Text containing colon turns lowercase when cut out and pasted back (iOS/iPadOS)

[dreikelvin]

I discovered a weird thing. Well actually, it has been bugging me for at least a year and a half. Do this:

1. Write a random string into a search field in your browser app, like HelloTest:12345 - make sure the letters before the colon are mixed upper case

2. Cut out that whole string and paste it back into that input field

3. The pasted string now looks like this: hellotest:12345 (notice the first part of the string now being lowercase)

I use a password manager from where I copy/paste my encrypted passwords. It happens a lot that some of my passwords contain the colon in the middle of the string rather than at the end - I can't really control this, the passwords are sometimes random generated using the password app which places the characters anywhere, really. This behavior described above turns most of my entered passwords useless and I am consistently met with login errors in various apps and websites. Very annoying.

Is this intended behavior? Or have I just unknowingly discovered an iOS bug nobody even cares about?

 

[chabig]

I think it’s because that colon makes it look like

username:password

Put quotes around it and it preserves case.

 

[dreikelvin]

why would you need that kind of functionality on your phone?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I’m not seeing this behavior on my iPhone. Copy/paste “TestWord:12345” isn’t changing letter case.

What language is your phone set to use?

 

[dreikelvin]

it's set to german but I've had this occur on someone's phone set to dutch and italian as well

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Hmm. Well, it’s not happening with my iPhone 15 Pro iOS 17.4 set to USA English. Also not happening on my iPad mini 6, iPadOS 17.4.

It certainly could be a bug. Just need to isolate where & when it happens. Have you tested iPad? I put my text in Notes.app and copied it there, then pasted into Safari.app. Check various apps too.

 

[dreikelvin]

iOS & iPadOS 17.4.1 have this issue

 

[Slartibart]

iPadOS 17.4 (21E219), german, spanish, swedish keyboard languages: no such behaviour.

 

[gwhizkids]

iOS & iPadOS 17.4.1 have this issue

There is no iOS or iPadOS 17.4.1 in the wild presently.

 

[dreikelvin]

sorry, my mistake. I have 17.4 installed on my iphone and ipad. but the issue exists for at least a year and a half

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Sound likely that this is caused by 3rd party software on your devices.

 

[UliBaer]

Could it be, this is misinterpreted somehow as an URL?
For example

thisissomeurl:portnumber

?

 

[Dann3]

I can reproduce this on my iPhone and iPad. Copied from Notes into “search” and “user name” fields on different sites in Safari, Google and Chrome.
Swedish language. No 3rd party apps.

 

[Slartibart]

What happens when you temporarily turn off/log off from your password manager (which?)?

 

[dreikelvin]

no third party app. I tested this on 4 different devices, 2 are phones of colleagues in different countries. also, when I do this exclusively inside the Notes app and just re-paste the string there, it remains unchanged.

it can't be detected as a "URL" if it is just a plain text field. (and again why would you need this functionality there?)

speaking of which, it appears this behaviour is limited around text input fields rendered using webkit - meaning you can try this in safari, duckduckgo and firefox on iOS

 

[dreikelvin]

What happens when you temporarily turn off/log off from your password manager (which?)?

KeepPass Touch doesn't run as a service in the background, it is a simple app that just authenticates you and decrypts a keepass file stored locally.

As I said, I asked 2 friends with iPhones who don't use this app at all and they were able to reproduce it...

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Please post detailed steps to reproduce… example

- open Safari
- Go to webpage (whatever)
- select text field (whatever)
- type text “(whatever)”
- select text & “copy”
- select field (whatever) [or new tab or new webpage etc]
- paste text
- result is “(whatever)”

I’m will to believe you’ve found a bug - but so far it’s not easily reproducible.

 

[dreikelvin]

Please post detailed steps to reproduce… example

- open Safari
- Go to webpage (whatever)
- select text field (whatever)
- type text “(whatever)”
- select text & “copy”
- select field (whatever) [or new tab or new webpage etc]
- paste text
- result is “(whatever)”

I’m will to believe you’ve found a bug - but so far it’s not easily reproducible.

it is as straightforward as it gets. I even attached a video...

if you have nothing to add to this discussion, then please just don't comment here. I made this thread so someone who has the same issue and googles it can find this thread and hopefully find a solution.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

it is as straightforward as it gets. I even attached a video...

if you have nothing to add to this discussion, then please just don't comment here. I made this thread so someone who has the same issue and googles it can find this thread and hopefully find a solution.

Yes, I saw your video. Can’t tell what app you’re in -I can see you’re on Google but not much else. I tried to reproduce from that and got different results. So either you’re dealing with an app/location/language that I’m not, or some other factor on you phone or Apple ID or ??? Is causing the issue. @Dann3 can reproduce it, @Slartibart and I cannot.

If you don’t want help, perhaps YOU should not post.

 

[Dann3]

Please post detailed steps to reproduce… example

- open Safari
- Go to webpage (whatever)
- select text field (whatever)
- type text “(whatever)”
- select text & “copy”
- select field (whatever) [or new tab or new webpage etc]
- paste text
- result is “(whatever)”

I’m will to believe you’ve found a bug - but so far it’s not easily reproducible.

I reported it to Apple feedback if that has any effect.

This is how I reproduced it:

- Open Notes and write:
TestTest:Test
- Copy it
- Open Safari and browse to www.google.com
- Paste the string into Google’s search field (not the url field)

The result should be testtest:Test

 

[dreikelvin]

Yes, I saw your video. Can’t tell what app you’re in -I can see you’re on Google but not much else. I tried to reproduce from that and got different results. So either you’re dealing with an app/location/language that I’m not, or some other factor on you phone or Apple ID or ??? Is causing the issue. @Dann3 can reproduce it, @Slartibart and I cannot.

If you don’t want help, perhaps YOU should not post.

I am here to investigate with fellow iOS users. All the necessary info to reproduce this problem can be found in post #1
in the video you can see that I am on google's main page. It doesn't get any easier than that. If you open a website on an iOS/iPadOS device, then you're just opening a webkit view, no matter what app - so it doesn't matter, really.

Please try to keep this conversation here civil or I will have to report you 🙏

 

[dreikelvin]

I reported it to Apple feedback if that has any effect.

This is how I reproduced it:

- Open Notes and write:
TestTest:Test
- Copy it
- Open Safari and browse to www.google.com
- Paste the string into Google’s search field (not the url field)

The result should be testtest:Test

Yes, I did so too! If they see this pop up in their system more frequently, then hopefully something will be done about it...thanks!

 

[MacCheetah3]

That is strange.

The fact it doesn’t happen in the URL bar is even weirder. 😄

speaking of which, it appears this behaviour is limited around text input fields rendered using webkit - meaning you can try this in safari, duckduckgo and firefox on iOS

I’m thinking WebKit bug too. I didn’t try different iOS Web browsers but different pages and different input fields.

when I do this exclusively inside the Notes app and just re-paste the string there, it remains unchanged.

Indeed, it’s not a Clipboard or other problem. No text modification when pasting across other apps that I can see, including via Universal Clipboard.

Please post detailed steps to reproduce… example

- open Safari
- Go to webpage (whatever)
- select text field (whatever)
- type text “(whatever)”
- select text & “copy”
- select field (whatever) [or new tab or new webpage etc]
- paste text
- result is “(whatever)”

I’m will to believe you’ve found a bug - but so far it’s not easily reproducible.

Yes, I saw your video. Can’t tell what app you’re in -I can see you’re on Google but not much else.

I used Pages and Safari

 

[dreikelvin]

I was able to reproduce it on Mac OS Sonoma using an iPad version of "Snowbunny Private Web Browser" which runs via Webkit as well.

 

[Tagbert]

I was able to reproduce it on Mac OS Sonoma using an iPad version of "Snowbunny Private Web Browser" which runs via Webkit as well.

Have you tried without using Safari to help isolate the problem?
Copy your colon text and paste it into Notes to see if the same thing is happening.