Can't Paste when running Webroot Identity Shield

[RonGit]

I'm really hesitant to enter this cuz no one else seems to be having the problem so the problem must be limited to my system. Or me!

*** I can't PASTE anything inside Brackets. ***

I can copy from Brackets and paste to an external editor but I can't copy/paste from Brackets to Brackets or from external to Brackets. No message or blank line or any indication that there is a problem; no reaction at all when I Ctrl+V.

I'm using Windows 8 Pro and what I think is the latest Brackets download: sprint 18 experimental build 0.18.0-5070 (master ad670de)

Any hints would be much appreciated.

... Ron

[njx]

Very weird. @joelrbrandt mentioned recently that he'd had intermittent problems with Copy...Joel, is it possible that your problems were actually with Paste? (i.e., maybe the copy worked but the paste was failing?)

@RonGit -- can you try using Debug > Show Developer Tools to open a dev tools window in Chrome, then try doing a copy/paste in Brackets and see if you get any exceptions in the console? (If there are any exceptions, there will be a red error icon in the lower right-hand corner of the dev tools window that you can click on to pop open the console if it's not open already.)

[RonGit]

Thanks for your input. I discovered something by accident: Paste in Brackets is not working for me as long as a browser window is open. So when Chrome is open (Live Preview), paste doesn't work. Close Chrome and paste works again. Open Opera or IE, paste doesn't work; close them and paste works again. This is unfortunately not a consistent recipe since after repeating this procedure multiple times with several browsers, paste (in Brackets) is now not working at all even after restarting Brackets. But maybe there's a clue there somewhere.

 
I then carried out your Show Developer Tools test. Again paste didn't work but I did get an error icon with these msgs -- looks like something is not being loaded correctly but don't know what to do about it. Thanks for your help.less: parsed file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Brackets%20Sprint%2018/www/styles/brackets.less successfully. less-1.3.0.min.js:8
less: css for file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Brackets%20Sprint%2018/www/styles/brackets.less generated in 312ms less-1.3.0.min.js:8
less: css generated in 312ms less-1.3.0.min.js:8
Failed to load resource file:///C:/Users/Ron/AppData/Roaming/Brackets/extensions/user/brackets-formatter-extension-master/main.js
[Extension] failed to load C:/Users/Ron/AppData/Roaming/Brackets/extensions/user/brackets-formatter-extension-master
Error
 /C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Brackets%20Sprint%2018/www/utils/ExtensionLoader.js:103
 

 

 

Very weird. @joelrbrandt mentioned recently that he'd had
intermittent problems with Copy...Joel, is it possible that your
problems were actually with Paste? (i.e., maybe the copy worked but
the paste was failing?)

@RonGit -- can you try using Debug > Show Developer Tools to open a
dev tools window in Chrome, then try doing a copy/paste in Brackets
and see if you get any exceptions in the console? (If there are any
exceptions, there will be a red error icon in the lower right-hand
corner of the dev tools window.)

='1'>

[RonGit]

BTW, I just tried removing all of the Bracket extensions and rebooting but that didn't help. Back to the situation where I can't paste if a browser is open. Interestingly, and as expected I guess, the clipboard contents are retained between browser openings. So with no browser open, if I copy and paste it works. Open browser and paste doesn't work. Close browser and paste works again with the info from the original copy.

[joelrbrandt]

@njx That's an interesting question. The behavior I noticed was:

1. Select n lines, hit command-c (I'm on a mac)
2. Choose a new location in the file, hit command-v
3. m of the n lines I originally selected are pasted for 1 <= m < n

I haven't been able to reproduce it since the standup where I asked about the issue. Next time it happens, I'll try things like pasting into an external editor. However, I believe that last time it happened, I tried pasting again into Brackets (many times) and always got the exact same m lines.

[njx]

@RonGit: that's utterly disturbing. I wonder if it's some Windows 8-specific clipboard behavior.

Since Brackets is just built on Chromium, I'm not sure why we would be any different from the browser. This is a total shot in the dark, but if you have both Chrome and IE open, does copy/paste work properly inside of Chrome? (It's also conceivable that there's some bug that's in our version of Chromium that was fixed later on, since we're a few months behind.)

[njx]

@gruehle to take a look in his Win 8 VM.

[gruehle]

I tried my Win8 VM and everything worked fine. I can copy/paste within Brackets and between an external app and Brackets. I tried with Chrome and IE open in the background.

@RonGit - Are you running the browsers in Desktop mode or Windows 8 mode? I'm running in Desktop mode.

[RonGit]

@njx: With both IE and Chrome open, yes -- copy/paste works in Chrome as expected (not in Brackets). On the off chance that it had something to do with Win8Pro, I also installed Brackets on my laptop which is running Win 8 but not the Pro version. No changes though; still can't paste inside Brackets when a browser is open.

Don't suppose the fact that both machines are 64 bit has anything to do with it?

@gruehle: I'm running them in Desktop mode. But for kicks I changed Chrome to run in the-mode-that-shall-not-be-called-Metro but that made no difference.

[njx]

As a wise man once said, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

[jbalsas]

I think I've hit something similar to what @joelrbrandt explains. I can reproduce it in MacOSX 10.7.4 by doing:

• Open http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.8.3.min.js in the browser
• Press Cmd+A to select all the text, and then copy it
• Paste it in an empty file in Brackets

Only about a quarter of the whole file gets pasted, and no errors or warnings on the console.

[gruehle]

I'm running 64 bit Win 8 Enterprise, on a VM (using VMWare on my mac). I tried both Admin and Standard accounts, and both worked fine.

@RonGit - Do you have any restrictive security settings on your machine(s)? Do you have other apps or services running that may be interfering with keyboard shortcuts? If you google "paste not working windows 8" there are quite a few hits of people running into similar problems with other apps.

[RonGit]

@gruehle: Don't think there are any security settings and no apps/services that are interfering. The keyboard shortcuts work in other programs and I use them all the time. Went through a couple pages of the google you suggested but didn't find anything exactly comparable. Most were about pasting problems in a specific program (e.g., FoxPro) or in Remote Desktop or a VM. As with most of these problems there were replies from people saying they had no problems.

That does bring up a good point though. It seems pretty likely this problem is only on my machines but can we confirm that? Is there anyone following this thread who runs Windows 8 on a Windows PC and for whom Paste works correctly in Brackets?

[gruehle]

@RonGit - Thanks, I put a note on the brackets-dev google group to see if others are having the same problem.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/brackets-dev/g47TMbGnMog

[JTBrinkmann]

I have no problems on Windows 8 Pro using Sprint18 experimental build 0.18.0-5070 (master ad670de)
Pasting works just as expected.

Maybe @RonGit 's problem is related to an extension

[RonGit]

@JTBrinkmann : Thanks for letting me know. As expected, it's me!! Still have the problem even after removing all extensions and extraneous system startups. But since pasting seems to be blocked only when when I have a browser open, the work-around is pretty clear and not a terrible ordeal. If I ever stumble onto what the real cause is, I'll report back.

[peterflynn]

Works for me with tip of the tree (mid-sprint-19, circa this past weekend) on Windows 8 standard (not Pro). Here's what I tried:

1. Launch Brackets, open index.html in the 'Getting Started' project
2. Paste in from existing externally-copied clipboard
3. Go to another app and copy again
4. Paste into Brackets again
5. Copy within Brackets & paste elsewhere in Brackets
6. Launch Chrome
7. Repeat steps 2-5
8. Launch Live Development
9. Repeat steps 2-5
10. Quite & restart Brackets, leaving Chrome open
11. Repeat steps 2-5

In all cases, it works fine. (I also had Firefox open in the background for the entire duration of this testing). This is a pretty new PC, so it doesn't have a ton of third-party apps installed on it yet though...

@RonGit: can you try these two things?

• Make sure both of your extensions folders are empty: the folder shown when you choose Help > Show Extensions Folder, and the one at <install_dir>\www\extensions\dev.
• Close Brackets, then erase or temporarily move your cache folder, then reopen Brackets.

[RonGit]

@peterflynn : Sorry, Peter -- still no joy. The extensions folder at ...extensions\dev was already empty (except for a ReadMe file) and the other one I emptied yesterday. Renamed the cache folder and reopened Brackets but still can't paste. The difference this time was that I couldn't paste even when no browser window was open until I rebooted the system (don't know the significance of this). But after rebooting I'm back to the normal situation in which I can copy any time but cannot paste (into Brackets) when a browser window is open.

Just noticed that you're using Sprint 19 and don't think I have access to that yet -- maybe it'll make the difference?!

[peterflynn]

@RonGit: it sounds like you might have a 3rd-party app -- maybe a browser plugin -- that is interfering with the clipboard somehow. Here are some other diagnostic ideas:

• Quit Chrome (verify that no chrome.exe processes remain in Task Manager), then launch it from the command line with --disable-extensions --disable-plugins. Does that fix it? If not...
• Quit Chrome and launch it normally. Go to http://codemirror.net/demo/theme.html. Does paste work there in the browser? If so...
• Launch Brackets, open developer tools, and type in window.location = "http://codemirror.net/demo/theme.html". This will replace the Brackets UI with the same webpage. Does paste work there?

[RonGit]

@peterflynn -- no luck with those suggestions -- not using Chrome extensions/plug-ins and pasting was still blocked with the codemirror test.

BUT (ta da!)

I think I've found the problem -- it's my firewall. Yesterday I tried disabling all my startups but the no-paste-in-Brackets problem still continued. Realized today that I had not turned off the firewall so today did that and sure 'nuff with the firewall off I was able to paste into Brackets even with all three browsers open.

I'm using Webroot so temporarily changed the firewall settings to alert me at the smallest provocation and with a browser open, as soon as I tried to paste inside Brackets I got a "This file is trying to read protected clipboard contents" error. Only get this msg pasting into Brackets and not into anything else. And have no idea what protected clipboard contents are but I'll bet you guys do!

[peterflynn]

Never heard the phrase "protected clipboard contents" before, and Google turns up almost nothing too. What firewall app are you using?

Also, with the firewall on, do either of the two http://codemirror.net/demo/theme.html tests above work?

One other test you can try: download Edge Code, the Adobe-branded version of Brackets, and see if the same problem occurs there. One difference is that the binaries are all digitally signed, which might make antivirus/firewall apps happier.

[RonGit]

@peterflynn - Yeah, the only references I found were for Java. Anyway, since I adjusted my firewall (Webroot) the problem has been resolved and Paste is working as expected. I'm adding this to the millions of other things in the category "I don't know why it works, but it works" and am moving on. Thanks for your help.

[peterflynn]

No problem -- glad to hear it got figured out!

[khrome83]

Webroot has this problem with several text editors.

[lawrencepn]

I had the same issue, shut-down Webroot and problem was solved. Thanks for all the trouble and feedback.

[peterflynn]

I've filed a ticket with the Webroot team as suggested on their support page about copy/paste problems. Hopefully they'll be able to get Brackets off the 'unknown' list that gets automatically blacklisted by Webroot.

Btw -- that article also indicates some safer workarounds, short of disabling all of Webroot. Fyi if you're running into this problem.

[ryanstewart]

@peterflynn did you also mention Edge Code in that request or should I make a separate one?

[peterflynn]

@RonGit @lawrencepn @khrome83 I've heard back from Webroot that they've removed the Brackets processes from their "unknown" list. Can you let me know if it's working now?

Note: they said you may need to do a clean uninstall & reinstall of Webroot for this to take effect. If your copy of Webroot is fully up to date and you're still unable to paste, can you try reinstalling to see if that fixes it? Here's a condensed version of their instructions...

Warning: uninstalling and reinstalling may reset any program settings you have personalized, including those for Backup & Sync. Please make sure to check your settings and adjust them as necessary after reinstalling.
(pf: sounds like a drag, so hopefully your already-installed copy will just pick up the update and you won't have to do these steps...)

1. Uninstall using the standard Windows mechanism
2. Restart your computer
3. Open a new Windows folder view and set the address bar to %PROGRAMDATA%
4. Look for a WRData folder. If present, rename it to WRData1
5. Download & install the latest version of Webroot: http://anywhere.webrootcloudav.com/zerol/wsainstall.exe
6. If asked "Would you like to automatically import the settings that were used in your previous installation?", click No.

[peterflynn]

@ryanstewart Good catch! I forgot to mention it initially but I just pinged them to ask that they include Edge Code too.

[ryanstewart]

@peterflynn did Edge Code get included in that update? Or do I need to make a separate request?

[ryanstewart]

Whoops, commented at the same time. Thanks Peter!

[RonGit]

Works fine for me. In a few days I’ll be attempting to build a brand new system so will try it then working from a fresh install of Webroot (if I survive the ordeal).

… Ron

From: Peter Flynn [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2013 5:20 PM
To: adobe/brackets
Cc: RonGit
Subject: Re: [brackets] Can't Paste when running Webroot Identity Shield (#2531)

@RonGit https://github.com/RonGit @lawrencepn https://github.com/lawrencepn @khrome83 https://github.com/khrome83 I've heard back from Webroot that they've removed the Brackets processes from their "unknown" list. Can you let me know if it's working now?

Note: they said you may need to do a clean uninstall & reinstall of Webroot for this to take effect. If your copy of Webroot is fully up to date and you're still unable to paste, can you try reinstalling to see if that fixes it? Here's a condensed version of their instructions...

[snip]

[peterflynn]

Thanks for the confirmation @RonGit!

[jlw-spqr]

It's 2015 and this issue still exists so I figured I'd reply to everyone on how to fix it.
Scenario: Unable to Copy / Paste in Lighttable or Brackets.io & your system has Webroot SecureAnywhere installed and active.

How to restore copy/paste functionality to Lighttable & Brackets.io without uninstalling WebRoot.

1. Open the webroot UI
2. Select configuration under 'Identity Protection' (as of 2015 this is gear icon to the right of the text)
3. Select the 'Application Protection' Tab
4. Find Brackets.exe and/or lighttable.exe and change the radio button to the right from Deny to Allow.

[khrome83]

I had this happen to me with Sublime Text 2 and Brackets as well.

I suggest adding exceptions to those applications. It is a bug/feature in Web Root.