Hi all. New to the forums. Hope someone can suggest something. I regularly copy from browser text (Safari, usually, but I've tried about 6 other browser apps) and paste the material into notes for myself and also mail text to others. Now since upgrading, I can't get copy from any browser to paste into anything. Anyone else getting this? Any ideas? Thanks.

Are you able to copy and paste from other apps - say to and from documents in a word processing app?

Tim

I updated my original iPad to iOS 5 on the 12th. I just tried and I'm able to copy text from Safari webpages and paste it into my Notes, Pages and Mail apps. So it appears to be working for me at least.

You might want to try restarting or resetting your iPad. Hold down the power switch (outside edge) by itself until the red slider appears. Turn it off by sliding the switch and then once again hold down the power switch until the Apple logo appears.

Resetting the iPad should be reserved for a non-responsive unit as it addresses other activity but if restarting doesn't do it, resetting it might. Hold down the power switch and home button until the slider appears on the screen and shut it down. Hold down the power switch again until the Apple logo appears. Fully booting up from a reset will take a little longer than a restart.

More here:

iPhone, iPad, iPod touch: Turning off and on (restarting) and resetting

Let us know if that helps. Others may have some more suggestions as well.

Thanks for the replies, Tim and Rich. I did the resets as you suggested, Rich, and went back and tried some copies. Most worked from documents I have in Dropbox, and interestingly, it seems that some areas of browser text in some sites I could formerly copy no longer seem to copy to the (do you call it a clipboard here?), yet others do. It is not Safari-specific, as I also use Skyfire, Atomic, and a few others as some of those can emulate (to some degree) IE and Firefox. I'm not sure I want to try re-restoring iOS5 from the full backup file, as it took forever the first time and 99.999999% of everything works just fine. Perhaps it is just some sort of issue with the coding in iOS5 that is different from 4 as to how it is interpreting certain types of browser coding... Or the site codings themselves (real HTML vs. generated code from some after-market program).
I'd be interested to hear whether others have similar issues or variants thereof. Thanks again, guys. I see I've come to the right place to find help.

Originally Posted by wolfman1251

Thanks for the replies, Tim and Rich. I did the resets as you suggested, Rich, and went back and tried some copies. Most worked from documents I have in Dropbox, and interestingly, it seems that some areas of browser text in some sites I could formerly copy no longer seem to copy to the (do you call it a clipboard here?), yet others do. It is not Safari-specific, as I also use Skyfire, Atomic, and a few others as some of those can emulate (to some degree) IE and Firefox. I'm not sure I want to try re-restoring iOS5 from the full backup file, as it took forever the first time and 99.999999% of everything works just fine. Perhaps it is just some sort of issue with the coding in iOS5 that is different from 4 as to how it is interpreting certain types of browser coding... Or the site codings themselves (real HTML vs. generated code from some after-market program).
I'd be interested to hear whether others have similar issues or variants thereof. Thanks again, guys. I see I've come to the right place to find help.

I wonder if some of the things you're trying to copy are not actually text but graphics. That's fairly common on websites. For instance, on this page although the the "iPad 2" looks like text, it's a graphic, but the text underneath it is actually text. Just a thought.

Having similar / related issues. Relating to the copy selection area.
Have re-set as suggested above.
I know this was possible pre-IOS5. I admit it was a bit fiddly before, but it was do-able.
Can someone try this on IOS5 & < IOS5 so I can check this is not just me and my fingers.

Summary
iPad2 IOS5. Can use copy in Safari to copy 1 line max. Cannot drag the grab handles so can select all the text on the page. Selection always shrinks back to the single line.
I have also confirmed same behavior on an iPad1 for what it's worth.

(First post here so can't embed the links and images correctly - please replace 1st space with a . in the following url's)

Example URL for copy source:
(I know this is not html but it is a fair representation of what I'm normally copying out of the browser)
www openwebmail.org/openwebmail/doc/faq.txt

Result
(where the selection shrinks back to the first line on the page after using the grab handles)
i1177 photobucket.com/albums/x352/waxingdigital/copy-all-ios5-safari.png

Any help appreciated

S

Originally Posted by wax4

Having similar / related issues. Relating to the copy selection area.
Have re-set as suggested above.
I know this was possible pre-IOS5. I admit it was a bit fiddly before, but it was do-able.
Can someone try this on IOS5 & < IOS5 so I can check this is not just me and my fingers.

Summary
iPad2 IOS5. Can use copy in Safari to copy 1 line max. Cannot drag the grab handles so can select all the text on the page. Selection always shrinks back to the single line.
I have also confirmed same behavior on an iPad1 for what it's worth.

(First post here so can't embed the links and images correctly - please replace 1st space with a . in the following url's)

Example URL for copy source:
(I know this is not html but it is a fair representation of what I'm normally copying out of the browser)
www openwebmail.org/openwebmail/doc/faq.txt

Result
(where the selection shrinks back to the first line on the page after using the grab handles)
i1177 photobucket.com/albums/x352/waxingdigital/copy-all-ios5-safari.png

Any help appreciated

S

Okay, I see what you mean now. Something has definitely changed with copy/paste and it appears to depend on how the website is built.

Prior to iOS 5 you could tap and hold any word and drag the left or right handles any direction. Now I find I have to tap and hold the last word I want to copy and drag the left handle up to the first word I want to copy. Again, that works on some but not all websites.

On the openwebmail site I can get the top sentence highlighted by tapping and holding the last word in the sentence and then dragging the left handle to the first word, but it won't expand down, etc. I can only highlight one word at a time in the numbered list.

On other websites I can tap and hold a word, then drag the left handle up to capture the rest of the paragraph. When I let go and a box is highlighted, I can grab the top or bottom handles to drag the highlighted area up or down, OR I can grab the right or left handles to drag the box across the page and highlight more area. Again, that doesn't work on all websites.

It appears to be the same whether I use Safari or iCab Mobile and again, how the website is constructed.

I've searched the various support sites and blogs but cannot find any references to this change yet. I'll keep looking as it is frustrating to say the least!

Thanks very much for bringing it to our attention and please update us if you find out anything more!

I have a simple html text box that I'm writing in, but i've discovered that I can sometimes (e.g. when i leave the page and return to it) write and paste into it only after I dismiss the keyboard and then reselect the text box. What's frustrating is that if I don't this, nothing that I type is captured in the textbox. Also, Now I cannot seem to be able to paste anything into the box anymore. Argh!

This whole copy/paste issue seems worthy of a bug report. Here's a link to Apple's iPad Feedback page. You could file a "complaint" (perhaps just copy/paste your post?!). If enough folks do that it might get their attention.

Apple - iPad - Feedback

Here's what I sent using the "Bug Report" from the "Feedback Type" drop-down menu (feel free to use/modify it as needed for your experience):

Since upgrading to iOS 5 on my iPad, copy and or cut and paste no longer works properly. I cannot copy some text or graphics at all, particularly from Safari, but other apps as well. In other circumstances I can copy some material however I cannot grab the handles to increase the material I'd like to copy.

In order to copy something I have to start at the end and then grab the first handle and move it to the beginning of the content I want to copy. I used to be able to move either handle in any direction.

The whole copy and paste process has become very unstable as compared to iOS 4.3.5.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Ehan01

I have a simple html text box that I'm writing in, but i've discovered that I can sometimes (e.g. when i leave the page and return to it) write and paste into it only after I dismiss the keyboard and then reselect the text box. What's frustrating is that if I don't this, nothing that I type is captured in the textbox. Also, Now I cannot seem to be able to paste anything into the box anymore. Argh!

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