Drag and drop issues in Safari on Sequoia

Question

Level 2

293 points

Drag and drop issues in Safari on Sequoia

I am unable to drag a URL out of the top Address and Search area in Sequoia like I used to be able to. So I cannot drag a URL, for example, into where I want it in my Bookmarks in the sidebar, nor can I drag it to the desktop for later viewing. Is anyone else seeing this?

It sometimes works on a band new window, but not always. The only workaround I have found is to open a new window, and paste the URL, then I can drag it out of the search results.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 22, 2024 6:18 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mmjan

Level 1

41 points

Sep 25, 2024 12:14 AM in response to Cthulhu

They definitely changed something to mess with our muscle memory. Click>drag>drop doesn't work when you click on the address bar to highlight it when it moves from center of the address bar to the left and becomes highlighted. Address becomes draggable when you click and immediately drag it without letting go. Then you can put it in a bookmarks folder or desktop. I hope it goes back to how it always was and I always click on the favicon and drag the address out to any destination.

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2024 9:59 AM in response to Cthulhu

Firstly: thanks to posters, especially mmjan.

I think I've got the old functionality restored. Here's what I did:

that "show full website address" checkbox?
- unchecked it
Quit safari
- then re-launched it
checked that box again
Quit safari (again)
- then re-launched it (again)

Guess what? the old functionality has returned ! (That is, I can drag from the url field just like we used to be able to.) Consistently; across several website tests. Also, website URL icons are now appearing in the URL field again (this was another symptom).

Will try this for a few days and let readers know if the problem returns.

Interpretation: a reset of a preference was needed. Still clearly a bug, IMO ... but hopefully is a thing of my past.

Regards to all readers.

(MBP 16 M3; OS 15.0.1; Safari 18.0.1)

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 10

82,168 points

Sep 23, 2024 7:10 AM in response to Cthulhu

Hmm... "Show full website address" is checked on our Mac's that are upgraded to Sequoia.

We can highlight, then drag the URL from there to anywhere including the desktop.

What Extensions are installed on your Mac's, we have and use "No Extensions" here.

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

50,698 points

Sep 23, 2024 7:46 AM in response to Cthulhu

Cthulhu wrote:

For anyone else who happens across this, I created another user account, and I did not see the issue. Then I noticed the default setting under Safari -> Settings -> Advanced for "Show full website address" is off. Turning it on causes the problem to manifest itself. Checked a second Mac, and same issue.

Seems to work fine here, regardless of this setting.

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Answer 5

Sep 24, 2024 12:00 AM in response to Cthulhu

I have the same issue. It is really frustrating. On 2 Macs same problem. Tried Clean Safari without extensions, tried Full Address.. only thing that worked is copy address to new Safari window and before clicking Return -> drag n Drop.

It is the most used function for me.. really hope there will be a solution soon

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Answer 6

Cthulhu Author

Level 2

293 points

Sep 23, 2024 5:38 AM in response to den.thed

Thanks, den.thed.

For anyone else who happens across this, I created another user account, and I did not see the issue. Then I noticed the default setting under Safari -> Settings -> Advanced for "Show full website address" is off. Turning it on causes the problem to manifest itself. Checked a second Mac, and same issue.

So this appears to be a bug, but if you use the default settings, you'll never see it. I'll fill out a feedback form for Apple.

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Answer 7

Cthulhu Author

Level 2

293 points

Sep 25, 2024 7:13 AM in response to mmjan

Oh my - if I change the tab view to compact, it works just as you describe. Then there is no favicon at all, but at least we can drag a URL again. This update should have come with a bottle of acetaminophen.

My continued thanks to all those who gave this a try and replied.

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Answer 8

Cthulhu Author

Level 2

293 points

Sep 23, 2024 2:14 PM in response to etresoft

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, @etresoft. My goodness, no - I assure you I have no such expectations. I can feel your frustration, but my goal was to find evidence outside our organization before thinking it was a bug that had to go past our IT group. I have *never* felt this forum was dismissive or was a bug reporting mechanism, and I'm sorry you've encountered that. People here are generally awesome. Apple users are generally awesome :-)

Here's what I did:

Factory reset a Mac - no data, no apps, no nothing. No iCloud account. As close to out of the box as I could make it. I did this as a prelude to installing Sonoma due to VPN issues, but the VPN app is not installed yet.
Open Safari
Go to www.apple.com
Try and drag the site icon onto the desktop - does not work
Try and triple-click to select the entire URL and drag - does not work
Remove the last character of the URL until the "Top Hit" shows www.apple.com - drag that icon - works!

I see the same behavior on my daily driver, except I can sometimes get it to work as long as I never leave the search field (i.e., if I click on the desktop, then click back in the browser, it will never work).

I don't have a way to test something that's not on our network, but watching Wireshark there is too much HTTPS traffic even just sitting idle for me to really figure this one out.

It's pretty clear to me based on this and other requests I put out that it's just my organization. And we're reeling from the Sequoia update without the time to diagnose given there is a pretty easy workaround.

Many thanks to everyone for confirming it's working as expected.

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Answer 9

PRP_53

Level 10

91,267 points

Sep 23, 2024 7:37 AM in response to Cthulhu

Using macOS 15.0 Sequoia and Safari Version 18.0 (20619.1.26.31.6)

The Only Safari Extension is "Ad and Stuff Blocker "

Safari >> Settings >> Advanced >> with " Show Full website address " enabled

I can Drag the url from the Search Bar in Safari into a TextEdit file and works

Can do the same and Drag the url to the Desktop of the computer

It does create a Weblock file on the Desktop

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Answer 10

Sep 25, 2024 9:48 AM in response to den.thed

Good afternoon,

I am having the same problem with not being able to drag a URL into my bookmarks folders. I have noticed that when "Safari is using an encrypted connection" (you will know this is happening when you see a little Lock to the left of the URL) to load the web page I can not drag the URL into any of my bookmarks folders. See screenshot for the notice - This is what you see if you click on the little Lock to the left of the URL.

I CAN drag any URLs that are not encrypted by Safari.

I don't know if this is a glitch or if there is a work around, so if anyone has any info on this issue please let us know.

Thanx

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Answer 11

Sep 25, 2024 11:44 AM in response to Cthulhu

Changing the Tab Layout to "Compact" fix the problem for me!!!!

Thanx

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Answer 12

etresoft

Level 9

50,698 points

Sep 23, 2024 10:53 AM in response to Cthulhu

Cthulhu wrote:

as soon as the search bar loses focus, it never works again.

Under what conditions does that happen?

If you can construct a step-by-step sequence of actions to reproduce the bug, then other people can try that. Otherwise, we are left with trying to reproduce a loss of focus in the search bar using whatever method we can think of. Change tab, change window, change app, it all seems to work.

I think a lot of people are maybe running old 3rd party system modifications or something. Then, a new OS update comes out and that old app is now broken. They post a message here, collect a few "me too" replies, and think Cupertino is reading their thread and scrambling to fix it. I can assure you that nothing of the sort is happening.

If you are able to reproduce the bug in a clean environment, provide a good step-by-step sequence to reproduce it, and file a bug report with Apple then....again nothing. A major bug affecting many users might get fixed in 2-3 months. A bug where the operating system behaves in a significant way that Apple didn't expect might get fixed in 6 months. Or never. Many bugs only ever get "fixed" when Apple ports the next portion of iOS code over to the Mac the next year.

Year, after year, after year, after year, it's always the same. So if people on this forum seem dismissive, it's merely from repetition. If you can find a bug - great! We would love to see it and confirm it so we can help people with workarounds in the future. But the bug simply ain't ever gonna get fixed. That's the brutal truth.

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