Apple Mail Cut & Paste Problem...

I've chimed in on this issue with mail's signatures several times now over the last month or two. Wondering if anyone has had, or noticed ANY addressing of this issue in ANY WAY, SHAPE, or FORM from Apple? I'm getting VERY dissatisfied with even trying anymore to use the features that the signature feature of Apple is SUPPOSED to have. It seems that it is a "non-feature" since we really aren't able to use it without it being time consuming and even questionable as to the result; or, whether the formatting will even work.

My bet will be that instead of fixing it, Apple will just eliminate it and focus on their "money makers" of the ipads, ipods, iphones, etc.

I think they have forgotten about the "mac users" out here that helped make them who they are today ...... you know, the "i-consumers".

Anyway, if anyone has heard any nuances from Apple toward this issue, would love to know. Maybe we need to hold a nationwide protest or "sit-in" at the California headquarters of Apple!!!!!

This is just a user forum, no reason to think anybody at Apple is gonna read this thread. Might as well ask Siri! ;-)

The workaround for now is to set Mail > Preferences > Signatures to "none" and then add your signature _after_ composing email by using popup signature menu in the email window. Works for me, seems to eliminate editing issues. Just have to remember to add the signature is all.....

To the contrary (sort of) ....... this ONLY works if you do NOT edit the signature whatsoever. Even just putting your cursor in the area of the signature after you choose it from the pull down menu can "set off" the issue by cause the color wheel to spin (as if mail is not responding); and, MANY times when I go to send the email with the signature (just inserting from the pull-down menu, and NOT editing) it will cause mail to "not respond" for awhile, but eventually send the email.

And, actually, Apple DOES (supposedly) read these. I've called into AppleCare before and one of the first things they do is search this "database" and discuss some issue with me based on other's experiencing similar problems. It just seems VERY strangely quiet from Apple.

I can edit my signature here without a hang/error/problem, long as I do not try to cut/copy/paste anywhere. I haven't experienced the beachball hang, but I _have_ seen portions of edited text in a message vanish along with its signature when selecting "none" from signature popup (in an email with a signature).

I have two signatures, an old one and a newer version that isn't much different (nothing flashy, no color or logo), but I can choose either one. Granted, none of this should be a problem and we shouldn't need to have this discussion(!), but it does suggest the possibility of having multiple pre-designed signatures in that popup menu. You can name them anything you like, and as long as it's the last thing you do before hitting "send," it might be a viable workaround (albeit, one that may not suit you).

Best guess I have is that the problem has something to do with how things are stored in the clipboard. (If you cut or copy something in an email, then switch to the Finder > Edit menu > Show Clipboard, you'll see it there.) It may be that - somehow, for some reason - a 'return' is added to the cut/copy that forces a new line in an email when you then choose to paste. Or perhaps Mail is expecting some format/color/spec data that gets stripped in the clipboard. Since a similar problem occurs in other apps, it kinda suggests an issue beyond just the Mail.app.

As for a response from Apple....? A bug fix buried in some update (someday) is about the best we can hope for. This forum is a great resource for all, especially since - let's face it - we're all beta testers now. But I don't think Apple is in the habit of directly answering questions/issues here.

Keep in mind that you posted your problem to a use forum and didn't ask Apple anything. They don't read the forums. They pay someone to moderate/enforce forum rules, but Apple itself (and, more importantly, Apple technical support) don't read or interact with these forums.

You need to contact Apple support.

Thought I would add my tuppence worth too... I have noted this problem which suddenly appeared sometime in 2011 - can't remember when. In desparation today I thought I'd check Apple support and found this thread. There is some small comfort in knowing I am not alone... but also annoying to realise that it must be a bug in Mail and why don't Apple solve it??

Anyway I run OS 10.5.8 at work and haven't had the time to make the upgrade to 10.6 - but this thread suggests that upgrading the operating system won't help.

I have noticed that putting a few returns in my email text and then pasting in text and then deleting back to the correct place can help.

I will investigate whether simplifying my signature helps - removing formatting etc, or even as some people have said turning off the automatic signature option.

As this thread is getting pretty long, thought it might be good to reiterate a simple workaround for this issue that doesn't require any signature or formatting modifications, etc:

Instead of pasting using Command-v (paste), use Command-Option-Shift-v (paste and match style)

The only caveat with this workaround is that pasted text will be converted to the match the default font (and font size) that you've set for message body text (which is probably what most people want anyway).

Little solace that you all are having the same problem I know - and I'm another one. All happened for me since installing Lion. I am desperately disappointed with Lion all over, I may even chop back to SL (3 computers - that will be a pain). Apple have taken me back to the bad old days of Windows and multiple OS re-installs each year just to keep the blue screens at bay. After 4 happy years of trouble free computing, Lion is proving far too buggy by far...

To be a little (but not much) more constructive, my OSX Mail Version 5.1 (1251/1251.1) is not cut and pasting correctly for us also on all 3 of our business machines running Lion, iMac, MBP and MB Air. Same symptoms as the thread here.

Further we rely heavily on insertion of graphical material inline within OSX Mail and we find that drag and drop of these inline images in an attempt to place them elsewhere in the email, randomly removes them mysteriously requiring a Cmd+Z to get it back (and then we can't move the image), or pastes it somewhere undesired (seems to randomly choose above the present paragraph, or at the top of the email)...

Please all:

(a) email Apple Care and

(b) formally contact Apple technical support via their website. Our collective venting here will not raise the issue to those that need to know.

I'll be rewinding to Snow Leopard and will stick with "nearly the most advanced" OS as opposed to Lion "An authentic Windows XP Service Pack One experience for Mac users who missed the fun....".

:-(

I'm adding my voice to the growing chorus of people who have been experiencing the cut/paste problem. And, I've also noticed that text jumps around when adding a link (url) to text in a message.

Having recently migrated from Eudora to the supposedly more modern Apple Mail, I find this extremely frustrating, and have reported the problem to Apple Technical Support. My Mac (OS 10.6.8) is covered by Apple Care, and I now have a tech support call scheduled for later this week.

I'll post here if Apple provides any relevant info.

Dear ' rossnats'

save yourself the trouble, I'm on Snowleopard and I've got the very same cut and paste problem in the Mail programme since about July 2010 - sorry to disappoint you!!

I've got it on both my iMac and my Ibook! - Extremely frustrating and desperate for Apple to fix it.

sharae,

I think we will all be interested to hear if you get any help from AppleCare. I actually do have AppleCare, but have "put up" with this for over a year now without calling them. Guess "stupid" on my part! Just seem to never have time even though this is a BIG BIG problem.

I was just creating a new signature in Mail 4.5 with Snow Leopard and thought I'd "avoid" the problem by creating all the text in a word processor and then pasting it into the signature. Well, that went fine initially. I then realized I had to cut and paste a couple of the lines of text ....... THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!!! ....... I cut about 3 words and went to paste them just a couple of lines above and it went like 3 PARAGRAPHS above!!!!! ...... not even close to where I put the cursor. And believe me, I was VERY careful to make sure I did everything "right".

Oh, and by the way, this had absolutely NO special formating ....... just the default text style. Oh wait, I did embolden 3 lines of text! That must have been the problem ....... NOPE.

APPLE, APPLE, APPLE, APPLE .......... you had RECORD PROFITS ......... from US ....... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, pretty please? ........ FIX THIS!!!!!!!!!

John,

Tried this "workaround" ........ still doesn't work and the problem seems to be "hit and miss" ...... erratic ..... etc. Sometimes this workaround works, but heaven forbid you have to modify it after this.

APPLE has better things to do than waste their time trying to fix such a small issue… obviously, from their perspective.

If it took them half a decade, and nearly a court order to fix the dysfunctional NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphic card issue Thousands of their customers complained about with their 2007+ Macbook Pro computers, what chance do you have that they would redirect their highly-paid engineers to focus on your trivial cut & paste issue that customers have only been complaining about for just 3 Years! Keep dreaming.

They need to focus on new releases to keep their stock price growing, and your cut & paste issue is an inconvenient distraction, but maybe they'll revamp the whole thing by the time you pay for their next release of "Snow Lion"

Good luck…

P.S. It only happens with Rich Text.

A solution that works is:

1. Open Microsoft Word TextEdit (if you installed MS Word for Mac).

2. In MS TextEdit/Format Menu/Select Make Plain Text.

3. Paste what you'd like to paste in Apple Notes in MS TextEdit to change the format, then copy it from MS TextEdit to Apple Notes, and it will land exactly where you want it to.

You can also use the "Find" window or Google search field to convert your Rich Text to Plain Text before pasting it to Apple Notes.

Its absurd, but it works!

Besides, who cares about you!

"P.S. It only happens with Rich Text." ......... TO THE CONTRARY!!! ........

There is actually a LOT more "quirks" to this issue besides just Rich Text cutting and pasting.

Many times just clicking the cursor into one of the signatures will send the spinning color wheel of the mouse a-spinning to the point that cmnd-opt-esc indicates that mail is not repsonding and you must quit mail and restart.

This will also happen, seeemingly randomly, if you try to format some text in a signature. Sometimes this happens while trying to include a photo in a signature, etc, etc.

There are a bunch of quirks to this "cut and paste" problem to the point that the cut and paste name may not adequately describe the issue.

As far as Apple not caring - perhaps we all need to really press hard on this -----

anyone that has AppleCare - call it in! I have it, and haven't, but I'm going to ..... AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN.

I sent an email to MacWorld about this and referenced this thread in hopes they might take a look at it.

While I appreciate imac_07's attempt to provide a"solution" ...... that is NOT a solution. A company, such as APPLE should be able, and liable, to provide WORKING versions of software they provide. Computers and software have come WAY too far at this point to have this sort of nonsense go unchecked.

Unfortunately, it seems it is up to us to bring pressure.