[Bug] Text input problems: cursor jumps around, spaces are removed, characters are duplicated

[Poopooracoocoo]

Steps to reproduce

1. find text field
2. start typing a sentence.

Expected behavior

cursor won't jump, letters will stay in place, spaces won't be removed and parts won't be duplicated

Actual behavior

all of the above happens :(

Info

Also reproducible in Firefox Focus with GeckoView
I've noticed that typing incredibly slow avoids the issue.

Device information

• Android device: Galaxy S5 (I've also tested on other devices such as a Galaxy S4, Bluestacks 4)
• Fenix version: Nightly 190707 18:02 (Build #11881816)
  📦: 3.0.0
  🦎: 68.0-20190612114833

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[Johnnyyyy1234]

interesting... have you tried clearing the apps cache?

[cadeyrn]

Which keyboard do you use? Which Android version? And have you tried it with a current Nightly build? Your build is outdated. I can't reproduce with HTC U11 / Android 8.0 / TouchPal keyboard.

[Poopooracoocoo]

I've tried it with Samsung Keyboard, Gboard, SwiftKey and Fleksy as well as Google Keyboard (old version of Gboard which is frankly faster). My build was outdated and after having updated, I'm still able to repro.
@JonO7694
Clearing the app's cache did nothing.

Did you type that comment with your setup you mentioned? @cadeyrn I typed the issue with my setup and it was super painful. I'm typing this comment on a desktop tho

[cadeyrn]

Not that comment but I typed a lot of other comments with my smartphone and without any problems.

Since there are not much more reports like this it looks like not many people are affected. So let's hope that someone from Mozilla can reproduce with one of their devices. :)

[sblatz]

@Poopooracoocoo are you able to reproduce in Reference Browser? What about Focus with GV disabled 🤔

[boek]

@cpeterso Since this is also happening in Focus it looks like it could be GV related?

[Poopooracoocoo]

@sblatz I haven't used ref browser in ages and don't have it anymore. It didn't happen in Focus without GV. @boek I'm pretty sure that this is a GV issue but I wanted to make an issue here as not only would it be seen but I wasn't sure.

[hkaancaliskan]

Writing is not so slow for me but selecting text with double tap or doing sth like this is a real pain.
Xperia XZ1 Android 9
Nightly 190723 18:04 (Build #12041810)

[Poopooracoocoo]

@hakkikaancaliskan I have the same issues with selecting text. Are you sure that your typing is not like what I said above? Which keyboard?

[hkaancaliskan]

@hakkikaancaliskan I have the same issues with selecting text. Are you sure that your typing is not like what I said above? Which keyboard?

I'm sure, no problem on typing but editing is painful. Same on Gboard and Swiftkey.

[cpeterso]

Since this problem affects Fenix and Focus+GV, I filed a new GV bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1569007

This definitely sounds like a keyboard or IME problem.

@Poopooracoocoo - Can you reproduce the problem in Firefox 68 for Android? Is this problem reproducible in every web page with a text field?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

[Poopooracoocoo]

I'm not sure whether it's a problem in every text field but it certainly happens in GitHub text fields such as username/email, feature request/bug/issues and comments. It doesn't happen in the password field but I'm not typing full sentences in the password field so it's hard to confirm.

I typed that comment on a desktop but retyped it on Fennec 68. I had no issues except for my own spelling errors :P I noticed that compared to Fenix and Focus, typing in Fennec and other apps is faster too. I didn't think speed would be part of the issue as well.

[Poopooracoocoo]

Hooray! I no longer have this issue!

I'm not sure what happened. I still have text selection issues though

[cpeterso]

I still have text selection issues though

Is there a Fenix bug filed for your text selection issues?

[Poopooracoocoo]

@cpeterso arfggggggghhhhhhhghhh I'm now having those issues again in Focus. I bet this still happens in Fenix.

I don't think there's an issue for those test selection issues.

[cpeterso]

@cpeterso arfggggggghhhhhhhghhh I'm now having those issues again. I bet this still happens in Fenix.

OK. I'll reopen the corresponding GeckoView bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1569007#c2

[cpeterso]

@cpeterso arfggggggghhhhhhhghhh I'm now having those issues again in Focus. I bet this still happens in Fenix.

@Poopooracoocoo - Focus has an old version of GeckoView. Can you please check whether the latest Fenix version still works on your device?

[rekotc]

cursor won't jump, letters will stay in place, spaces won't be removed and parts won't be duplicated

I can confirm it happens to me, i have a fairly old phone which might be the culprit, Samsung Galaxy S2 (using LineageOS 14). But the problem doesn't happen in every webpage, i noticed it in particular using twitter.com, every tweet i write is a pain!

I've noticed that typing incredibly slow avoids the issue.

Same here. It looks like the browser cannot keep up with the typing speed

[cpeterso]

@rekotc - Which Fenix version are you testing? Do you also seen this typing problem in Firefox for Android (Fennec 68)?

[Poopooracoocoo]

I've noticed that when this happens, the keyboard (Gboard in my case) will not have caught up with the browser (fenix and focus). I think that it's not the keyboards fault and that Fenix/Focus aren't telling the keyboard in time. Back to my point, the keyboard's suggestions will be rather late and sometimes not appear at all. Typing passwords is still normal.

[hebu]

I experienced the cursor issues on different web pages, but it does not occur always – so it is hard to reproduce.

• enter some text
• change cursor positon
• enter more text, the cursor gets reset to the old position and the text is inserted there
• tap outside the textfield
• now place the cursor to a new position by tapping into the textfield
• enter more text, now the text is inserted in the new position

Other weird stuff happens, when trying to select and replace text...

Fenix version: 87.0.0-rc.1 (Build #2015799099)
Keyboard: GBoard 10.3.05

[orionlee]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1672095 has been landed, but we doesn't merge with Fenix Nightly yet.

@makotokato The use case I encountered (Zooniverse talk pages) is resolved with current Fenix Nightly, with GV version 89.0a1

[Waqar144]

@makotokato did it ever land? Is there a possibility that this will be fixed anytime soon?

[makotokato]

@makotokato The use case I encountered (Zooniverse talk pages) is resolved with current Fenix Nightly, with GV version 89.0a1

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1672095 is already merged on Firefox 84+. I need exactly reproduce step since I cannot reproduce original issue.

[igalic]

i don't understand how you're trying to reproduce this?

this happens in every text input field which has JavaScript helpers for completion or editing

gitea's default input field is unusable. fortunately, it's on the way out: go-gitea/gitea#15394
you can't use any @-completion or #-completion in TheLounge.

There's public instances of these things, you can just try it out

[staktrace]

@makotokato I've seen this issue in the past, and recently have started running into other cases where typing on the keyboard causes the caret to jump somewhere else and then the characters get entered at that new location (which obviously is not where I want them to go). It's not reliably reproducible but happens to me at least once a week, and once it gets into that state it's hard to clear. Are there prefs/logging I can turn on and collect that would help you with this?

[kevinlyles]

@makotokato ... and recently have started running into other cases where typing on the keyboard causes the caret to jump somewhere else and then the characters get entered at that new location (which obviously is not where I want them to go). It's not reliably reproducible but happens to me at least once a week, and once it gets into that state it's hard to clear. Are there prefs/logging I can turn on and collect that would help you with this?

I have also been seeing this over the past month or so. Today I saw it with the phone number field on https://register.moen.com.

[orionlee]

I have also been seeing this over the past month or so. Today I saw it with the phone number field on https://register.moen.com.

As a data point, the phone number field on https://register.moen.com worked in my setup.

• A recent Firefox Nightly, GBoard or Hacker's keyboard, on a Android 7.0-based tablet.
• I tried filling the field quite a few times in a span of about 10 minutes. It consistently worked.

Firefox Nightly build info:

90.0a1 (Build #2015810955)
AC: 90.0.20210516190059, be02514d7
GV: 90.0a1-20210516091748
AS: 76.0.0

[makotokato]

@staktrace @kevinlyles
If this issue mostly occurs on Gboard, this will be race condition between setting composition by Gboard and synchronizing internal Gecko text. Gboard sets composing text aggressively. So I am looking for another workaround...

[kevinlyles]

I can confirm that I'm using Gboard

[Mikaka27]

I'm not using gboard and I see similar issue in my bank's website.
If I'm typing account number the characters are inverted.
So if I type "1234" I may get "1243" or something like that.

This occurs on Samsung Galaxy J7 2017 stock keyboard, and Xiaomi Redmi 6 also stock keyboard.

I'm not sure if this is the same issue.

[makotokato]

I hope that some issues will be fixed by https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1713588.

[stale]

See: #17373 This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[zepfietje]

I believe this issue has not been fixed yet.

[ddarfantasy]

No, the problem certainly hasn't been solved.
It's really a frustrating experience to encounter the issue.
eg. If you type quickly at https://code.cs61a.org/

[makotokato]

@ddarfantasy

No, the problem certainly hasn't been solved. It's really a frustrating experience to encounter the issue. eg. If you type quickly at https://code.cs61a.org/

Your issue is another issue. I guess that this site uses Ace editor, If you can reproduce this on https://ace.c9.io/, please tell me about your environment (Your Android version, software keyboard such as GBoard).

[Poopooracoocoo]

While I still have a lot of problems with the text entry experience in GeckoView, it's finally acceptable!! It looks like no work has been done here for a while though. Hopefully priorities will change around here. We can't quite close this issue yet. :(

Currently using Gboard on a Samsung Galaxy S20 running Android 11.

I'm so glad that I no longer pull my hair out when writing comments like these. Thanks Makoto. Selection and cursor manipulation is another area that could do with some attention.

[stale]

See: #17373 This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[kbrosnan]

Makotokato resolved several major issues with cursor placement and text insertion in rich text fields. There may still be some problems but are best addressed as separate bugs reported at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Geckoview&component=IME including the website and keyboard that you are using.