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Why can't I copy from one window and paste in another window?

  • 4 replies
  • 21 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

sandyra
sandyra
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I open a window, am on an article and I want to copy a phrase from it and paste in onto another article in a different window. I cannot do that. I have a Mac and it's up to date. I don't know how to fix this. Can anyone help me? Thanks

I open a window, am on an article and I want to copy a phrase from it and paste in onto another article in a different window. I cannot do that. I have a Mac and it's up to date. I don't know how to fix this. Can anyone help me? Thanks

All Replies (4)

Wesley Branton
Wesley Branton
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You should be able to do so.

What specifically are you trying to copy and paste? (Text, link, hyperlink, etc.)

sandyra
sandyra Question owner
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Say I'm reading an article and looking for a piece of info about lamps. Okay? I have another window open to a comment section that I want to paste a paragraph from the lamp article to it. Switching from one window to another, the 'copied' info won't transfer to the new window. Why is that?

Wesley Branton
Wesley Branton
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Are you able to copy and paste the text from Firefox into a word processing program?

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

  • On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
  • Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

FirefoxSafeMode

Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode" Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

Please report back soon.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Normally you should also be able to drag text from one tab to another tab or window by hovering over the tab to make Firefox select this tab. I don't know if this works on Mac (should be working on Linux and Windows). If you hover over the Task bar entries of a different window on those platforms then this window opens on top. The text area where you want to drop the text should be visible though (you can't scroll a web page when you drag and drop text). Otherwise it should be working via the clipboard copy and paste.