621, including a link to this thread, on December 2, 2015. And most recently, Feedback Assistant Problem Report #1718930, including a link to this thread, on December 2, 2015.

Even if Apple did not pick up the issue from our Discussions here, they have been informed.

Of course, this just says someone has been informed. Your point to wonder if "... anyone at Apple with any say in these things has ever looked at this thread" is well taken.

Based on results so far, I guess not.

seventy one

Level 7

27,430 points

Aug 29, 2016 1:14 PM in response to Tom Ritch

Tom,

You always have to remember that the problem for Apple with feedback is that if they acknowledge it, and someone has proposed something sensible, it is tantamount to leaving themselves open to a law suit if the proposed matter develops into something that has financial benefits.

So they weigh it up and sit on anything of value. What you don't acknowledge, you haven't necessarily received. Can't say I blame them, I've read some nasty stories.

Aug 29, 2016 1:48 PM in response to seventy one

I'll just offer that as you describe it, it makes sense, and is understandable...

The thing is, the first post in this thread was 5 years, 3 months ago... That to me suggests indifference, inattention, or that it is a bug so deep and intertwined it would require more time and recoding than they are willing to invest for what probably is considered to be a minor thing...?

It's irksome when it happens, seemingly in just one direction, that of back, rather than forward... At least so it seems now for me... And there is a workaround I find myself more and more in the habit of, cut and paste, rather than drag...

Mail edit drag n drop bug