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Highlighted area remains after clearing text

Hello,


I've been having this trouble with my Macbook Pro for quite some time. I thought it was something weird that I had done to my system, but I recently got a new Macbook Air and noticed the same problem. I've since confirmed the behavior on 2 other Macbooks that aren't mine. Here's the situation:


Using my trackpad (wireless or built in), I highlight text using three-finger drag. Within about a second, if I hit a key on the keyboard to clear the text (backspace, or another letter, it doesn't matter), the text disappears, as expected, but the *highlighted area remains*. This seems to happen for every key that I hit during that second or so, which often causes me to butcher more text than intended. I think this is hard to explain, so here's some a simple visual example:


1) I type "123456789" and highlight "456" using my trackpad 3-finger drag:


User uploaded file


2) Within a second or so, I hit the delete key on the keyboard. "456" goes away, but the highlighted selection remains, now highlighting "789" instead:


User uploaded file


3) Naturally, if I press any other key on the keyboard, the "789" is removed also. At this point, I've waited long enough that the highlight is also removed as expected:


User uploaded file


I believe this is strictly related to 3-finger-drag on the trackpad (both wireless and built-in). It doesn't happen with click-and-drag, nor does it happen with a mouse, nor does it happen if I use the keyboard to highlight text.


One other interesting thing, this happens in many, but not all applications. It definitely happens in Mail, Safari, and Chrome (Mail being the most reliable). It does not happen in TextEdit or Firefox.


So, down to the question. Does anyone know of a way to disable this behavior? It doesn't seem to bother other people I talk to (nobody has noticed until I instructed them how to do it), but it happens to me constantly.

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 3, 2013 5:25 PM

Reply
16 replies

May 14, 2016 8:16 PM in response to krypt99

I can't believe this is still an issue in 2016. I just now realized that you're correct, selecting from right to left works fine - slightly, it deletes one letter but the rest of the content remains selected and you can delete it all. But when swiping left to right, it deselects everything and just deletes the last letter. It's bizarre to think that such an issue is so persistent across all OS and Apple doesn't give a darn about fixing it.....

Running:

El Capitan 10.11.4

MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011
Safari 9.1

Sep 3, 2017 3:50 AM in response to flengord

This has driven me mad for years. I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) running Sierra 10.12.6. The number of times I've been caught out and start overwriting text that I didn't mean to because the highlighting hasn't cleared. It doesn't seem to matter which way I select the text. In fact, I can select text, delete it (highlighting remains) then undo (highlighting still remains) and delete again and the highlighting is gone. Some applications seem to be affected differently. Apple Mail is currently prone to this, but I notice the problem doesn't happen writing in this textbox in Safari. In fact, the behaviour is even more counter intuitive. I select text, hit delete, then do an undo, not only does the deleted text not reappear, but the text I wrote just before that disappears!


I'm surprised there aren't more complaints given text editing is perhaps the most widely exercised function!

Nov 30, 2017 2:00 AM in response to krypt99

I think this bug is caused by the small 'selection continues'-delay that is inherent for a three-finger drag.


For example, you can see the delay when making a three-finger drag selection on an empty desktop. When you lift up your fingers from the trackpad, the selection only disappears after about 1 sec.


This delay is there so that you are able you to make your selection (typically) bigger by lifting up your fingers and putting them down again (in less than 1 sec).


Unfortunately this implementation is not playing well with text selection and (fast) overtyping.

Oct 4, 2013 7:51 AM in response to arthur

Thank you for the response.


I enabled tap-to-drag (which I had to enable using the accessibility options), and the problem still DID occur when doing that method - both with 3-finger dragging enabled and disabled.


A little more about specifically when this happens:


It only happens when inputting text (not highlighting static text on a web page, for example).


Mail is definitely the most consistent, when composing a message. It only happens in the body of the message - not the To/Cc/Subject fields.


In Chrome or Safari, it happens inside of text fields (input or textarea) on a web page, but not in the URL bar. It can also be inconsistent. For example, right now it is not happening on this discussions.apple.com text area, but it is happening in a different tab which just has https://www.google.com loaded (in the search box) and in the textarea on http://slashdot.org/submission.


Just now, in trying some different sites as examples, I'm noticing some other peculiarities. For example, on http://dune.net/contact/, in Chrome, it only seems to happen when the browser is sized small enough that the page is scrollable. If the page fits within the browser window, the behavior does not happen. However, in Safari on that same page, the behavior always happens (regardless of browser window size). But again, it seems to be inconsistent in browsers in general.


Actually... it IS happening in this discussions.apple.com textarea now. It seemed to have started when I typed enough text for the text window to be scrollable. If I remove enough of the text that it isn't scrollable, the behavior goes away.


I've reproduced this behavior on 4 different macbooks now, all of them running Mountain Lion and 2011+ models.

Oct 9, 2013 9:25 AM in response to arthur

I was showing this to a colleague on his Macbook Pro and he noticed an additional thing that will be helpful in reproducing this.


It appears to only happen when highlighting text in a "forward" direction (left-to-right, or top-to-bottom). When highlighting from right-to-left, the problem does not occur.


Again, this only happens on a trackpad (wireless or built-in), using three-finger drag or tap-to-drag. It does not happen with a click-to-drag, or when using a mouse.

Jan 10, 2015 4:41 AM in response to krypt99

I second that. I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro with OS X Lion. And this issue has been prevalent in the same fashion described in your post. I can't believe that very few Apple community members have noticed or been bothered by this! It's a very annoying phenomena when composing and editing text. Instead of selecting, deleting and immediately continuing to type, an extra step is now necessary having to click on the area right after the deleted text in order to get rid of the remaining highlighted area and continue to type without accidentally deleting the text immediately following the intended deleted text. On so many occasions I forgot to do this and ended-up with so much missing text by the time I finished typing a particular article. An unacceptable defect for a journalist like myself who makes his living by writing.

I can't believe that Apple never acknowledged and rectified this obvious problem after all these years! I thought at first it was some type of intended function that some might opt to use for some reason, but I can't figure-out for the life of me what purpose this anomaly could possibly serve! And if it was, wouldn't be the same across all applications with a way to disable it in Preferences? But it's not. It simply is a coding issue that the engineers at Apple have overlooked like the slew of other issues and anomalies plaguing Mac OS. Shame for a company that claims to have the most intuitive and user-friendly operating system and user interface.

Though somewhat off-topic, a case in point, after deciding to switch to iPhone after using Android devices for a few years believing it would streamline syncing between my mobile and my MBP, I was shocked to discover recent iPhones, from iPhone 5 on, are completely incapable to connect to or communicate with my Macbook Pro with OS X Lion and iTunes 11 (even via Bluetooth) without having to upgrade to a more recent OS and iTunes versions. Something I adamantly refuse to do based on my horrible past experience with upgrading Apple products, especially iTunes. I'm absolutely fine with my current OS and I love my iTunes 11, so there's absolutely no reason to deal with convoluted upgrading processes and script writing dilemmas Apple is infamous for, not to mention losing iTunes functions and a UI I've gotten used to and grown to depend on with each upgrade. Though not as streamlined as I would like, at least I'm still able to sync my Android device with my MBP 2011 via various methods.

Being an avid Apple proponent for many years now, I'm beside myself coming to the conclusion that a seemingly progressive company like Apple that charges a premium price for their products is completely behind the pack in evolving into what they claim to be a consumer oriented company. Instead, Apple seems to rear it's ugly bottom-line based corporate face with it's acute Planned Obsolescence marketing policies and alienating sales strategies. They don't seem to get that by such policies they are losing more and more clients each year by of forcing their products down their most loyal customers throats. They don't seem to comprehend that in this interconnected world-wide-web modern world, the consumer is becoming increasingly more informed, independent and completely averse to such forced sales strategies. For me it's back to Android phones in addition to already acquiring a Chrome Book to use in parallel with my still surviving MBP as a transitional step towards switching back to Windows based PC once the MBP gasps its' last breath.

Apple, get your head out of your a%$ or slowly be wedged out of your measly and continuously shrinking market share. As for me, I vow to never ever fall for your false, misleading, polished and seemingly sophisticated pretentious marketing campaigns. And that's one less customer who'll ever spend his hard earned money on a single Apple product ever again for ya.

Jun 7, 2015 10:25 AM in response to krypt99

I have this problem as well - text selection remains upon quick text entry after text selected using trackpad from right-to-left.


It is very annoying because I select text, hit the delete key, and then start typing new text but that text then replaces the newly selected text (after the original selection).


This is clearly a bug.


It doesn't happen with a mouse selection.

It doesn't happen if you wait a while after the selection before typing text.

It doesn't happen if you select from right to left etc.


Please fix Apple!


I am using Mac OS X 10.10.3 on MacBook Pro - Late 2013.

Jun 7, 2015 12:03 PM in response to Ashley Aitken

Your problem may not be exactly the same as that of the original poster of this older thread, and it can be very confusing for everybody if we try to answer more than one question in each thread.


In order for us to give your problem our undivided attention to try to solve it, would you kindly start your own thread, describing the trouble you are having in the fullest detail, including completing your details to show what Mac or iDevice you are using, what operating system, and what version of the application in question. Please remember to post in the forum relevant to your hardware or version of OS X.

Jun 7, 2015 5:06 PM in response to Klaus1

Hi Klaus1


Thanks for your post but I am pretty sure my problem is exactly the same as the OP (please compare them and you will see).


I know this is a OS X Mountain Lion forum but I thought it was best to stay with the same thread and maybe the OP would comment if he/she had found a solution.


I should note it also only seems happen when using the external Apple trackpad, not the internal one on my MacBook Pro, and only in certain contexts, for example not in this text box but it does in Notes.

Highlighted area remains after clearing text

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