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Cannot copy text in Confluence database

RC_x2yijd

I cannot figure out how to copy text in a Confluence database by click dragging and highlighting text to copy. Is there some kind of functionality I need to enable to make this happen? The lack of this basic function would be a deal breaker for me. I do not want to copy the contents of an entire cell, just selected parts. Thanks for your help!

Comments

Michael Sommer_iwuuo6

Hello, Michael here from the Confluence database team. Thanks for reaching out!

Sorry you are having issues copying. I would like to understand your issue better.

It sounds like you are having issues highlighting subtext in a field, and then copying it. Is this correct?

1. What field type are you trying to copy from?

2. Are you able to highlight the text you want to copy?

3. Are you attempting to copy by "right clicking" and choosing "copy" from a menu, or are you using keyboard shortcuts such as CMD+C?

RC_x2yijd

Hi Michael,

Thanks for following up! Yes, you are correct, I am not able to highlight text in a field, or to copy it when viewing the database in table layout.

1. The field types in my database are text and tags.

2. No, I'm not able to highlight text I want to copy.

3. I have tried clicking/dragging with my mouse/touchpad, right clicking/copy from menu, and using keyboard commands. Right clicking brings up this menu which doesn't have a copy option.

Screenshot 2025-04-03 114055.png

Using keyboard commands don't work either. For example, if I click inside a cell and use Ctrl+A to highlight text, it highlights the entire table and not just the contents of the cell, even if my mouse is active in the cell. I have tried highlighting text in both editing and viewer-only modes.

If I'm viewing the database in card or board layout, I'm able to highlight text only if I single-click the cell in "database entry" view. However, it doesn't copy the text to the clipboard (i.e., Ctrl+C didn't work and right-click menu was same as above).

Thanks for your help!

Michael Sommer_iwuuo6

Hey!

Thanks for the information. I am unable to reproduce the issue you are facing. The next step here would be a request for you to create a video of what is happening so we can better understand it, or for someone from Atlassian to access your instance and troubleshoot. It is probably better if you file a support ticket here where someone from Atlassian can work with you to direct things to the databases team, and we can fix your issue.

Apologies for all this, and thank you for your patience.

Samuel Huber

Hi
I'm facing the same issue.
Doing some more test, it seems to be Firefox related.
With MS Edge, Text can be selected with the mouse cursor.
But this is not working with Firefox 137.0.1 (64-bit)

And yes, right-click context item "copy content" would be nice!
Because if you only have view rights, you can't select/copy anything from the database.

Here a screen record with editor access.. (first in Firefox, then in MS Edge)

RC_x2yijd

Thank you Samuel for sharing that and including the recording!! I should have mentioned that I had tested this in Firefox and Chrome but not MS Edge so at least I can confirm that it's also not possible to select/copy text in Chrome. However, if it's also not possible to select/copy text with "view rights" only, that is also a deal breaker for me.

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