Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Accidentally highlighting and deleting text with ios9 keyboard tweaks
- Thread starter sortapundit
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hey is anyone on iOS 11 beta 1 able to test this again? Or maybe check if you can disable it in the preferences?
Just write some text and then hit two keys very quickly, like I and J with your middle and index finger. If you select the text you just typed... : (
Just write some text and then hit two keys very quickly, like I and J with your middle and index finger. If you select the text you just typed... : (
This is an old thread from a few years ago. Are you encountering a new problem in iOS 11 or still going bonkers in iOS 9? I know in iOS 11 I keep accidentally deleting the last word I type before pausing to change the keyboard to get a question mark or any other punctuation mark that’s not a comma or period.
Yes it's my iPad air with the latest OS.
It has nothing to do with how you are touching the keys, it's just speed. One word it really struggles with is "the". If I type "the <space>" then once every few times it will select the word, sentence or paragraph and when space is hit it deletes them. It is mostly I think because I type this word very quickly.
However, I have found a solution that does not include counting between keypresses.
Go to app store and download SwiftKey.
I have found so far that it does not have the problem
Ade
Oh well what you described is what’s happening to me but I only noticed it in iOS 11, not iOS 9. What I thought I saw when that happened was the keyboard actually changing as I use it. The space bar shortens and another key temporarily appears next to it which says “undo” and I’ll hit it by accident and undo some of my typing. Somehow I hit the key to activate the numbers and symbols keyboard that changes the keyboard.
However I did not tend to make this mistake prior to iOS 11.01 I think.
I just finally searched if anyone else is encountering the problem. I’ve been experiencing this since I bought my iPad Pro 10,5 in June so it’s been on iOS 10.3, 11 and 11.1.
It’s so damn annoying that I tend to leave the room and sit myself in front of the computer although I got the iPad to use it as a full substitute in the first place.
My question is: What is actually happening? What kind of feature is this because I just don’t get how it’s supposed to work even IF you were going to use it as a feature.
It’s so damn annoying that I tend to leave the room and sit myself in front of the computer although I got the iPad to use it as a full substitute in the first place.
My question is: What is actually happening? What kind of feature is this because I just don’t get how it’s supposed to work even IF you were going to use it as a feature.
Why should that have anything to do with this problem?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7692032?start=0&tstart=0
Confirming, this is still happening on iOS 11.2.1 - and I’m not aware of any fix, other than external keyboard, or using a different soft keyboard from App Store.
For anyone wondering, here is an example method of reproducing the problem:
Many words can trigger this behaviour, for me it’s words with two letters close together typed by the same hand... e.g. the pl in “play” does it.
***The root cause: try tapping two fingers together on the keyboard: It selects the previous words. If you keep tapping two fingers on the keyboard, it selects an even larger portion of what you just wrote... a whole sentence, or paragraph even. Not sure if this is a “feature”, but it’s definately something the keyborad does.
My suggestion to Apple would be, if they can’t tweak the touch behaviour to handle fast typing, then allow users to disable the two-fingers-to-drag/select feature entirely.
The rage I experience... as I’m taking fast notes on a lecture, deep in thought, and then this stupid behaviour wipes out my notes, then have to start violently shaking my iPad to get the undo modal... cannot be expressed.
It’s happened 3 times just while typing this.
[doublepost=1515030766][/doublepost]If you’re reading this, and this is a problem for you, please go here and report it. I just did, maybe enough of us can “squeeky-wheel” this thing. https://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html
For anyone wondering, here is an example method of reproducing the problem:
- Type “in” or “on” with your right hand, very quickly.
Many words can trigger this behaviour, for me it’s words with two letters close together typed by the same hand... e.g. the pl in “play” does it.
***The root cause: try tapping two fingers together on the keyboard: It selects the previous words. If you keep tapping two fingers on the keyboard, it selects an even larger portion of what you just wrote... a whole sentence, or paragraph even. Not sure if this is a “feature”, but it’s definately something the keyborad does.
My suggestion to Apple would be, if they can’t tweak the touch behaviour to handle fast typing, then allow users to disable the two-fingers-to-drag/select feature entirely.
The rage I experience... as I’m taking fast notes on a lecture, deep in thought, and then this stupid behaviour wipes out my notes, then have to start violently shaking my iPad to get the undo modal... cannot be expressed.
It’s happened 3 times just while typing this.
[doublepost=1515030766][/doublepost]If you’re reading this, and this is a problem for you, please go here and report it. I just did, maybe enough of us can “squeeky-wheel” this thing. https://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html
Last edited:
Hello everyone: sad news, I just installed the iPadOS 13 Beta 1 and the highlight bug is still there. The swipe keyboard is not a solution because it only works with the mini floating keyboard.
I'm considering writing a sternly worded letter to the management.
I'm considering writing a sternly worded letter to the management.
So relieved to know I’m not going insane! I’m very fast at keyboarding and I keep accidentally deleting huge amounts of text over and over again! I’ve just about given up and have decided to get a Bluetooth keyboard.Hi guys. I'm going insane with a problem since upgrading to ios9, and I'd love to hear if anyone else is having the same issue.
Since updating to ios9 my iPad Air 2 keyboard has become almost useless thanks to the new tweaks. I type pretty quickly (though not crazy quick), and it seems that I'm typing with a technique that inadvertently selects and then overwrites huge tracts of texts as I write. The problem, it seems, is that I type at a speed that means that my index and middle fingers are often both touching keys at the same time, especially when I want to press two keys that are very close to each other.
The result of this is that as I type I accidentally activate this new cursor thing that allows users to easily select text. Sometimes it selects just one or two words and sometimes it's an entire paragraph, but because this is all happening so quickly I end up overwriting whatever I've selected before I have time to stop typing. It's infuriating.
This is a real problem because I'm an author, and I write all of my books using Pages. I'm terrified that my keyboard has now become a minefield, and if I set foot in the wrong place I'll destroy everything.
So, yeah, that's it. I'm just wondering if anyone else is having the same problem, and if there's any way to revert entirely to the old keyboard (or download a third party keyboard that doesn't have the new features). I'm a big fan of the rest of the update, but if my keyboard doesn't work the way it used to my iPad will be completely useless for work, and it'll be nothing more than a delivery system for porn and Facebook
Drives me crazy too... iPad Mini 4. It does just seem to be speed that is the issue... and because I am very confident that I am hitting the keys in the correct order, and in the right place, I am not looking at the screen and so don't notice until the text is deleted... often beyond recall by Undo.
Two more thoughts:
(1) My screen has been replaced and is probably a 3rd party one. I don't think that is linked, but I guess people might want to mention that when reporting this problem.
(2) I guess the problem is to distinguish between a double or triple tap to select text and actual keyboard touches. In the case of looking for double taps, obviously the exact location of the tap will not be the same, but I would have thought it should be possible to discriminate them from intentional typing of keys because they occur in the keyboard part of the screen, and are usually a moderately significant distance apart.
(1) My screen has been replaced and is probably a 3rd party one. I don't think that is linked, but I guess people might want to mention that when reporting this problem.
(2) I guess the problem is to distinguish between a double or triple tap to select text and actual keyboard touches. In the case of looking for double taps, obviously the exact location of the tap will not be the same, but I would have thought it should be possible to discriminate them from intentional typing of keys because they occur in the keyboard part of the screen, and are usually a moderately significant distance apart.
Screen replacement has nothing to do with it, this has been driving me crazy for years. There's an easy test that never fails: write something and then hit two letters close by very quickly (for example O and K with your middle and index finger): if you're quick enough it selects whatever you wrote just before, often going far back to the start pf the paragraph. I have looked and found no way to disable this.
Thanks for the confirmation... yes - that is exactly how I can reproduce the issue reliably. If I strike two characters near simultaneously then it selects the text - so long as they are within a distance of 4 keys. e.g. g & k will do it but not f & k.
I have concluded it is a 'feature' not a bug. Striking the keyboard with two fingers at the same time reliably selects the last word and double striking it with two fingers selects all the text.
Striking the keyboard with three fingers at the same time seems to call up the Undo/cut/copy/paste/redo dialog
(I am testing in Skype as that is where it often bites me when I am hurriedly banging off a reply to someone)
So what we desperately need is a setting in Settings-Accessibility-Touch to disable these 'features'. Some of us just type too fast for these to be helpful. (I don't use them anyway).
I have concluded it is a 'feature' not a bug. Striking the keyboard with two fingers at the same time reliably selects the last word and double striking it with two fingers selects all the text.
Striking the keyboard with three fingers at the same time seems to call up the Undo/cut/copy/paste/redo dialog
(I am testing in Skype as that is where it often bites me when I am hurriedly banging off a reply to someone)
So what we desperately need is a setting in Settings-Accessibility-Touch to disable these 'features'. Some of us just type too fast for these to be helpful. (I don't use them anyway).