Question Help! - text selection anomaly

[Stunt6731]

Hi there,

I'm putting this up in the hope or off chance one of you Android whizzes can join the dots and suggest an explanation or remedy for a pesky issue I've been encountering for some time on my Android phone and not been able to fix on my own. It's a OnePlus Nord 2T 5G, running Android 14 (OxygenOS 14).

It's a text selection bug.

When you select text in any Android application, the expected behaviour is for a pop-up to show next to the selected text offering various options (Copy, Share, Select All, Web search, etc).

For some time though on my Nord 2T 5G, when using the device in portrait mode, this pop-up is incorrectly showing offset and partly hidden/obscured to the right of the screen, making some of the menu's options inaccessible and un-selectable.

But this doesn't happen when I select the same text with the the phone booted into Safe Mode, where text selection, even in portrait, occurs as expected, with the pop-up menu hovering next to whatever text you select.

Considerations & troubleshooting attempts:

1) I initially wondered if the issue was being caused by one of my apps having either "Accessibility" of "Draw over other apps" enabled, although this wouldn't seem so plausible an explanation given it happens only in portrait and not in landscape orientation. But I disabled both 'Accessibility' and 'Draw over other apps' for all apps, and nothing changed.
2) But then I found it doesn't occur with the device booted in Safe Mode, suggesting one of my third party apps or normal boot settings has to be to blame.
3) It isn't launcher-specific: It occurs when I'm using the device either with the Smart Launcher third party launcher I've used for years or OnePlus' own native launcher.
4) Again too, I only encounter this with the device in portrait mode, and not in landscape. Text selection menus are perfectly normal and usable in landscape orientation, both with device booted normally and in Safe Mode.

Does anyone have any light to shed on what may be causing this?

I'm not massively tech savvy by the way, just as a heads-up.

Thanks.

Attachments:

"Portrait (incorrect when device booted normally).jpg"
"Landscape (correct).jpg"

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you using a 3rd party keyboard?

 

[Stunt6731]

Thanks for replying, and it's interesting you should ask that, because I had in fact meant to mention that as part of my troubleshooting attempts already I had considered the role the keyboard might be playing, and tried another keyboard.

I use Gboard, which of course is Google's own keyboard, but these days is in fact the default out-of-the-box keyboard on many Android devices, including my OnePlus phone.

But the problem doesn't appear to be related to the keyboard, because as part of my troubleshooting I did install and try out SwiftKey, and exactly the same thing happens.

And again, it doesn't happen with the device booted in Safe Made, but does when it's booted in normal, regardless of keyboard in use.

 

[B. Diddy]

It can be tricky in these situations -- sometimes you just have to uninstall apps one by one until the problem goes away.

Have you only tested on one browser? Does it happen on other browsers?

 

[Stunt6731]

Okay so whilst I'd thought it was happening on all applications, that's not actually the case.

When it comes to browsers: It occurs on Chrome, Edge & Samsung Internet, and also on any application using 'Chrome custom tabs' for opening links internally rather than via the default browser.

But I determined just now that it doesn't occur either in Firefox or in Pocket (the save it later application/service).

Firefox and Pocket each seems to use its own custom text selection pop-up rather than the pop-up defaulted to by all the other above-named browsers.

As for the suggestion of uninstalling apps one by one: I get that in a situation where the reason for the given misbehaviour is indeterminate and indeterminable, uninstalling apps one by one may be the only troubleshooting option.

Quite where Id be meant to start with that though, I'm not sure. I have so many applications installed. I'd also need, before uninstalling to reinstall, to ensure I have everything properly backed up first, i.e. a potentially very time-consuming exercise.

Would your suggestion be that I start by uninstalling the browsers themselves, or other potentially suspect applications? Although if the browsers themselves are not at fault, I don't actually have any lead or suspicion as to what the culprit app could be.

My hope was or is that someone reading this help post and viewing the screenshots depicting the way the pop-up is showing might recognise what the underlying reason might be: Of particular note seems to be the buggy, half-concealed way the text selection pop-up appears almost frozen at exactly the same position on the page regardless of which text on the page is selected, as opposed to how it's meant to work (and works in Safe Mode), where the selection pop-up hovers next to whichever text you select.

 

[B. Diddy]

I completely understand your hesitance to uninstall apps one by one -- I wouldn't want to go through that either, and it can be prohibitively tedious if you have a lot of apps installed. And it's definitely worth waiting to see if anyone else who sees this might have had the same experience.

The fact that it happens on Chrome, Edge, and Samsung Internet, but not on Firefox, implies that the issue has to do with Chromium (which is what those first 3 browsers are based on, and Firefox isn't). But I'm still not sure what the next step should be.

Do you have any ad-blockers installed?

 

[Stunt6731]

I use a small ad-blocker named Unicorn, but it's specific only to Samsung Internet and doesn't affect Chrome, Edge or any other browser.

 

[B. Diddy]

Just to be sure, try uninstalling it temporarily and see if it makes a difference.

 

[Stunt6731]

I just did that, and it had no effect.

 

[Stunt6731]

Also just test uninstalled AVG Anti Virus, also no effect.