Cmd + C doesn't seem to copy all the lines?

[njtierney]

I'm not sure if I'm going crazy, but when I use Cmd + C, positron doesn't seem to copy all of the lines of code? See the attached video.

https://share.cleanshot.com/pd8m758N

I'm using the latest version of positron, 2025.08.0-130

[austin3dickey]

Hey @njtierney, thanks for the issue. Could you please attach the output of the About Positron menu item?

This is really strange! Is it possible that previously you had copied the smaller block of code that's in your clipboard, and then during the video when you hit Cmd+C it doesn't actually copy, so that when you paste, it pastes the previous output? (Does that make sense?) I notice in your video that the line that didn't get copied is marked as a git addition.

If that's the case, would you mind trying this:

• Open the keyboard shortcuts window (I usually use the settings gear in the bottom left to get there)
• Toggle on the "Record Keys" keyboard icon on the right of the search bar
• Type Cmd+C
• Take a screenshot of the keybindings and attach it here
• You may want to toggle off the "record keys" feature because it's sometimes annoying if you forget to 🙂

[njtierney]

Thanks, @austin3dickey !

Positron Version: 2025.08.0 build 130
Code - OSS Version: 1.102.0
Commit: 76ddce53e85437b013671fe7d91a3a1c54f48341
Date: 2025-08-01T20:08:51.894Z
Electron: 35.6.0
Chromium: 134.0.6998.205
Node.js: 22.15.1
V8: 13.4.114.21-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 23.5.0

It might be possible that I already copied that text, but I remember having a really similar experience a couple of weeks ago and it was really impacting my workflow (as much as I'd like to wish I wasn't copying random snippets around, it is the workflow sometimes!), so I couldn't really use positron to keep working on that project.

Thanks for this tip, it looks like there's quite a few keybindings for Cmd + C:

Is there anything that you would recommend I do/change? Is there a way for me to just go back to ground zero, and set all keyboard shortcuts back to default values.

[njtierney]

Hi @austin3dickey !

Thanks for this - my keyboard shortcuts are behaving as I expect, I'm not sure if it is because I closed and restarted positron, but it was definitely a bit of a spooky experience. It's good to know about this process, because if it happens again I can try and replicate the issues with this developer keyboard toggle that you have shown me.

Here's my output, for what it is worth:

2025-08-07 09:13:03.308 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-08-07 09:13:03.309 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched
2025-08-07 09:13:03.309 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 91, key: Meta
2025-08-07 09:13:03.310 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 57 ('Meta')
2025-08-07 09:13:03.310 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.
2025-08-07 09:13:04.341 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-08-07 09:13:04.341 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyC]
2025-08-07 09:13:04.341 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 14 keybinding entries, matched editor.action.clipboardCopyAction, when: no when condition, source: built-in.
2025-08-07 09:13:04.341 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyC, keyCode: 67, key: c
2025-08-07 09:13:04.342 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyC, keyCode: 33 ('C')
2025-08-07 09:13:04.342 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyC]
2025-08-07 09:13:04.342 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 14 keybinding entries, matched editor.action.clipboardCopyAction, when: no when condition, source: built-in.
2025-08-07 09:13:04.342 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Invoking command editor.action.clipboardCopyAction.
2025-08-07 09:13:06.797 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Storing single modifier for possible chord meta.
2025-08-07 09:13:07.099 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Clearing single modifier due to 300ms elapsed.
2025-08-07 09:13:11.902 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-08-07 09:13:11.903 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched
2025-08-07 09:13:11.903 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 91, key: Meta
2025-08-07 09:13:11.904 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 57 ('Meta')
2025-08-07 09:13:11.904 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.
2025-08-07 09:13:11.915 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-08-07 09:13:11.915 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched
2025-08-07 09:13:11.916 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [shift,meta], code: ShiftLeft, keyCode: 16, key: Shift
2025-08-07 09:13:11.916 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [shift,meta], code: ShiftLeft, keyCode: 4 ('Shift')
2025-08-07 09:13:11.916 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.
2025-08-07 09:13:12.578 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-08-07 09:13:12.579 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving shift+meta+[KeyN]
2025-08-07 09:13:12.579 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 4 keybinding entries, matched r.createNewFile, when: no when condition, source: built-in.
2025-08-07 09:13:12.580 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [shift,meta], code: KeyN, keyCode: 78, key: n
2025-08-07 09:13:12.580 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [shift,meta], code: KeyN, keyCode: 44 ('N')
2025-08-07 09:13:12.580 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving shift+meta+[KeyN]
2025-08-07 09:13:12.580 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 4 keybinding entries, matched r.createNewFile, when: no when condition, source: built-in.
2025-08-07 09:13:12.580 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Invoking command r.createNewFile.
2025-08-07 09:13:13.700 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyV, keyCode: 86, key: v
2025-08-07 09:13:13.700 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyV, keyCode: 52 ('V')
2025-08-07 09:13:13.700 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyV]
2025-08-07 09:13:13.700 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 5 keybinding entries, matched editor.action.clipboardPasteAction, when: no when condition, source: built-in.
2025-08-07 09:13:13.700 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Invoking command editor.action.clipboardPasteAction.
2025-08-07 09:13:15.367 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Ignoring single modifier meta due to it being pressed together with other keys.
2025-08-07 09:13:18.081 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-08-07 09:13:18.082 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched
2025-08-07 09:13:18.082 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 91, key: Meta
2025-08-07 09:13:18.082 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 57 ('Meta')
2025-08-07 09:13:18.082 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.
2025-08-07 09:13:18.406 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-08-07 09:13:18.407 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyF]
2025-08-07 09:13:18.407 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 11 keybinding entries, matched actions.find, when: editorFocus || editorIsOpen, source: built-in.
2025-08-07 09:13:18.408 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyF, keyCode: 70, key: f
2025-08-07 09:13:18.408 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyF, keyCode: 36 ('F')
2025-08-07 09:13:18.408 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyF]
2025-08-07 09:13:18.408 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 11 keybinding entries, matched actions.find, when: editorFocus || editorIsOpen, source: built-in.
2025-08-07 09:13:18.408 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Invoking command actions.find.
2025-08-07 09:13:19.215 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Storing single modifier for possible chord meta.
2025-08-07 09:13:19.517 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Clearing single modifier due to 300ms elapsed.

Thanks again for your help! :)

[austin3dickey]

Cool, yep, looks like it's working now! We'll see if anyone else reports this problem in the future and can add any additional logs or info.

[austin3dickey]

I should have looked upstream sooner; it sounds like there's a VS Code issue they're working on that smells pretty similar to this:

• Copy and paste not working microsoft/vscode#252371

[jennybc]

I have definitely experienced spooky non-reproducible breakage of copy via Cmd + C.

[aaronschiff]

Ditto, I've found that Cmd + C for copy sometimes stops working in Positron. The Edit > Copy menu still works as expected, and Cmd + V continues to work for paste. Restarting Positron fixes it. Fwiw, I haven't experienced this in VS Code but it's random and infrequent so hard to be sure.

[juliasilge]

Reported again on BlueSky

[jemus42]

That was me 👋🏻
This happens to me a regularly lately and I always have to restart Positron once it gets too annoying 😅

I looked at the keybind config because I thought I was going crazy or the keybind got deactivated or overruled by something else but nothing seemed suspicious.
I have no idea how to reproduce it but it seems like I just have to use the same Positron instance for long enough and it's bound to occur again.

Are there any useful diagnostics I could do to help debug this?

[juliasilge]

Oh gosh, I am not sure 😬

I think the best chance would be to look at the Developer Tools Console, to see if there are any related errors there: https://positron.posit.co/troubleshooting.html#developer-tools

I would also encourage you and others to give a 👍 to this issue: microsoft/vscode#252371

[njtierney]

@jemus42 are the diagnostics that I did above helpful, perhaps?

[Radian-n]

I occasionally have the same issue.

I'm not 100% sure this is related, but the two previous times my copy/paste has stopped working properly in Positron, I have subsequently tried to ctrl+f something in a .qmd file I have open. When I do this the search box appears in the Variables pane NOT the .qmd window as is expected. I think this happens regardless if I have a .qmd file open or a .R script. I don't think I've seen this wonky-search behaviour outside of this copy/paste shortcut issue.

My hypothesis is maybe the focus is on the variables pane (or somewhere unexpected) instead of the file where the cursor is located and where we're trying to copy from, hence the crtl+c keyboard shortcut doesn't work?

[jemus42]

I also had this happen and got really confused! And yes it was also after (or while) the ⌘+C thing broke!
I have had the copy shortcut "break" a few times now, but the find window wonkyness I've only seen once happen so far.

[juliasilge]

This is such a mysterious problem! We do have #9364 now tracking this on our side, which we will hope to verify as fixed once the problem is solved upstream in microsoft/vscode#252371. I do encourage you all to add a 👍 on the upstream issue.

[jemus42]

So it finally happened again for me, and just for completeness sake I'd like to add the debug info as also posted by @njtierney above:

• Cmd+C doesn't work
• Cmd+F toggle the find window near the environment pane but not in the editor, where mouse cursor / focus is

Regarding the Keyboard Shortcut Troubleshooting log window, it ironically refuses to let me copy the log output in the window, either with Cmd+C or with right click c-> copy, so I had to click the button to open the output in the editor and copy with right click 🫠

This is the output of me trying to Cmd+C + Cmd+V and then pressing Cmd+F

2025-09-24 17:41:25.248 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-09-24 17:41:25.249 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched
2025-09-24 17:41:25.249 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 91, key: Meta
2025-09-24 17:41:25.249 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 57 ('Meta')
2025-09-24 17:41:25.249 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.
2025-09-24 17:41:25.846 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-09-24 17:41:25.847 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyC]
2025-09-24 17:41:25.847 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 14 keybinding entries, matched positron.help.copy, when: positronHelpFocused, source: built-in.
2025-09-24 17:41:25.848 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyC, keyCode: 67, key: c
2025-09-24 17:41:25.848 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyC, keyCode: 33 ('C')
2025-09-24 17:41:25.848 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyC]
2025-09-24 17:41:25.849 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 14 keybinding entries, matched positron.help.copy, when: positronHelpFocused, source: built-in.
2025-09-24 17:41:25.849 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Invoking command positron.help.copy.
2025-09-24 17:41:25.941 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Storing single modifier for possible chord meta.
2025-09-24 17:41:25.992 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Clearing single modifier due to other key up.
2025-09-24 17:41:29.581 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-09-24 17:41:29.582 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched
2025-09-24 17:41:29.582 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 91, key: Meta
2025-09-24 17:41:29.582 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 57 ('Meta')
2025-09-24 17:41:29.582 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.
2025-09-24 17:41:29.761 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-09-24 17:41:29.761 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyV]
2025-09-24 17:41:29.761 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 6 keybinding entries, matched editor.action.clipboardPasteAction, when: no when condition, source: built-in.
2025-09-24 17:41:29.762 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyV, keyCode: 86, key: v
2025-09-24 17:41:29.762 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyV, keyCode: 52 ('V')
2025-09-24 17:41:29.762 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyV]
2025-09-24 17:41:29.762 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 6 keybinding entries, matched editor.action.clipboardPasteAction, when: no when condition, source: built-in.
2025-09-24 17:41:29.762 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Invoking command editor.action.clipboardPasteAction.
2025-09-24 17:41:29.866 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Storing single modifier for possible chord meta.
2025-09-24 17:41:29.873 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Clearing single modifier due to other key up.
2025-09-24 17:41:41.170 [error] [Window] An unknown error occurred. Please consult the log for more details.
2025-09-24 17:41:41.178 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-09-24 17:41:41.179 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched
2025-09-24 17:41:41.179 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 91, key: Meta
2025-09-24 17:41:41.179 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: MetaLeft, keyCode: 57 ('Meta')
2025-09-24 17:41:41.179 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.
2025-09-24 17:41:41.667 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Soft dispatching keyboard event
2025-09-24 17:41:41.667 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyF]
2025-09-24 17:41:41.668 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 11 keybinding entries, matched positron.help.find, when: positronHelpFocused, source: built-in.
2025-09-24 17:41:41.668 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyF, keyCode: 70, key: f
2025-09-24 17:41:41.668 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [meta], code: KeyF, keyCode: 36 ('F')
2025-09-24 17:41:41.668 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving meta+[KeyF]
2025-09-24 17:41:41.668 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ From 11 keybinding entries, matched positron.help.find, when: positronHelpFocused, source: built-in.
2025-09-24 17:41:41.668 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Invoking command positron.help.find.
2025-09-24 17:41:41.930 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Storing single modifier for possible chord meta.
2025-09-24 17:41:42.232 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: + Clearing single modifier due to 300ms elapsed.
2025-09-24 17:41:48.651 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: / Received  keydown event - modifiers: [shift], code: ShiftLeft, keyCode: 16, key: Shift
2025-09-24 17:41:48.652 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: | Converted keydown event - modifiers: [shift], code: ShiftLeft, keyCode: 4 ('Shift')
2025-09-24 17:41:48.652 [info] [Window] [KeybindingService]: \ Keyboard event cannot be dispatched in keydown phase.

I know we're kind of in the "let's wait for upstream to fix it" phase with this but, well, might as well post logs.

EDIT:
I just restarted Positron so I can work again, and the log window is still open and happily collects theses errors which.. seem not good?

2025-09-24 17:51:27.855 [error] [Window] An unknown error occurred. Please consult the log for more details.
2025-09-24 17:51:29.892 [error] [Window] An unknown error occurred. Please consult the log for more details.
2025-09-24 17:51:42.973 [error] [Window] An unknown error occurred. Please consult the log for more details.
2025-09-24 17:51:44.413 [error] [Window] An unknown error occurred. Please consult the log for more details.

It seems there's new instances of this popping up regardless of what I do or don't do, unrelated to any copy/paste action?

[lgaborini]

I experienced the same bug on Windows, randomly, when Ctrl+C was redirected to positron.help.copy just like you.
I was able to solve it without restarting Positron. I don't remember exactly how, but I remember switching from Console to Help tab back and forth, or focusing on the Help panel, or triggering the pop-up help by hovering on a function.
Probably in this case the scope detection is just messed up, it might not apply to the upstream (VSCode) scenario.