Can't drag the cursor up in text messages on new iphone 15 Pro iOS 17

It appears that update 17.2.1 has fixed it for the most part. Cursor still moves a bit randomly, but at least you can get close to the top of the message and near the edit point.

Just had that happen to me twice in the last two days. What I ended up doing was “selecting all” the text and copying it to the notepad. From notepad, you can make your edits wherever you want. Then I had to “select all” the text from notepad and copy it back to the Original text box to send it. The glitch is a pain.

This is not a “fix” by any means but it is a little trick I figured out that helps moving the cursor within the text body that is out window view …

Plop the cursor where you need it, just like you usually would and, when it jumps back to the end of the message [and the cursor is out of view], TAP THE BACKSPACE BUTTON JUST ONCE and the screen view should revert back up to where you put it. You may have to correct anything that was deleted when you hit the backspace key but your cursor is, at least, in view and you’re able to carry on … saving you hours of fruitlessly tapping, slamming, swearing, crying, pulling hair, terrorizing loved ones and hurling your phone against the wall. Hope this helps!

zenpop_seattle wrote:

No, if it’s a super long text message the ’feature’ you suggest doesn’t work as your still unable to scroll/move the cursor up into the parts of the message that reside higher, beyond the view of the text message field.

Yes, it works even with a long message. Where you might have a problem is if you preview the message by pulling down. This makes the keyboard disappear. But, as long as you press on the spacebar and then keep your finger on the screen, you can move the cursor to the top of the message. Note that your finger may go above the keyboard. That's okay.

The issue appears to be not with a new phone but with the new operating system iOS 17. While a few have said 17.1 fixes the issue, others have said it does not and the issue persists with all iOS 17 updates (so far up to 17.1.1). 

For this text message editing issue, a workaround, while far from ideal, has been to ‘select all’, cut and paste into ‘notes’, edit, paste back into messages. 

It has been stated by users that the difficulties with the cursor in the messages app are not isolated to the messages app. The cursor has been found to be hard to control elsewhere when operating iOS17: such as when writing in this forum - e.g. one taps in a location of text and the cursor refuses to go there or it selects text that one does not wish it to. 

However, when writing in ‘notes’ there is no issue with the cursor in iOS17. It works normally just like in iOS 16. 

In summary the problem appears to be fairly broad around the cursor - cursor problems showing themselves in a number of apps/interfaces when one is using iOS17. 

It appears that this problem has not yet been resolved by Apple.

I may have figured out how to solve this problem fairly easily. Nothing that was suggested in this discussion was working for my phone and this problem was so frustrating since my phone updated two nights ago. I constantly edit my texts before I send them, and now with this update, I was pulling my hair out. UNTIL— I happen to hold the cursor at the very beginning of the text, which seemed to reset the cursor, which enabled me to edit anywhere in the message. I have tried this several times, and it has worked each time. I hope this works for you all! So much easier than to cut and paste and put in notes to edit!

You win the prize for best solution! Thank you! I dictate my long messages because of my carpal tunnel. Which means the usual translation problems when dictating, meaning I must often manually or verbally edit the message in different spots. So I have tried your suggestion: place the cursor where I want, let the view bounce back annoyingly to the bottom of the message, then I press the mic button and start dictating. My dictation starts exactly where I had placed the cursor, it pops correctly into view so I can see what I am dictating, and it seems to work every time. As you say, it also works perfectly with manual typing. Just messes with my head a bit. The whole thing is still ridiculous, but thank you so much for sharing that.

I share the advice I got from a couple other users that was extremely helpful to me. When this problem occurs, and you are incorrectly popped back down to the bottom of the message, the cursor is actually where you placed it. So if you start texting or dictating, your view shifts to the correct spot where you had placed the cursor and you can see what you are typing. Then everything works fine. I find it very disorienting, but this does seem to work. Meanwhile, Apple, please fix this problem!

I have the same problem on my iPhone XS since the update to iOS 17. This is not the only bug that I've come across but it is probably the most annoying. The only work around I've found is cut/pasting the message a paragraph at a time into Notes and then editing it and copy/pasting it back into Messages. Even though I know that I should just start in Notes, sometimes I don't plan on writing a long message, but I do. It would be nice if Apple were to fix this. Obviously, it doesn't seem like it would take much.

drumkroozer wrote:

Pain in the neck but the easiest fix for now until they fix it in text messages is to type long texts in Notes then cut and paste them into the text.

You can also use the sharing button to move the text from Notes to Messages.

I had the same problem when I upgraded to the iPhone 15. It was driving me CRAZY! Someone had posted a couple of possible solutions and one actually worked:

**Click where you want to edit. The cursor will move to the end of text UNTIL you start typing, then it will reposition to the correct spot.

Hoping this works for others as well!

I had that issue too and I am on iPhone 12 Pro Max. With the latest update I find that I have to hold my finger on the insertion point and when the magnifying bubble pops up, then I can drag the cursor where I need to drag it. But it’s a lot more cumbersome than it has been in the past and I’m not really liking it.

#1 works like a charm. We always use the the space bar | cursor method but it wasn't working for long message edits at the top until positioning the cursor at the very end of the message and moving it up. Thanks so much. It was driving my wife and I nuts.

I select all then cut and paste to Notes then update in there then paste back into Messages. Annoying hassle, but that’s a workaround.

Susie237 wrote:

I just wrote a long text and nearly cried.

I have, for years, recommended using Notes if you're going to compose long messages. Text messaging apps just aren't designed for doing that. The are designed for short messages and tend to give unexpected results when used for longer one. This is especially true if you think you may need to switch to another app in the middle of writing. You may find the message is gone when you switch back to Messages (has to do with memory management). Once you've created the message, it's very easy to send it to the Messages app using the share icon (square with an arrow coming out of the top).