PEP in compatability mode stops being able to paste

[pdxman1]

Paste Email Plus stops being able paste. I have compatibility mode checked because I am usually pasting into gmail and it seems to require compatibility mode checked. If I reboot the computer, PEP is again working fine, but in a few hours or days, suddenly it will stop working. Right clicking brings up a context menu, PEP is in the context menu with all my pastetext choices, but selecting a pastetext item does not result in any text being pasted. If I uncheck compatibility mode, PEP works on sites that do not require compatibility mode, like this one.


I am using Paste Email Plus V5.0 with Firefox 30.0 on Windows 8.0, though the problem has persisted through a number of Firefox versions. I don't use categories in PEP.

[cbaker_admin]

Since the problem is sporadic, it might be tough to debug. The first thing we would need to do is to see if any errors are being generated.

Perhaps you could open the Firefox Browser Console (ctrl-shift-j) and leave it minimized during your browsing session. When PEP starts displaying this behavior, you can check the console for any PEP messages (type 'pasteemailplus' in the search bar of the console). If any messages appear, you can copy/paste them here. That will give me a place to start looking. Also include the site (ie.e., gmail.com) you were on when PEP failed.

ETA: Also note the status of the normal 'Paste' command in the context menu and the toolbar Edit > Paste menu. Are they disabled (greyed out)?

[rpesq]

Sounds like the same problem that I have reported on several occasions. It is definitely sporadic. I have not experienced the bug lately, but that is probably because my needs of Pasting into Gmail have been few-and-far-between over the past 3 to 4 months. I did test it right now, and today it is working for me.

[pdxman1]

I will try to remember to open the consoles when I start a browser instance. I use multiple firefox instances, so it looks like I need to open a console for each instance. I will report back next time it happens.

[pdxman1]

I did not forget about this - It took this long for the problem to occur again. I could not find any pasteemailplus messages in the console windows. As I said before, I run multiple Firefox instances, so I checked all the windows. The problem affects all running Firefox instances. I don't know how big a buffer the console windows maintain - there do not appear to be time stamps, so if it is a small buffer, I imagine the problem could occur and be gone from the console window before I look at them.

I did notice one other symptom that might help in debugging. When I try to paste from email plus with the mouse or the keyboard, nothing is pasted, but the contents do go into the regular windows cut/paste buffer. So then if I do a regular windows paste (^V or paste from the menu), the pastemail text I last tried gets pasted. That gives me a workaround to the problem.

Now that my system is in the state where is exhibiting the problem, is there anything I should try that might help debug the problem? Thanks.

[cbaker_admin]

... but the contents do go into the regular windows cut/paste buffer.

This should not happen. PEP uses its own clipboard for storing pastetext. This done purposefully to avoid overwriting the global clipboard contents. That would be bad manners and a security breach (i.e., storing passwords, etc. that can simply be pasted into any application form).

Do you recall if the global clipboard contained any PEP pastetext when PEP was working properly? I've tested it on my system and it works as expected.

This may be a clue as to why PEP stops working for you. I still wish there was an easy way to consistently reproduce the problem so I could debug it.

Do you have any other extensions installed that place content on the clipboard? There may be a conflict. Perhaps you could provide a list of your installed extensions. If you have FEBE installed, you can get the list by clicking FEBE Options > Advanced > List installed add-ons.

[pdxman1]

I have rebooted and PEP is working correctly now. And as you say, pasting with PEP does not overwrite the global clipboard contents.

The only add on that I have that has anything to do with copying/pasting is Copy Link Text 1.5.3, but I only started using that recently and I have been having this problem with PEP long before I ever installed Copy Link Text.

I can't think of a triggering event that could be causing the problem to start.

[pdxman1]

It happened again. Last time it took weeks to manifest, this time less than a day. Seems kind of random. Nothing about PEP in the consoles. Again I can confirm that the attempted PEP paste puts the contents into the global paste buffer.

I'm thinking that this cannot be very common for PEP users since no one else has chimed in saying they are seeing this problem. I think that maybe I should try doing a fresh install of firefox. I haven't done a fresh install for over a year - I've just been upgrading. Maybe there is something messed up in my firefox install that is causing these PEP symptoms.