Text field entry problems in Safari

[simonmet]

Is anyone else having major problems with the text entry field for composing posts using iOS Safari on this very site? I’m quite sure it’s not site-specific because I’ve noticed similar problems on many other sites.

The text entry problems seemed to first appear with iOS 11.3 and remain with 11.3.1. I’m using an iPhone 7 Plus.

The behaviour or bug I’m experiencing is this: where previously, finger-based scrolling within a text-entry field would scroll the contents of the field, it now no longer does so and scrolls the entire web page instead. This means there is no way to navigate through or to the end of the field’s contents when they’re longer than the field can display. I’ve also encountered difficulties trying to place the cursor within the field so that the keyboard appears; and numerous other problems and bugs, such as the cursor not aligning to its position within the text (see screenshot attached).

I’ve resorted to having to edit longer posts in a separate app and having to paste them back in the field, but even this is proving problematic at times due to problems activating and placing the curser and getting the “cut” and “paste” options to appear.

Now I’ve never been a fan of iOS 11 but this is plainly getting ridiculous; it’s ruining basic browser functionality. I visit and contribute to many forums and I’ve never noticed these problems prior to 11.3. I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that in Apple’s Wisdom™ I’m not even able to revert my phone’s operating system to a known functioning state (with regards to these bugs) for testing or verification.

I’m trying not to jump to conclusions about it being Apple’s fault or the state of their software development but I’m really clutching at straws here. I run a very minimal phone with few apps and 1 content blocker that’s been tested (by disabling) to confirm it’s not what’s causing the issues described. Once again, I had to resort to an external app to help complete this post.

Surely I’m not the only one who’s experiencing these issues. If anyone has any advice for a temporary workaround or fix I’d greatly appreciated it.

 

[C DM]

Is anyone else having major problems with the text entry field for composing posts using iOS Safari on this very site? I’m quite sure it’s not site-specific because I’ve noticed similar problems on many other sites.

The text entry problems seemed to first appear with iOS 11.3 and remain with 11.3.1. I’m using an iPhone 7 Plus.

The behaviour or bug I’m experiencing is this: where previously, finger-based scrolling within a text-entry field would scroll the contents of the field, it now no longer does so and scrolls the entire web page instead. This means there is no way to navigate through or to the end of the field’s contents when they’re longer than the field can display. I’ve also encountered difficulties trying to place the cursor within the field so that the keyboard appears; and numerous other problems and bugs, such as the cursor not aligning to its position within the text (see screenshot attached).

I’ve resorted to having to edit longer posts in a separate app and having to paste them back in the field, but even this is proving problematic at times due to problems activating and placing the curser and getting the “cut” and “paste” options to appear.

Now I’ve never been a fan of iOS 11 but this is plainly getting ridiculous; it’s ruining basic browser functionality. I visit and contribute to many forums and I’ve never noticed these problems prior to 11.3. I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that in Apple’s Wisdom™ I’m not even able to revert my phone’s operating system to a known functioning state (with regards to these bugs) for testing or verification.

I’m trying not to jump to conclusions about it being Apple’s fault or the state of their software development but I’m really clutching at straws here. I run a very minimal phone with few apps and 1 content blocker that’s been tested (by disabling) to confirm it’s not what’s causing the issues described. Once again, I had to resort to an external app to help complete this post.

Surely I’m not the only one who’s experiencing these issues. If anyone has any advice for a temporary workaround or fix I’d greatly appreciated it.

See if the discussion about experimental features in Safari (and about disabling them essentially) at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/async-frame-scrolling-breaks-the-response-box.2112537/ might be of some help.

 

[simonmet]

See if the discussion about experimental features in Safari (and about disabling them essentially) at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/async-frame-scrolling-breaks-the-response-box.2112537/ might be of some help.

Thanks.

In my efforts to fix this I’ve toggled on and off just about every one of those “experimental” features but to no avail. Some of them are enabled by default (I did a complete erase and set up as new phone with iOS 10.3) which indicates Apple are reasonably confident with the ones they’ve enabled. Nonetheless, I’ll disable every single one to see if it helps. I should also note that I have JavaScript disabled (as it is by default) because I dislike its impact on security and battery life.

I recall having problems before doing anything with those features. I’ll report back soon.

Edit: An improvement! I don’t yet now if it’s entirely fixed, it didn’t seem to be Asynch Frame Scrolling that’s the issue, but it’s definitely one of those features causing problems, and quite possibly one that Apple has prematurely begun enabling by default as of iOS 10.3.

I’ll report back if I can confirm the culprit.

Thanks CDM!

 

[C DM]

Thanks.

In my efforts to fix this I’ve toggled on and off just about every one of those “experimental” features but to no avail. Some of them are enabled by default (I did a complete erase and set up as new phone with iOS 10.3) which indicates Apple are reasonably confident with the ones they’ve enabled. Nonetheless, I’ll disable every single one to see if it helps. I should also note that I have JavaScript disabled (as it is by default) because I dislike its impact on security and battery life.

I recall having problems before doing anything with those features. I’ll report back soon.

Edit: An improvement! I don’t yet now if it’s entirely fixed, and it wasn’t Asynch Frame Scrolling that’s the issue, but it’s definitely one of those features causing problems, and quite possibly one that Apple has prematurely begun enabling by default as of iOS 10.3.

I’ll report back if I can confirm the culprit.

Thanks CDM!

I ended up disabling all of them and so far things have been working fine without anything feeling off in some way.

 

[simonmet]

I ended up disabling all of them and so far things have been working fine without anything feeling off in some way.

Good idea. I don’t know why Apple has deemed some of them fine for general use if they’re deemed “experimental”.

Maybe it is the Asynch Frame Scrolling. It’ll take longer to test them all selectively, but I probably won’t bother and will just disable them all from now on to ensure a compatible browsing experience.

 

[simonmet]

I can confirm that Asynch Frame Scrolling (AFS) is causing at least some of the issues, but definitely not all of them.

With AFS disabled, the text field morphs to the size of the post so that it’s at least possible to edit the whole thing without resorting to an external app.

However, one or more of the other experimental features seems to be contributing to issues placing the cursor that prevents the keyboard from appearing in an empty text field, but only after a separate post has been edited, while reloading the page appears to fix the glitch.

 

[dysamoria]

I have been reporting Safari text field bugs for YEARS and they keep going unfixed. They keep getting worse, in fact. Currently, the spell-check popup disappears before you can tap on it. Then there’re the problems with text selection, editing, moving of the insertion point with magnify being offset, etc... What you described above are just some of what I’ve seen at various times on various websites.