Replacing highlighted text creates a backwards jumble of letters

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Level 1

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Replacing highlighted text creates a backwards jumble of letters

I started noticing about a month ago (may have coincided with an OS update but I can't be sure) that when I highlight text and then type new text (in order to replace the highlighted text), I get strange behavior. The new text I'm typing ends up in a jumbled order with the letters of my new words in reverse order from how I've typed them. Or also sometimes more words than just the ones I've highlighted get replaced. This is only an issue when I select text to highlight by clicking & dragging, NOT when I simply highlight one word by double-clicking, and also NOT when I take the extra step to delete the highlighted text before typing my new text. And then often when I command-z to undo the jumbled mess of letters, the cursor then moves itself to a random new spot in the text. This makes typing emails (or obviously anything) extremely aggravating, because making fixes to my already typed text now requires highlighting, then deleting, then typing my new text.

I've restarted in safe mode (issue persists) and also reinstalled OS ventura (issue persists). I'm at the apple store genius bar and after running diagnostics the tech guy here says I don't have a hardware issue with my trackpad. He's suggesting it's an issue with the fact that I'm in a non-native to apple environment (running gmail on chrome) and that it could just be a bug in the chrome or gmail software. I've googled the issue and can't seem to find anyone else having the same problem. I'm also having the issue right now in this discussions.apple.com forum while typing up this very body of text--in other words it's not an issue with how my system interacts with gmail software. Just tested and I get the same issue when typing emails on gmail.com via safari.

Anybody else encountering the same or similar issues?? I'd even be happy with a workaround fix for now, like switching to a different browser (but obviously I tried that and it's not working). Arghhhhhh. Any insight or commiseration greatly welcomed :)

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Mar 21, 2023 12:34 PM

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Answer 1

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halfiejules Author

Level 1

12 points

Mar 22, 2023 09:56 AM in response to Old Toad

Thank you Old Toad!! Very helpful questions and suggestions. The problem occurs whenever I enter text into any browser (well actually I only tried chrome and safari), and working within browsers is most of the writing of text that I do on my computer. The problem does not occur in Notes, Reminders, Pages, Stickies or TextEdit which are all obviously native Apple apps. The problem also doesn't occur in Discord, Slack or Line, all non-native apps. So it seems like this problem is (mostly?) confined to just writing text within browsers.

I did set up a new admin user and tested all of the above apps, and was getting the same issues.

HOWEVER I do think I seem to have isolated the problem. As I was digging through various menus/settings, I went into:

System Settings > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options

I've always had "Use trackpad for dragging" turned on (my chosen dragging style is "Three Finger Drag"), so that I don't ever have to engage the physical trackpad button to click & drag. I realized that this three finger drag to highlight text is what is causing my replaced text to come out haywire. And I also realized that it's only when I drag text from right to left, not when I drag left to right!!

So, can I conclude that this seems to be a bug in Apple's Accessibility coding?? And then what, I just have to wait for them to find and fix this bug? And meanwhile stop highlighting text using the three finger drag, and instead do the old fashioned click and drag, until this issue is resolved?

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

214,296 points

Mar 21, 2023 12:52 PM in response to halfiejules

Why apps does this problem occur in?

When you reinstalled Ventura did you migrate or keep your user data?

Create and log into a new, basic, admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac, and see if the problem persists. This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide.

Note: do not launch any 3rd party apps in the account so as to not install any of the supporting files that most create.

If the problem isn't present then your original account has software installed that is causing the problem.

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Replacing highlighted text creates a backwards jumble of letters

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