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?