I've been looking into an issue on Mac. I thought it was a failure with paste, that's certainly what it looks like if you're a VoiceOver user. But the problem is actually with VoiceOver itself. And it doesn't happen all the time. But here's what I experience.
While viewing a website, I decide to send the URL in an email message. I press Command+L to jump to the address bar. The URL is selected by default. I press Command+C to copy. I switch over to a mail message I'm composing and press Command+V. Through all this, VoiceOver feedback indicates everything is working normally.
But when I use my arrow keys to review the text in the message body, the pasted URL isn't read by VoiceOver. It's as if nothing was pasted.
Upon further investigation with the indispensable aid of my sighted spouse, the URL actually is being pasted. She can see it there just fine. So the problem appears to be that VoiceOver is not reading the pasted text.
And the really weird thing is, even after I stop and restart VoiceOver, it still won't read the pasted text.
It's not just a problem with the Mail app. I've seen the same behavior when pasting into TextEdit. And the problem isn't specific to pasting URLs either. It can sometimes happen when posting regular text.
Anyone else see anything like this?
Comments
I have recently been observing the same behavior
I'm seeing the same issue. It's rather annoying as I pasted in Amazon link for someone recently and it was like my focus was completely nonexistent. I finally got it kind of figured out but it never really read the whole link to me. I just had to trust it was there.
Didn't realize that was a bug
Oh wow, I thought I was losing my mind. I kept trying to paste terminal output into TextEdit with nothing getting pasted. I didn't even realize this was a bug. Looks like this'll be something to pass onto Apple Accessibility. It's happening for me on an m1 mac mini running 13.1
Possible workaround
Whew. I'm glad this isn't Yet Another Bug Only On Paul's Computer. LOL.
In Mail, if I go to Format, then Make Plain Text, suddenly I'm able to read the pasted URL with VoiceOver. I'm not sure if this is a fix for pasting into other apps. But it does make me wonder if the issue is somehow specific to pasting rich text content.
Share
Rather than going to the line to copy the link, simply vo space on the share button, arrow to mail, vo space, and proceed with emailing the link. If addressed to yourself, you will receive the email, and you will be able to both read the link and use it, or copy and paste it elsewhere if desired.
Joy!
Bruce
Re: Share
Yes, the Safari share option works great. But the more typical case is that you are already in the middle of composing an email to someone, then realize you need to include a website URL in the text of that message.
Absolutely
Yes, Paul, which is why I use command accent key to switch from the email I'm composing to the email I just received from myself that includes the link, and copy and paste it over. It's just a work around, but it does work. smile
What I do for copying URLS.
If there is a link anywhere in email or in a web page:
vo-shift-u
reads it; then immediately after:
vo-shift-c
saves last thing (the UrL just read out) to the clipboard,
and then you can command-v to put it anywhere you want it.
Hi The cause in mail appearsā¦
Hi
The cause in mail appears to be the new pretty formatting of links, I've noticed this as well. To see the pasted link, you have to interact with the text field in mail, then navigate using your VoiceOver cursor to the link in question, and even then you can't really edit the link.
I haven't noticed in any other apps, but I also use PurePaste to strip all formatting from pastes, so this might be why. I can highly recommend that app if you don't like smart paste in general
Best
Malthe
Brian
Great idea! I'm going to do vo shift u and vo shift c from now on.
Another workaround
After I copy the URL out of Safari and return to Mail, I select a few words of link text, press Command+K, and paste the URL into the link dialog. That turns the selected text into a link, and there are no issues with VoiceOver failing to read it. The downside is that this method hides the link, so it might not be suitable for all situations.
Hi, I can confirm thisā¦
Hi,
I can confirm this behavior. It seems to be present when pasting links within rich text content. The links seem to be formatted with an icon and a label or something similar. VoiceOver seems to have some problems with this new "Smart Paste" feature. I'd recoomend you to write to Apple Accessibility so they are aware of this issue.
What I'm doing meanwhile is writing the email message in a plain text (txt file using TextEdit. There, pasting links works perfectly fine. You can then copy all the text and paste it into a new mail.
It's not just pasting that has this problem either
hey,
Whilst I haven't seen this particular bug, VoiceOver and text at the moment is a little bit iffy.
Ever been reading something like Wikipedia for example using Safari? You will notice that sometimes, whole blocks of text are skipped by VoiceOver, it's as though they did not exist unless you arrow through and try and find them again.
I've not seen this behaviorā¦
I've not seen this behavior on Wikipedia yet, but I know what you mean. Sometimes I vo-arrow through a navigation menu and VoiceOver only reads some elements first when I arrow back with vo-left arrow. If I only navigated with vo-right arrow, I'd never know that the other menu items exist. Really strange. I've been encountering this behavior since Big Sur already. Fortunately, it occurs very rarely for me.
along the same lines
I've posted this before and gotten no answer. i'l be in the middle of reading any site, or doing something when out of nowhere the focus jumps to the toolbar. Very annoying. There's no rhyme or reason, it just happens.
This thread has nothing to do with Safari
We've gotten a little off topic here. This thread concerns pasting links into rich text clients, such as pasting into a Mail message body, then not being able to read the link with VoiceOver.
If you want to continue discussing Safari here, be my guest. But you might find a larger readership for your posts if you place them in a thread that actually relates to Safari.