In a backroom discussion on this a couple of the mods noticed it on other XF sites also.
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New text typing bug where text gets randomly replaced
- Thread starter Silly John Fatty
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In a backroom discussion on this a couple of the mods noticed it on other XF sites also.
This started happening to me after I upgraded to Ventura, but I don't think it started until a while after I initially upgraded. I turned off predictive text in System Preferences and it no longer happens except for on MacRumors. Elsewhere it's MacOS going haywire. Here it's something that could be related, but different.
I think you're right - I don't think it happened as soon as I made the upgrade to Ventura, but can't be sure. Maybe during one of the Safari upgrades - I dunno. I should probably test Firefox.
I don't have predictive text turned on, and it's a pretty repeatable problem here on MR and the other Xenforo board I frequent.
It's like Xenforo taps into Apple's predictive text engine even when it's turned off. The kind of thing I was seeing when I was writing emails or writing something into Apple Notes was exactly the kind of thing I'm seeing on MacRumors except that it no longer happens now that I turned off predictive text.
I wonder if it's another case of "AI" gone amuck. When I first upgraded to Ventura, I was sometimes pleased that MacOS knew what I was typing and occasionally annoyed because it was distracting. It started off only predicting the word I was typing. As time went along, the predictive text started predicting 2 and 3 words ahead of what I was typing and I'd accidentally choose it sometimes.
It was usually correct so it wasn't a problem even if a bit annoying. I wasn't motivated to figure out how to turn it off until it started inserting almost whole sentences and editing stuff I had already written.
I think it was learning this entire time and when it's making odd replacements for me, it's over-biasing its output because it's stuck in a positive feedback loop.
I'm just basing this off of my past experiences with AI way before our current times. It was always doing things like this... and maybe it still is.
I don't have Predictive Text turned on, and haven't for a long time.
This is not a MacRumours or Xenforo only problem.
I ended up here after having a really frustrating time posting on www.whirlpool.net.au (an internet focussed forum in Australia) where I was having significant issues with text randomly replacing itself.
This is a text only forum that runs custom code. This is pointing to it being a Safari issue. It is almost like there is a random undo happening but it isn't that either as the issue happens when text is typed, and it is not always the same.
Currently running Sonoma 14.3 (23D56) on a MacBook pro, using Safari Version 17.3 (19617.2.4.11.8)
Running ABP 2.2.13
This has only just started to be a problem in the last couple of days for me.
Apart from having random previously deleted text appearing back in posts I have also had text overwriting a line. It is feeling very much like a memory management issue within Safari which concerns me significantly.
I ended up here after having a really frustrating time posting on www.whirlpool.net.au (an internet focussed forum in Australia) where I was having significant issues with text randomly replacing itself.
This is a text only forum that runs custom code. This is pointing to it being a Safari issue. It is almost like there is a random undo happening but it isn't that either as the issue happens when text is typed, and it is not always the same.
Currently running Sonoma 14.3 (23D56) on a MacBook pro, using Safari Version 17.3 (19617.2.4.11.8)
Running ABP 2.2.13
This has only just started to be a problem in the last couple of days for me.
Apart from having random previously deleted text appearing back in posts I have also had text overwriting a line. It is feeling very much like a memory management issue within Safari which concerns me significantly.
I did some messing around yesterday this and found that after quitting and restarting Safari the problem stopped occurring.
This may not be definitive as the problem is random but it does point to it potentially being a problem with Safari itself not specific forum pages.
I tend not to restart my mac or browsers very often and do have a lot of windows/tabs open at any given time, so there may be some causal link with this type of usage. Like others who have reported this I do tend to write longer posts but the issue has also occurred with posts of this length.
There also seems to be a link to when text has been cut and pasted elsewhere. But unfortunately as this is an intermittent problem it is hard to replicate.
I did have the same overwriting of text issue as contacos showed in his screen grab above.
Originally I though that if I was looking for the bug in Safari I would go looking at the management of text strings, but the overwriting of text as per the above seems to point to a deeper issue.
This may not be definitive as the problem is random but it does point to it potentially being a problem with Safari itself not specific forum pages.
I tend not to restart my mac or browsers very often and do have a lot of windows/tabs open at any given time, so there may be some causal link with this type of usage. Like others who have reported this I do tend to write longer posts but the issue has also occurred with posts of this length.
There also seems to be a link to when text has been cut and pasted elsewhere. But unfortunately as this is an intermittent problem it is hard to replicate.
I did have the same overwriting of text issue as contacos showed in his screen grab above.
Originally I though that if I was looking for the bug in Safari I would go looking at the management of text strings, but the overwriting of text as per the above seems to point to a deeper issue.
I reboot every morning and struggle with this problem. I only use Safari when making posts on this site. It's tough to get through a full post and have it be correct.
I'm somewhat convinced that I saw this problem once when I had word wrap turned on in BBEdit.
Can't believe this hasn't been fixed yet 😂 21st century and you can't write text. Are we back in the ages of Apes or what? Writing text is one of the pillars of civilisation ... and we fail at making it work properly!
At this point it might've been more rational to just stay with Middle Ages techniques, would have been more predictable and less effort.
And yes, I believe I've noticed this under iOS 17 on an iPhone 13 mini too. But I don't post with it too often. And yes, it's the forum software. Somebody should tell the developers, they failed hard on this one. Let's hope AI replaces people soon when it comes to software development (and many other things). Humans are terrible these days!
At this point it might've been more rational to just stay with Middle Ages techniques, would have been more predictable and less effort.
And yes, I believe I've noticed this under iOS 17 on an iPhone 13 mini too. But I don't post with it too often. And yes, it's the forum software. Somebody should tell the developers, they failed hard on this one. Let's hope AI replaces people soon when it comes to software development (and many other things). Humans are terrible these days!
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This is going to sound crazy, but it just happened to me composing an email in the Mail app on Sonoma 14.3. Was typing out a paragraph above an existing one, and all of a sudden I looked up and most of the paragraph had been replaced by a copy of the one below it.
I was able to step backwards using Undo until the text shifted back to the correct first few words of what I had been writing for the new paragraph, and then I stepped forward with Redo and everything filled back in correctly.
I was able to step backwards using Undo until the text shifted back to the correct first few words of what I had been writing for the new paragraph, and then I stepped forward with Redo and everything filled back in correctly.
That's typically what I do, but sometimes the text will continue to flip back and forth as I undo/redo. A few times I couldn't remember what was what so I had to delete most of my email and start over.
The worst such case of this was one time when it not only started overwriting my text, it entire paragraphs collapsed together onto one line laid out on top of each other so it was completely jumbled.
I've been experiencing this for well over a month now. If you turn on predictive text, the problem gets even worse and happens everywhere so I suspect that this is actually a bug in the predictive text engine and where that engine ends and the normal text rendering engine begins is not all that distinct.
I had thought that I saw this in BBEdit, but I can't reproduce. Now that you mention Mail, I think it was probably there that I saw it. In any case, I certainly concluded it wasn't unique to these forums.
I wonder how widespread this problem is.
Hey, I don't want to be replaced. I could be safe though since there's a chance that I'm an AI and already a replacement.
If this issue spreads to Mail, then the Mac becomes fully unusable for me and it would become no more than a super expensive toy to look at and that's all.
Don't worry, I hope you'll run the AI for us and create excellent premium quality software for us 😊 (considering you're not the AI of course)
Don't worry, I hope you'll run the AI for us and create excellent premium quality software for us 😊 (considering you're not the AI of course)
Here's a rumor (from another website, ha!) about that...
A howling text display bug in Sonoma 14.3
I heard from a little birdie that Apple has fixed this WebKit display bug, and it will be deployed very soon. Some people have attributed it to inline predictive text, but turning that off won’t help.
I've just come to the realization that the text isn't actually getting replaced. If you copy and paste your scrambled text into another window, you'll see the original text still intact. Also, if you use spaces, switching away to another space and switching back restores your original text as well.
Also, I seem to notice this happens more often when I'm using an external monitor. Anyone else find that?
Also, I seem to notice this happens more often when I'm using an external monitor. Anyone else find that?
Ah....actually, yes, I am using an external monitor! Hadn't thought about that as a possible cause of this issue....but that does make sense, come to think of it, as there is a slight delay between the MBP display and the external monitor display much of the time. Bingo -- could this be the answer??!
I'm not sure if it's only happening on my external display, but I'm struggling to recall it ever happening when I wasn't plugged in. That only dawned on me as I was writing my last message to share that the text is actually still intact, but showing up wrong.
OK, this definitely also happens when I'm not plugged into my external display, but I think it doesn't happen as often.
I have had this start today while writing a couple of emails - really infuriating when you are concentrating on something important and this keeps happening.
I eventually found that if I resize the window that it jumps back to being correct, but then happens all over again. This was using Apples mail app linked to gmail.
I ended up writing the email in pages and then copying it into the mail program to send.
I have been on Sonoma since it came out and it was only yesterday that this started and has continued today. I have not changed any settings or had any updates for quite a while during which time I have done a lot of writing including emails without this happening.
And it did not happen at all while writing this using Firefox.
I eventually found that if I resize the window that it jumps back to being correct, but then happens all over again. This was using Apples mail app linked to gmail.
I ended up writing the email in pages and then copying it into the mail program to send.
I have been on Sonoma since it came out and it was only yesterday that this started and has continued today. I have not changed any settings or had any updates for quite a while during which time I have done a lot of writing including emails without this happening.
And it did not happen at all while writing this using Firefox.
