Copy + Paste Error Resulted In Loss of Text In Card Activity Section

JM_409xx8

Trello notice that activity section comment was too long prompted me to copy a section of what I'd just typed for pasting into a new activity comment, but Trello deleted the cut text and pasted a link to the card instead!  My carefully-written text is now lost and the error persists.  What happened to copy + paste in Trello and how can I 1) recover my lost text and 2) copy + paste again like before this error showed up?

DiMaggio Tucci

Ah, I think hovering over a card (while not having the card open) and using the copy shortcut can cause Trello to copy the link to the card. Not sure if that could have happened to you somehow.

If you have the comment window open and haven't refreshed, try using the undo keyboard shortcut (if you're using a device with a keyboard), or just re-opening the comment and seeing if the text is somehow still there.

Most operating systems store clipboard data in a list, so you can get previous clipboard content even after you copy something else. Most likely, you are using Windows in a browser. Unfortunately, Windows (for security reasons) won't store clipboard content like that unless you've explicitly enabled it. It might be worth checking if whatever you are using, Windows or not, has backed up your clipboard data, but it's even more likely this is just something you'll want to set up for the future, rather than something to help you now. Check it out, though! Maybe it's enabled on your device.

It's unlikely your browser stored it; I've never seen a browser store text entered into a comment in Trello, and I think you would have to submit it first even if it did with the current implementation.

Also, for what it's worth, when I'm typing something longer that would be hard to retype if I lost it, I just type it in some other application that saves as I am typing the text, first. On the newest versions of Windows, both Notepad and Sticky Notes actually save as you type, and they support undo/redo if you make a mistake and delete it while typing.

Think about it, even if this issue hadn't come up with Trello overwriting the clipboard, what if your device suddenly crashed? If you're typing something long, it's a good tech habit to type it somewhere that saves as you type for ANYTHING, not just Trello, so that there's almost NO scenario where you can lose your precious text.

 

So there are some options for you to check, and it is possible you could recover the text. The only reason I wouldn't think Atlassian can help is that it sounds like you needed to shorten the text in order for it to be saved, so, if it never saved, I doubt they have a copy. Even if you cannot recover it, I highly recommend the habit of typing long text into an application that saves-as-you-type; this isn't just for Trello, it's across the board when using tech in general. It's something I learned working high-pace customer service jobs.

If saving your clipboard is something that is not enabled, you could enable it if you want to. I actually prefer it to be off for security reasons, and I think that's best practice, but it's up to you.

 

Let me know if my assumption about what happened is wrong, and/or, just maybe, your text is stored in your clipboard!