Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Reporting a bug in Screenshots - copy to clipboard not working

  • 9 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 21 views
  • Last reply by Papa

more options

On various and repeated occasions, 'Copy to clipboard ' from Screenshots is not working. Often works, often does not. Clipboard retains existing content when attempting to capture new Screenshot to the clipboard. Specifically, this occurs attempting to use Screenshots, copy to clipboard, then paste into a Photoshop document. Photoshop is running concurrent to the attempt.

Repeating the same screenshot, copy to clipboard a second time - typically successfully copies the content to the clipboard, then will paste into the Photoshop document.

This happens in an unpredictable frequency, no other apparent factors. I have tried to empty the clipboard before attempting a Screenshot, & copy to clipboard, but still does not consistently succeed. Will always succeed upon second attempt.

On various and repeated occasions, 'Copy to clipboard ' from Screenshots is not working. Often works, often does not. Clipboard retains existing content when attempting to capture new Screenshot to the clipboard. Specifically, this occurs attempting to use Screenshots, copy to clipboard, then paste into a Photoshop document. Photoshop is running concurrent to the attempt. Repeating the same screenshot, copy to clipboard a second time - typically successfully copies the content to the clipboard, then will paste into the Photoshop document. This happens in an unpredictable frequency, no other apparent factors. I have tried to empty the clipboard before attempting a Screenshot, & copy to clipboard, but still does not consistently succeed. Will always succeed upon second attempt.

All Replies (9)

more options

Copy to Clipboard AFAIK is a Windows O/S feature not a browser feature. Also I don't see a screenshot option on the browser.

more options

WestEnd said

Copy to Clipboard AFAIK is a Windows O/S feature not a browser feature. Also I don't see a screenshot option on the browser.

Actually, no. Mozilla recently integrated a screenshot option to Firefox. I'm attaching a screenshot of where, circled in red pen: To the right, beside the URL box. The 3-dot icon opens a pop-up with several tools. Screenshots is one of these tools.

Firefox offers 3 options to capture the screenshot: 1) download to computer 2)upload to cloud and 3) copy to clipboard. It's this option 3 that is not working consistently, as I described in post.

more options

Mozilla is no longer doing the upload screenshots feature.

https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/01/24/clarifying-the-future-of-firefox-screenshots/

As for clipboard, it does not help that the clipboard on Windows has not been as reliable as clipboard abilities on say Linux.


WestEnd said

Also I don't see a screenshot option on the browser.

The Firefox Screenshots concept has been around for a couple years now. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-screenshots

more options

James said

Mozilla is no longer doing the upload screenshots feature. https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/01/24/clarifying-the-future-of-firefox-screenshots/ As for clipboard, it does not help that the clipboard on Windows has not been as reliable as clipboard abilities on say Linux.


Yes, Mozilla recently announced it would discontinue their cloud for Screenshots. "What is happening to Screenshots? The Screenshots feature is not being removed from Firefox. Screenshots users will still be able to crop shots, capture visible parts of pages and even capture full web pages. Users will continue to be able to download these images and copy them to their clipboard."

I'd like to know from Mozilla if they are aware of any problem transferring a Screenshot to the clipboard. My hunch it has more to do with how they have integrated the O/S services into Screenshot. I have not experienced a problem of pasting to the clipboard on a Windows PC other than in this use, transferring content from the Firefox capture. Even if it were an occasional issue with the O/S, in other applications, that could be cited. I have this problem almost half the time I attempt the procedure through Screenshot. I'd like to know if anyone else encounters it , in particular with Photoshop. If the issue replicates for anyone else, we could perhaps even point to an issue Photoshop is causing. Or a flaw in how Mozilla integrates it in Firefox. I believe it is in Mozilla's interest to know about this and look at it.

I have not found where to report technical issues directly to Mozilla QC people

more options
more options

Screenshot was the final reason why I changed from Chrome to firefox. It works well for me to screenshot whole webpages BUT COPY TO CLIPBOARD and then paste the file to Windows Explorer never worked for me (100%) right from the beginning. It could save me a lot of time if it worked. How can I fix it?

1. I did the about:config - clip - dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled but it was enabled (default) already as it should be. So no problem there (see uploaded image) 2. I tried it in firefox safe mode 3. I tried the hardware acceleration (I do have enough RAM and newest equipment and updates, drivers etc.) 4. when I copy to the clipboard a message confirms I copied it to the clipboard but pasting does neither work with ctrl-v nor with right click/paste (paste looks grey - seems like nothing is in the clipboard)

Modified by Papa

more options

I should add:

when I make a screenshot and click "download" it´s saved in .png format. Firefox is storing it in the designated folder. Everything is fine and the next time it even goes back to the same folder where you have stored the last screenshot which is of GREAT help when you have to do a lot of screenshot jobs (last expression sounds funny doesn´t it?)

Problem: When I make a screenshot for the clipboard it actually DOES somehow save it (but in what format??) because I CAN ctrl+v (insert) it to Word or WordPad... -how does that work??

There must be a solution to get the contents of the clipboard into Windows explorer as a .png file directly because firefox can do it when you click "download"

Modified by Papa

more options

The clipboard works with flavors (MIME types) and an application can saves various formats on the clipboard. For images this is image/jpeg and image/jpg and image.png as the main formats. For (formatted) text this is text/unicode and text/html. The receiving application can check the content of the clipboard for flavors they support and use their preferred flavor.

When Firefox takes a screenshot and you place it on the clipboard then this is done as image/png and image/jpeg flavors.

more options

Thank You so much for your answer cor-el. I realized that only yesterday when I found out that this is not a firefox-screenshot problem. I guess I will have to do it the old way by: "download" in the screenshot programm and then change firefox in "options" to "always ask you where to save files" and then firefox will produce a .png and you can search your way to a folder where you want to save the screenshot. Thanks again.