292395 - Erratic keyboard behavior in form text entry box. Loss of focus in field, strange text selection behavior, can't copy or paste in text field

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Victor Breen]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050428 Firefox/1.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050428 Firefox/1.0+

I have been able to duplicate this problem on many different sites but not on my
own volition (including this 

submission form, right now).  This bug is extremely elusive (and not to mention,
extremely annoying and 

counter-productive!) and it shows up once every few days for me.  More details
below:

Browser operation works fantastic for an extended period of time, then something
changes and this bug rears it's 

ugly head for no reason that I can find.  I cannot reproduce this bug at will
since I see no pattern to it other 

than it occurs on pages with text entry form boxes.  Here are the individual
problems that occur, which all seem related to the same cause.

1) I notice the problem when I can no longer move the text cursor with the arrow
keys whle editing the text box.  When 

this occurs, the apostraphe (') key does something really, really odd.  When I
press that key (for example, when 

typing "can't"), the apostraphe is typed into the text box, but it then invokes
the Find bar at the bottom of the 

window and changes focus to the find box, as if I had pressed CTRL+F.  If I
press the Backspace key while in the Find box, it can either go back to the
previous page (which loses my form data and tons of work time!) or it pages up
in the web page.

2) Selecting text inside the text box using the arrow keys becomes impossible. 
I notice on this form when I hold Shift and press Left, it starts to select the
text above this field.

3) Selecting text with the mouse inside the form text entry box works, but
CTRL+C or CTRL+X doesn't do anything at all.  Right -clicking the selected text
brings up the context menu, but Undo Cut Copy Paste Delete are all greyed out
with Select All being the only available option.

4) Choosing Select All in the right-click context menu or by pressing CTRL+A
while text focus is inside the text entry box selects all text on the page
outside of the form fields rather than selecting the text *inside* the field.

5) Drop-down menus no longer drop down when clicked.  The arrow keys have to be
used to select the appropriate item in the menu.


Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
No known reproduction steps.  There is no pattern I could find.


Expected Results:  
1) The arrow keys should always be able to move the text cursor inside a text
box.  Focus should never be changed unless the mouse is clicked in another area
of the page

2) Related to item #1, selecting text using the arrow keys should always work.

3) When selecting text with the mouse, Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete should
always be available and functional.

4) While focus is inside the text box, Select All should select all text inside
the text box rather than text *outside* the box.

5) Drop down boxes should always drop down.  They should never "refuse" to do so.

Additionally, form data should never be lost.

Using default theme.
Uninstalled all extensions.
Tried uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling, to no avail.

Comment 1

[Victor Breen]

Attachment: about:buildconfig output

I hope this is helpful...

Comment 2

[Andrew Koester]

I'm having this exact same problem and it's becoming more and more annoying. If
you look under the Firefox compents page, this bug does not fit under Form
Manager, though.

Comment 3

[Victor Breen]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I'm having this exact same problem and it's becoming more and more annoying. If
> you look under the Firefox compents page, this bug does not fit under Form
> Manager, though.

I only chose Form Manager because it was the only thing that made sense at the
time.  If anyone knows of a better category this falls under, let me know!  This
is one of the most annoying bugs ever.

Comment 4

[Andrew Koester]

I would assume general would be the best category this would fit under.

Comment 5

[Mathias Rufer]

I can confirm the portion that sometimes copy/paste stops working in Firefox
1.04. Often seen in Forms or the URL bar.
I did NOT experience this with Mozilla 1.7.8

Comment 6

[John Hansen]

I can confirm the portion that sometimes copy/paste stops working in Firefox
1.5b1 RC

(Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b4) Gecko/20050907
Firefox/1.4)

Also, I have the "find as you type" turned on, so when I type it automatically
starts searching.  Every so often, after giving a text input focus, typing will
search the page rather than add text to the text input.  Closing and re-opening
the browser to the current page temporarily resolves the issue.

Comment 7

[Andrew Clover]

I think this may be the same bug I am experiencing in 1.5b1. Steps to reproduce
for me:

1. Turn "begin finding when you begin typing" on.

2. Leave any Fx window (even the Download Manager) open.

3. Open a second Fx window by running firefox.exe again - opening a new window
from the File window does not trigger this behaviour.

4. Go to eg. google.com and attempt to type in the input field. The field
immediately loses focus and characters are sent to the Find bar.

This also, for me, disables arrow key page scrolling. Closing the original
window makes the problem go away.

Comment 8

[Jason Ellis]

I can confirm Andrew's issue on 1.5 beta 1 and the more recent branch nightlies.
 Nominating for 1.8b5

(In reply to comment #7)
> I think this may be the same bug I am experiencing in 1.5b1. Steps to reproduce

Comment 9

[Scott MacGregor]

I'm going to minus this as it has no owner, no patch and it's too late in the
game for 1.5.

Furthermore, the latest issues folks are reporting in 1.5b1 (where this stuff
doesn't work after starting up another instance of Firefox) is already a stop
ship beta 2 bug. We had a really bad focus / keyboard bug in beta1 that is
causing the last couple comments I read in this bug report with the beta.

Comment 10

[Mike]

I have had a similar problem.

Firefox randomy begins search as I type in a forum text box even if "Begin
finding when I begin typing" has been disabled. www.Penny-arcade.com/forums is
the last place this happened. Going to options, then advanced, and toggling on
or off the "Begin finding when I begin typing" command fixes the problem
momentarily.

So far, I've found no way to reproduce this bug. It simply seems like dumb luck
when it does and does not happen.

To everyone having this problem: A temporary fix is to change the settings of
"begin finding when I begin typing". Even if it's turning it back on, it seems
to stop giving me problems for the time being. Although this is not a permanent
fix in the least.

Comment 11

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

Doug (worcester12345), you requested blocking Firefox 2.0, yet no one ever confirmed the problem in Firefox 1.5 Final.
(there would be tons of comments if this was still a big issue)

Comment 12

[pg]

(In reply to comment #11)
I aggree with Peter (van der Woude), I have not seen the bug since 1.5b1 (or 1.5b2?) on any machine, so if there are no objections, we might even consider it to be fixed. 

Comment 13

[Andrew Koester]

I don't know what you guys are talking about. The bug is still here for me. If I hadn't posted it before, ALT-TABbing to another program and back temporarily fixes the problem.. It seems to be a focus problem.

Comment 14

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

So is this any different from bug 220900?

Comment 15

[Jeff]

There are a number of 'keyboard cut and paste don't work' bugs. This problem occurs for me regularly - when editing Wiki pages, on both text and normal input boxes. The keyboard shortcuts stop working, left/right arrow keys stop working etc.

Comment 16

[tommyjb]

Is bug 339158 a duplicate?

Comment 17

[Fergus Young]

I've experienced this bug with all windows 2000 and windows XP systems that I've used.  This frequency at which this bug comes about, however, seems to vary with each machine.

The method I have used to replicate this particular bug on the machines which are known to be affected, is detailed below (Version 1.5.0.4) ...

[Assumes that firefox install is fresh (no extensions, no add ons) and no settings have yet been touched or changed]

1. Set your homepage to http://www.google.co.nz/
2. Ensure you have a Mozilla Firefox shortcut on your desktop.
3. Close any and all application windows that may be open so that your desktop is clear
4. Open one instance of Firefox, then "Restore" the window (Not minimized, Not Maximized) and position the window so that it does not cover the short cut icon on the desktop and Then CLOSE the Firefox Window.  

(The reason why I am doing it this way is that So far I've only managed to replicate this bug by clicking the desktop icon in order to launch a new window, not by going 'File' -> 'New Window' from within firefox)

5. Open notepad, write a short string of text.  Highlight it and copy it (so that it is captured in the clipboard).  (To make sure the clipboard has successfully captured it, Attempt to paste (CTRL + V) it back into Notepad) and then CLOSE notepad.

6. Double click on the Firefox Desktop short cut Icon to launch a firefox window and wait for a brief moment until google fully loads up.
7. WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING ELSE Start pressing the ' key a few times.  Did the find tool bar ("Find in this page") come up? If no continue to STEP 8.  If yes, SKIP over to STEP 9)
   - Normal behaviour will see a series of ' characters being entered into google's search field.
   - Buggy behaviour (I Believe) will see the find tool ("Find in this page") come up uninvited

8. (If bug has not yet appeared) WITHOUT closing any existing Firefox windows, Repeat 6&7 until the find tool bar comes up uninvited. (Often it occurs in the 3rd Firefox window you launch but does vary with each machine)  However if the bug still hasn't shown it's face after opening 10 seperate firefox windows, close all instances and repeat from step 6.

*** ONCE THE BUG DOES EMERGE, DO NOT SWITCH AWAY FROM THE CURRENT FIREFOX WINDOW ***

9. 1ST SYMPTOM - try using the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys (also HOME and END keys) to navigate either the URL address bar or Google's search field.  you will probably find the cursor refuses to move
10. 2ND SYMPTOM - If you attempt to go CTRL+V in the google search field. (To paste the string of text you copied in step 5) nothing will appear.
11. 3RD SYMPTOM - Enter a random string of text into google's seach field, highlight the string and bring up the right mouse button context menu, you will probably find that the 'Copy' function has been greyed out.  

12. Now switch away from the offending firefox window and come back to it, (either by clicking on another application on the windows task bar or by minimizing the current window and restoring.)

13. Attempt to CTRL + V (Paste) into the google search field, you will find that the string you copied in step 4 now pastes into the google search field fine.
14. attempt to navigate the URL address bar, LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys now work.
15. Enter a string of text into the google search field, highlight it and bring up the right buttom mouse context menu, the copy function is now available to you.

Comment 18

[Sebastian Beigel]

Same here -- even with Firefox 2.0 RC2 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061003 Firefox/2.0)

This is a really annoying problem that I experience quite frequently. Even switching to version 2.0 doesn't solve the problem. Deactivating type ahead (FAYT) is a workaround, but not a decent solution.

It would be really great to fix this for 2.0 GA as this is IMHO a *major* bug which is existant since at least 1.5 (I can't remeber 1.0 :)

Thank you,
Sebastian

Comment 19

[ghoose1]

I can confirm this bug with 1.5 and 2.0 - but it's not only pasting some text into textfields but just typing it into the fields. The real big problem I see is that with this "search behaviour" passwords which are typed in are shown in the find-bar...

But it doesn't need any typed in apostrophe (') to start this behaviour. Sometimes even focussing any textfield and pressing any key for typing into it, results in opening the find-bar and typing in the text in the search field, instead of typing it in the focussed field. As I said, it is really critical in the area of password fields.

Most of all you can fix this behaviour not by starting a new browser instance (new window or tab, switching programs doesn't work for me too), but by closing all browser instances and starting a whole new one. Maybe it has something to do with the session-saving, but I can only guess.

I just disabled "begin finding when I begin typing" and see, if the bug is appearing in the future.

Greetings

Comment 20

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Is this still a problem ?

Comment 21

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

I am unable to reproduce(In reply to Andrew Clover from comment #7)
> I think this may be the same bug I am experiencing in 1.5b1. Steps to
> reproduce
> for me:
> 
> 1. Turn "begin finding when you begin typing" on.
> 
> 2. Leave any Fx window (even the Download Manager) open.
> 
> 3. Open a second Fx window by running firefox.exe again - opening a new
> window
> from the File window does not trigger this behaviour.
> 
> 4. Go to eg. google.com and attempt to type in the input field. The field
> immediately loses focus and characters are sent to the Find bar.
> 
> This also, for me, disables arrow key page scrolling. Closing the original
> window makes the problem go away.

Unable to reproduce this on Windows XP using Firefox 20 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0).

Please re-open if this is still an issue.