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Apple Mail Cut & Paste Problem...

I have a problem with Apple Mail when I cut some text and paste it somewhere else within the message it doesn't go in where the cursor is located! Instead it pastes into what appears to be a random place elsewhere in the message usually at the start of the line or paragraph.

It's really strange and completely unfathomable. The only solution I've found is to put in a couple of returns paste it in to the message then move the cursor up and delete the newly added line breaks.

I thought it might be a font issue so I changed my default font from Arial to Trebuchet and it's still doing it. This doesn't appear to happen in any other application.

This is not exclusive to Snow Leopard as it does it on my Mac at home which is running Lion.

Any advice gratefully received.

David

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 18, 2011 5:12 AM

230 replies

apb209

Level 1

0 points

Nov 16, 2011 11:07 AM in response to David Jenner2

Ditto to all of the above. As a long time Outlook user while on a PC, I've found Apple Mail a gigantic disappointment in just about every sense. Sadly, Lion has made it worse. What's with the box you get when you try to paste text into the body of an email? And the cut and paste is misery.

Nov 16, 2011 11:27 AM in response to David Jenner2

I guess Apple has a simple and sort of statistical form of approach with bugs. Unless you have a representative number of "proven" cases it is considered a false. A side effect we probably have to get used to: While millions craze iPods and iPads, why solving the annoyance of few, being disappointed with the usability of a "niche product" like Mail?

Nov 16, 2011 11:34 AM in response to Nils Scheidhauer

Honestly? I thought this be solved long time ago and only needed like ONE complained to get programmers on it. That's why I didn't bother to actually sit down and "engage" this board earlier. Which makes it an even bigger disappointment now. In the past I could always rely on my Mac to NOT distract me from my real work and simply do what's it for without any tricks or compromises. Now this little bug makes me type my mails in Pages AND then copy&paste them into Mail. What a drag.

Nov 17, 2011 2:25 AM in response to Nils Scheidhauer

One other side effect I've noticed is that 'sometimes' (not every time) I cut and paste some text from elsewhere in the same message, it does go in the right place BUT what it does do is change the bold formatting of my company name in my signature to regular!

What the **** causes that? This is so distracting this problem, it really is becoming a headache. I do like Mail but the only real reason for sticking with it is because of the syncronisation with my iPhone.

Can anyone confirm this happens to them?

Nov 17, 2011 8:15 AM in response to David Jenner2

Ditto on your problem.

Basically it's like EVERY thing that can go wrong, IS going wrong. It's like Mail is melting down!

Start tweeting and facebooking everybody.

If you have Applecare ....... CALL it in!!!!!!!!!

Nov 17, 2011 8:28 AM in response to 3mstrrktek7

Come on people the momentum is building this has gone far enough!

Is there a way we can directly get in touch with the Mail app dev team?

I can't believe all the bods at Apple HQ aren't experiencing the same problem, they must be pulling their hair out!

I can only think they are using Outlook, Entourage, Postbox, Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, MSN, FedEx, UPS, Smoke Singals, Semaphor, Morse Code or a Carrier Pigeon to send their messages?

Nov 23, 2011 7:07 AM in response to David Jenner2

seriously.

we have word processing since the dawn of the cmputer age. this seems like a rather minor bug. i'm having the exact same problems, with some custom signatures (also complete mails disappearing when i change the signature, which renders the workaround uselss), copy/paste does not behave as it should.

apple, fix this. pretty please. fast.

Nov 23, 2011 1:05 PM in response to David Jenner2

same problem. This was bad in Snow L and was one reason I upgraded to Lion figuring it was some issue with my unique world and would go away with a system upgrade. Wrong. I don't use any signatures but very routinely have what I am pasting jump to a different location, generally one or two lines above the target. It is irritating and generally leads to retping the text.

Nov 25, 2011 9:11 AM in response to David Jenner2

Same problem here. Just submitted a bug report to the Mail team referencing this thread.

In order to provide as much relavent info as possible to help them, could everyone check to see if you're running any mail plug-ins or add ons and post here. I'm using a plug-in called Letter Opener (opens windata.dat files correctly), but I was using it long before this off-position paste bug surfaced back in June/July.

Nov 25, 2011 11:57 AM in response to John Grzeskowiak

Hi, I'm running Mail straight as it is no plug-ins, no add ons. Been using signatures for years and depend on them. This problem has suddenly occurred in June/July of this year, 2011. It is so ridiculous, frustrating, wasting so much time that unless the problem is solved VERY SOON by APPLE I'm seriously needing to think about leaving Mail and finding a functioning alternative.

Nov 25, 2011 12:06 PM in response to John Grzeskowiak

I am not using any plugins. Using Mail ver 3.6 (936) on OSX 10.5.8. As with others, erratic pasting problem suddenly started around June/July this year,

Nov 25, 2011 3:10 PM in response to David Jenner2

Same problem here, also since updating last summer (running Snow Leopard).

I can confirm that the problem goes away when signature is eliminated; in my case, signature is same font/size as message text, contains a web link (complete with http, etc.), and has a short solid line above and below signature (made of understrikes, as in _______ ). No plugins or enhancements, no graphic in signature.

100% repeatable: Create two messages with the same paragraph or two of text in them, one with a signature and the other without. Copy a word or two from middle of paragraph and try to paste it into another location; the email with a signature will insist on pasting text into a new line no matter where you place the cursor.

Mail.app version 4.5, OS 10.6.8, quad-core MacPro.

Nov 27, 2011 4:26 PM in response to David Jenner2

I am having the same problem. Incredibly frustrating. Another person saying, "Apple, get on this! It is robbing productivity!".

Nov 27, 2011 4:54 PM in response to John Grzeskowiak

John,

I'm interested to know how you contacted the Apple Mail team directly and if you had a reply, I'm guessing you haven't otherwise you would have reported back on here with some news.

Just for the record I am using Attachment Tamer and SpamSieve but I stongly suspect that this has nothing to do with plugins at all, in fact I know this for a fact as I have noticed the problem long before I started using them.

We've chalked up nearly 40 posts on this subject, how many will it take before it's fixed?

100?

1000?

I can only think this is the most challenging thing the dev team have ever had to deal with!

Can anyone confirm experiencing this problem before Snow Leopard, I'm pretty sure I was having this cut and paste issue as far back as Tiger 10.4.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone running an older version of Mail on an old Mac where it doesn't do this?

Nov 28, 2011 2:07 PM in response to David Jenner2

Found a possible work-around:

Open a new email and set signature option to "none" in popup menu (right-side, just above message window).

Type and edit your email.

When ready to send, add a couple of returns after message and THEN choose a signature from popup menu.

NOTE: If you do some editing and leave the cursor anywhere within text when selecting a signature, strange things happen, which kinda confirms the issue is entirely signature-related.....

Apple Mail Cut & Paste Problem...