Can't cut/paste, or drag pictures to desktop

[jamesryanbell]

I'm running the latest version of OSX Lion on a 2011 Mac Mini Server with 8GB of RAM. Everything has always worked since I got it. Lately, for seemingly no reason (unless I hit a hot key that enabled/disabled something on accident), I can't cut and paste anything - even within the same application. I can "cut" or "Copy", but nothing will paste. It's not grayed out, but nothing is there when I try to paste whatever I've copied.

Also, I can't drag pictures to my desktop off of the browser either. It just highlights them. I can't hold the mouse button down in a browser and drag them to my desktop or anywhere else. I'm using a Magic Mouse.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!

-- Ryan

 

[AcesHigh87]

Can you write other files, save them and such? Kinda sounds like you've somehow, accidentally, lost write permissions.

Click Command+I on your user in Finder (Macintosh HD-> Users-> Your User name) and check to make sure you still have the Read & Write Permission.

Very basic fix so it seems unlikely that it's something so simple but best get it out of the way first.

 

[jamesryanbell]

Write permissions seem in tact, but thanks for the heads up there (for future reference).

Any other ideas?

 

[GGJstudios]

Write permissions seem in tact, but thanks for the heads up there (for future reference).

Any other ideas?

Have you rebooted your Mac?

 

[jamesryanbell]

Have you rebooted your Mac?

Not lately. Why would that help? I can try that when I get home.

 

[GGJstudios]

Not lately. Why would that help? I can try that when I get home.

That's a basic first step in troubleshooting that resolves many issues. Yes, it can help.

 

[jamesryanbell]

I'll try that now, but even if it works, I'd still like to have an idea of what causes the problem. Thanks. Be right back....

 

[S.B.G]

I'll try that now, but even if it works, I'd still like to have an idea of what causes the problem. Thanks. Be right back....

Sometimes, restarting fixes weird problems as GGJstudios said, but getting closure on why something went funky never happens. If the reboot fixes it, just be happy!

 

[jamesryanbell]

It fixed it, and I'm happy.

LOL