Can't Copy and Paste

[Bibybakes]

MAC OSX 10.5.8 This is the second time this has happened in a matter of 3 weeks. I was taking a jpeg off my email account (everything was running perfectly) opened photoshop CS4 and it crashed. Tried to open other programmes and they all started to crash. Linotype started to play up and all the fonts on various applications look different than before. All I would say to anyone out there is reinstall from scratch and make sure you have time machine running. It's been an absolute godsend.

I have asked various Mac geeks and searched on line and as yet no-one has heard of it and have had an answer so in many ways it was a relief to find others have had the same problem - albeit I have every sympathy for you all. If anyone out there has an answer I would love to hear from you. As I mentioned before this is the second time it's happened so now I feel I can't trust my Mac anymore so i feel like I'm just wasting my time.

[Relentlos]

what an odd issue. I would assume hardware problems if it keeps up, unless you're installing something that is causing it.

Has anyone tried creating a new user account to see if the problem is system-wide?

[Aranallis]

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd just throw something in here.

Macbook Pro about 2 years old running OS X 10.5.8. About 3 days ago my left command key ceased to function with any of the lower row of keys on my keyboard (z,x,c,v). Having pulled up the on screen keyboard I can see that individually they are working, and when i command+t etc it also works. Right command button is functioning perfectly. Any suggestions?

[Tumbleweed666]

Originally Posted by Aranallis

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd just throw something in here.

Macbook Pro about 2 years old running OS X 10.5.8. About 3 days ago my left command key ceased to function with any of the lower row of keys on my keyboard (z,x,c,v). Having pulled up the on screen keyboard I can see that individually they are working, and when i command+t etc it also works. Right command button is functioning perfectly. Any suggestions?

Start a new thread

[victoral.com]

Originally Posted by Aranallis

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd just throw something in here.

Macbook Pro about 2 years old running OS X 10.5.8. About 3 days ago my left command key ceased to function with any of the lower row of keys on my keyboard (z,x,c,v). Having pulled up the on screen keyboard I can see that individually they are working, and when i command+t etc it also works. Right command button is functioning perfectly. Any suggestions?

Just do What I did.

Aperantly the problem has to do with the /private/tmp directory.

Just make sure it exists and has the right permissions.

1. To check, in the Finder click Go > Go to Folder... and in the dialog type in /private

if you see the folder "tmp" then don't do the this step. If you don't see it then do this in the Terminal. Located in /Applications/Utilities/, type in

sudo mkdir /private/tmp

enter your password then go to the next step.

2. Set permissions this one is easy just type this in terminal

sudo chmod 1777 /private/tmp

and enter your password and then just reboot. If you can drag and drop and copy/paste then the problem has been fixed.


This worked for me so I hope it does for you.

[MacCracken]

I have explained this exact problem for almost two weeks...

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY!!!!!

DOES ANYONE HAVE A FIX FOR THIS!!!!

[CheeseConCheese]

Same deal, Have a macbook from 06 put tiger updated to 10.6.8. Been on 10.6 for about 7 months. Another thing I noticed was in word trying to copy text a message will pop up and say "there is not enough mem or disk space to complete operation" I have 1gb MHz SDRAM and about 40 gigs of space.

Another issue about the random shut offs, if there's any audio playing it goes into about a sec long loop repeat, a grey-dimm slides down the screen, with a message to shut down in 5 languages and a power button in the backround or something

[victoral.com]

Originally Posted by MacCracken

I have explained this exact problem for almost two weeks...

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY!!!!!

DOES ANYONE HAVE A FIX FOR THIS!!!!

Aperantly you haven't seen my earlier post have you?

[kerynl]

had to completely erase and reinstall my os. mac os x, version 10.6.8 if that helps. i am no longer able to right click on highlighted text and copy it. in fact, i can't right click to delete items, pull up their menus, etc. if you find out anything please pass it along.

thanks,

k

[rhett7660]

Originally Posted by kerynl

had to completely erase and reinstall my os. mac os x, version 10.6.8 if that helps. i am no longer able to right click on highlighted text and copy it. in fact, i can't right click to delete items, pull up their menus, etc. if you find out anything please pass it along.

thanks,

k

Did you go under settings and re-enable the right click on the mouse. The defualt is no right click.

Preferences>>Mouse>>Enable right click. Since you said you had to reinstall the OS I am assuming you didn't do this.

[bahramsherwani]

Originally Posted by victoral.com

Just do What I did.

Aperantly the problem has to do with the /private/tmp directory.

Just make sure it exists and has the right permissions.

1. To check, in the Finder click Go > Go to Folder... and in the dialog type in /private

if you see the folder "tmp" then don't do the this step. If you don't see it then do this in the Terminal. Located in /Applications/Utilities/, type in

sudo mkdir /private/tmp

enter your password then go to the next step.

2. Set permissions this one is easy just type this in terminal

sudo chmod 1777 /private/tmp

and enter your password and then just reboot. If you can drag and drop and copy/paste then the problem has been fixed.


This worked for me so I hope it does for you.

After step 1, it won't let me enter my password. No matter what I type, nothing happens and when I click enter, It acts as though I didn't enter anything...

[kimmied]

Please help
for some crazy reason i cannot transfer my photos from my new mac onto my external hd.

Originally tried to do it straight from iPhoto by highlighting the photos and dragging and dropping- but no luck.

so then i thought maybe its because of iPhoto so i copied them out of iPhoto into a folder on my desktop ( that worked fine)

so then tried to drag and drop from the folder but just won't paste, drop or copy into/onto the hd!

its doing my head in so any suggestions will help please.

[OSX-SUX]

I am having the same problem with copy and paste. I can copy and paste to a network drive no problem, but it was taking too long to copy my 40GB iPhoto Originals folder on Snow Leopard. So I plugged the drive directly USB into the Mac Mini and now I can't paste (seems to copy) as there is no option. Dragging and dropping something like this is dangerous and cumbersome, esp while having to hold down a key on a wireless keyboard. Any help is appreciated. I can't understand how "think different" has to be so different that it makes it completely unusable. I spend hours trying to do what takes minutes on an intuitive, normal machine. I am trying to be a "switcher" but I keep hitting these unexplainable brick walls in usability. Hence why I am trying to get my photos off of the Mac entirely.

[bonniebooni]

I just had the same problem too, but luckily I found the way to solve it. Just right click your trackpad on the screen--> get info-->sharing & permission--> +(add)--> yourself(your login username)-->under privilege choose read & write. Do it for both screen and any files is fine.

[virenag]

Get to X utilities Terminal window via Finder->GO->...

Type following UNIX commands in the window.

ls -ld /tmp

It should display following:
rwxrwxrwt root wheel /tmp

If it does not exist then type following Unix commands.

su - root
<enter root password>

mkdir /tmp;


chown root:wheel /tmp
chmod 1777 /tmp

Reboot the machine. That should fix it.
It can happen if you accidently delete /tmp or /private/tmp directory.

[jpvand1]

Originally Posted by victoral.com

Just do What I did.

Aperantly the problem has to do with the /private/tmp directory.

Just make sure it exists and has the right permissions.

1. To check, in the Finder click Go > Go to Folder... and in the dialog type in /private

if you see the folder "tmp" then don't do the this step. If you don't see it then do this in the Terminal. Located in /Applications/Utilities/, type in

sudo mkdir /private/tmp

enter your password then go to the next step.

2. Set permissions this one is easy just type this in terminal

sudo chmod 1777 /private/tmp

and enter your password and then just reboot. If you can drag and drop and copy/paste then the problem has been fixed.


This worked for me so I hope it does for you.

Just an update to this issue...victoral.com's FIX WORKS for OS 10.7! It was the permissions.

THANK YOU!!!