Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

• Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Having restarted Firefox in Safe Mode and set the theme to DEFAULT, the issue persists. Further advice would be very much appreciated.

The most recent update to any active extension was made to AdBlock Plus this past Thursday, but, again, pasting content into Gmail is hampered whether in Safe Mode or no...

An interesting observation which I'm not entirely certain how to interpret:

Mail.Google.Com appears as a secure website when initially accessed, it remains a secure website is paste-able content is transferred to an email's body...

However, in those cases described where the content cannot be pasted, when an attempt is made the address bar lock icon becomes an exclamation mark and further investigation indicates that elements of the page are partially, rather than fully, encrypted.

I feel as though it is relevant to the issue at hand, but leave to you to make of it what you will.

Amendment: This is not the case for all content attempting to be pasted and seems to reflect image pasting (or non-pasting as the case is...).

Is this only a problem in GMail, or does it affect "rich text editors" more generally?

Rich text editors often use JavaScript to detect and clean up a paste. There is a setting to block websites from detecting when you copy or paste, which you could try as an experiment to see whether it makes any difference.

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste clip and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled preference to switch it from true to false. Or if it is already false, to switch it back to true.

You may need to reload Gmail (Ctrl+r) before that takes effect. Any difference?

(Documentation on this preference: dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled - Mozilla | MDN)

Actually, since you can copy some content, that earlier suggestion might not be relevant.

Is there any "identity" difference between the source Google/Youtube tab and the destination Gmail tab? What I mean is, are you logged in under the same Google account in both tabs?

The gray exclamation triangle is the mixed "display" content warning. Normally Firefox does not block insecure display content in a secure page; you would have to turn on that blocking in about:config (or perhaps an extension has done it). To double-check:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste mix and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If the security.mixed_content.block_display_content preference is bolded and user set to true, double-click it (or right-click > Reset it) to return it to its default value of false.

Modifying the values of both security.mixed_content.block_display_content and dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled appear to have no effect, unfortunately.

I've attempted a variety of scenarios with regards to user identity (pasting from outside my Gmail user identity, from within, between browsers), and the issue remains as it was.

An interesting observation about which I will attempt to post screenshots:

Using 'Pleasantville' as a search example, the content provided by Google appearing in the right column of the search results *will* paste (the formatting is unaligned, but nonetheless visible) into Gmail using Firefox, though the search results themselves will not. This is also the case for 'Recommended Channels' in YouTube...though, again, not the YouTube search results.

As there are links, images, and text in this right column (both these right columns, I suppose), I'm not entirely certain what differentiates it from the content that is not pasting.

I can't replicate this in my normal profile but when I go into Safe Mode, then I see a problem. I selected 3 results and when I pasted, nothing. If I paste into a reply here, it works.

On Yahoo mail, similarly, pasting into the message area is ignored. If I paste into the subject line, the text of the copied selection appears there (unformatted). Hmm...

When I look at the selection using the Clipboard Inspector (old freeware I got somwhere) it seems normal:

Version:0.9
StartHTML:00000172
EndHTML:00003662
StartFragment:00000206
EndFragment:00003626
SourceURL:https://www.google.com/search?q=pleasantville&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
<html><body>
<!--StartFragment--><h3 class="r"><a href="http://www.pleasantville-ny.gov/Public_Documents/index" onmousedown="return rwt(this,'','','','4','AFQjCNHTdpywfAqERNKdnTx1HqHZP_ckmQ','pWQmbiTzg53g4M-LkCJ7mw','0CDoQFjAD','','',event)">Welcome to Pleasantville, NY</a></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><cite class="_Rm">www.<b>pleasantville</b>-ny.gov/Public_Documents/index</cite></div></div></div><li class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="57"><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><div class="crc"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:3;ri:;site:pleasantville-ny.gov" data-async-trigger="cra-3-filled" jsaction="crd.tglpop" data-ved="0CD4Q5CswAw">Pleasantville<span class="_Bs"></span></div></div></div><div class="f slp"></div><span class="st">Welcome to the official website for the Village of <em>Pleasantville</em>, connecting you with your government and your community. In these pages, we have sought to ...</span></div></div></div></li><li class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="63"><h3 class="r"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pleasantville-Tobey-Maguire/dp/6305308659" onmousedown="return rwt(this,'','','','5','AFQjCNEdI7i5n4c7ntLfj2iD5YLB48-2SQ','HCAJLwK-D5_ZleIIYZ96zw','0CEAQFjAE','','',event)">Amazon.com: Pleasantville: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels ...</a></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><cite class="_Rm bc">www.amazon.com › ... › New Line Platinum Series</cite></div></div></div></div></li><li class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="63"><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><div class="crc"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:4;ri:;site:amazon.com" data-async-trigger="cra-4-filled" jsaction="crd.tglpop" data-ved="0CEUQ5CswBA">Amazon.com, Inc.<span class="_Bs"></span></div></div></div><div class="f slp"></div><span class="st">Amazon.com: <em>Pleasantville</em>: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, J.T. Walsh, Don Knotts, Marley Shelton, Jane ...</span></div></div></div></li><li class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="70"><h3 class="r"><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pleasantville/" onmousedown="return rwt(this,'','','','6','AFQjCNHq_yqALcaMABpTeXfUnWgRV6_3kg','2nkV-3uGozOazCH4I4Dx5Q','0CEcQFjAF','','',event)">Pleasantville - Rotten Tomatoes</a></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><cite class="_Rm">www.rottentomatoes.com/m/<b>pleasantville</b>/</cite></div></div></div></div></li><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><div class="crc"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:5;ri:;site:rottentomatoes.com" data-async-trigger="cra-5-filled" jsaction="crd.tglpop" data-ved="0CEwQ5CswBQ">Rotten Tomatoes<span class="_Bs"></span></div></div></div><div class="f slp"><g-reviewstars><span class="csb" style="display:inline-block;position:relative;top:1px;background:url(/images/nav_logo195_hr.png) no-repeat -100px -260px;background-size:167px;height:13px;width:65px"><span class="csb" style="background:url(/images/nav_logo195_hr.png) no-repeat -100px -275px;background-size:167px;height:13px;width:52px"></span></span></g-reviewstars> Rating: 85% - ‎93 votes</div><span class="st">Critics Consensus: Filled with lighthearted humor, timely social commentary, and dazzling visuals, <em>Pleasantville</em> is an artful blend of subversive satire and ...</span><!--EndFragment-->
</body>
</html>

So I'm not sure what is going on here.

Okay, I think I see the problem, and it's based on how you make your selection. Since what is happening is invisible, it's actually difficult to correct for this.

In my earlier example and the attached screen shots, the problem is a missing list element tag (the tag responsible for numbering the results when you paste) at the beginning. If I intentionally start selecting at the end of the previous result and before the beginning of the one I want, Firefox does capture the list element tag and everything works fine when I paste into Gmail.

But if I'm selecting a single result, especially the first result on the page, it works better to carefully select from the end to the beginning. To copy all results, I have to make two separate copy/pastes. Annoying.

I'm not sure whether the complexity of the Google results page is aggravating this problem, or whether a change in Firefox has made it harder. Very strange.

I'll not mark this as a solution, though this seems as near to identifying the root of the problem as we've thus far come.

I did the same, and it does, indeed, paste when the selection is made just so (likewise the case for results of searches in YouTube, though 'Recommended' videos on the homepage will not paste).

You achieved this through use of Safe Mode, yes? How might I configure my profile to nearer match yours and thus remedy the problem?

Also, what might have caused this issue to begin this past Thursday when I'd no concerns cutting and pasting into Gmail before that time? I realise designers are constantly making adjustments, though it would seem as though this issue would be wider-spread and have had more reports since the 15th...

Regarding Safe Mode: that's when I was able to reproduce the problem, I didn't have the problem in normal mode. One of my extensions may be working around this issue somehow, but it would be time-consuming to investigate since I have a bunch of them...

Extensions

Name: Adobe Acrobat - Create PDF Version: 2.0

Name: Clippings Version: 4.1.2

Name: DOM Inspector Version: 2.0.15

Name: FireFTP Version: 2.0.22

Name: FireShot Version: 0.98.64

Name: Font Information Version: 0.3.1

Name: Greasemonkey Version: 2.3 and various userscripts that affect Google

Name: keyconfig Version: 20110522

Name: LogMeIn, Inc. Remote Access Plugin Version: 1.0.0.1091

Name: NoScript Version: 2.6.9.10

Name: Print pages to PDF Version: 0.1.9.3

Name: SQLite Manager Version: 0.8.1

Name: Stylish Version: 2.0.0

Name: Troubleshooter Version: 1.1a

Name: ua-site-switch Version: 0.9

Name: Web Developer Version: 1.2.5

Regarding the timing: Firefox 35 just started rolling out recently. Perhaps the way HTML tags are selected has been tweaked in this version?

We've isolated the culprit it seems, and it's entirely to do with adjustment made in Firefox 35. I reverted to version 34.0.5, and all copying and pasting issue are resolved...

I've for the moment decided to continue to run this previous version and deactivated auto-updates; perhaps one of there developers will see this thread and address the issue, but in the interim I'll keep what functions best.

Humbly I would ask that anyone in a position to address this in subsequent updates to Firefox do so. I was quite nearly on the verge of discontinuing use of Firefox, which would be no great tragedy, though as certain as it is that Solving 1 issue helps up to 1,000 users a day! so to does causing one issue aggravate up to 1,000 users a day.

I filed a bug report: 1123505 – Unbalanced tags in copied selection breaks pasting into rich text editors. Hopefully whatever it is will be fixed in Firefox 36.

Thank you, you've been tremendously helpful and were it not for your closer investigation a solution would likely have been long in coming.

I would have credited you for the solution were it not for its potentially seeming a bit unclear and convoluted to users with similar issues if not stating outright that it was a fault in the programming of 35.0.0.

Again thank you for your attention and reporting the bug...

No worries on giving credit. Let's see what they come up with on this.

ABrummitt81 said

As of this past Thursday, I am unable to paste the vast majority of content copied from the internet into the body of emails composed in my Gmail account. This is not exclusive to, but seems consistently to be the case when attempting to copy Google-related content (search results, YouTube content, images, and so forth). I am able to perform this function using Chrome, though for a variety of reasons Firefox is my preferred browser, and I would as soon not have to alternate between the two. To my knowledge, no updates have been made that would correspond to or be potentially responsible for this issue. I've seen similar issues reported on other forums, but none more current than six month's past (either they have not been recently reported or this is an issue particular to me, it seems). In these forums there are suggestions made in the way of modifying scripts, but I would as soon avoid that if possible as it is clear that it my cause my computer to become vulnerable to security invasions. Not that this issue isn't fairly direct in my reporting it, though the accompanying screenshots illustrate my (1.) copying search results from Google and (2.) a comparison between the results attempting to paste the same content in Chrome and Firefox. [Amendment: The images appear to not be properly uploading, but may well not be essential...] It should be noted that this is the case whether using the drop-down right-click menu, keyboard shortcuts (ctrl+C/ctrl+V), or the in-window menu...

I cringe everytime I install a Firefox "update" because without fail it screws something up. I have this problem also. How do I go back to another version? Do I have to uninstall this one and reinstall another? This is a real pain - WHY FIX things with stuff that makes it worse. I've lost other stuff from your handy dandy updates and i'm not at all happy I've seen tech notes that Firefox plans to intall updates whether the user agrees or not. I think that's what happened to my stuff that was deleted.

Firefox is always coming up with new updates to install - why isn't it working on a fix for this to include in their new update.

I've switched for the most part to another browser because I'm tired of always haveing to fix things after FIREFOX "adjusts" my system to suit themselves.

jscher2000 said

Regarding Safe Mode: that's when I was able to reproduce the problem, I didn't have the problem in normal mode. One of my extensions may be working around this issue somehow, but it would be time-consuming to investigate since I have a bunch of them... Extensions

---

Name: Adobe Acrobat - Create PDF Version: 2.0

Name: Clippings Version: 4.1.2

Name: DOM Inspector Version: 2.0.15

Name: FireFTP Version: 2.0.22

Name: FireShot Version: 0.98.64

Name: Font Information Version: 0.3.1

Name: Greasemonkey Version: 2.3 and various userscripts that affect Google

Name: keyconfig Version: 20110522

Name: LogMeIn, Inc. Remote Access Plugin Version: 1.0.0.1091

Name: NoScript Version: 2.6.9.10

Name: Print pages to PDF Version: 0.1.9.3

Name: SQLite Manager Version: 0.8.1

Name: Stylish Version: 2.0.0

Name: Troubleshooter Version: 1.1a

Name: ua-site-switch Version: 0.9

Name: Web Developer Version: 1.2.5

---

Regarding the timing: Firefox 35 just started rolling out recently. Perhaps the way HTML tags are selected has been tweaked in this version?

This is a whole lot of inconvenience due to Firefox lates update FIXES - I don't think they are for security I think they are to add adjustments that will help advertisers have access to our computers.

Hi All, this bug should be fixed in Firefox 37. As you may know, Firefox 36 was just released and Firefox 37 is scheduled for release in 6 weeks.

If this bug is a major problem for you, you could consider using the "Beta" version of Firefox 37, which is still in testing. You can learn more about it here: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/channel/#beta

When switching between versions of Firefox, it's a good idea to make a backup of all your personal data (e.g., bookmarks, passwords, add-ons, etc.). This article has suggestions on how to do that: Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Hi kcsummer111, Firefox is updated every six weeks to include both security fixes and feature changes. The idea is to keep pushing the web forwards with new capabilities. But yes, bugs happen when there are changes.

I looked at some of your recent question and wonder whether you might have used the Refresh/Reset feature? Sometimes Firefox will post a note at the bottom of the window saying it is running or starting slowly and has a button to use that feature. This clears a lot of settings which can cause performance issues but which you may want to keep. In that case, an "Old Firefox Data" folder should appear on your desktop. If you look inside that folder, there should be a semi-randomly-named folder with all your old settings. If that exists and you want to revert to the old folder, it's possible. For example: FireFox deleted my addons and extensions. How do I get them back?