Ability to Drag/Drag-Select Spontaneously Disappears

Ever since upgrading to v10, I intermittently lose the ability to drag files.

I can single-click to highlight, but cannot drag them.

I've search settings for 'drag' and find 'Allow single file drag' option which is checked.

The only mostly-reliable way I can find to restore the function for a short time is to search for the above value, uncheck/check it, and then OK out of the prefs dialog.

Then I can drag files for awhile, but it will usually stop working when I change folders again.

I submitted this to support, and it was suggested that I'm dropping into Power Mode accidentally, but I am not. I checked from the view dropdown icon and I'm in Details mode, now Power.

Very frustrating. Suggestions? Thanks.

The allow single file drag option only applies to Power Mode so I'd be surprised if Power Mode isn't involved somehow.

When you say you checked the view drop-down, was that when the drag problem was happening? The view mode may change in reaction to changing folder (depending on configuration; power mode is never used by default, but may have been set in some of your folder formats).

Try configuring Power Mode to use unusual grid lines so if you do accidentally end up in that mode it's immediately obvious that you have, which will also help work out what just happened to trigger the change. (Or it'll confirm that you never go into power mode, if you never see the grid lines.)

PS: Please fix your anti-spam system so it does not generate challenge emails (which are really just more spam for other people to deal with) in response to automated messages sent by forums you sign up to.

spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/329.html
joewein.de/sw/spam-challenge-response.htm

As well as placing the burden of dealing with your spam on other people, such systems are fatally flawed. If I were using a similar system, neither of us would ever be able to email each other.

(I've whitelisted "resource.dopus.com" -- if there's another generating email domain let me know.)

That's a good suggestion. I've set Power Mode to turn on hideously bright red dashed lines so I'll know if it's on the next time I see the problem (shouldn't be long).

Okay, it has occurred again, and since I'm watching so closely, I may have a clue.

I was dragging items just fine, then I used Ctrl to multiple-select a few folders. Then I could not drag anything. Not only could I not click/drag, I could not lasso files either.

But while I was typing this reply, sometimes when I changed focus from DOpus to my browser and back, the problem resolved, but multi-select w/Ctrl would always reintroduce the oddity.

If I switch to another already-open lister, its drag is working fine, until I multi-select with Ctrl.

Oh, almost forgot to mention -- most definitely did not enter the red-gridlined Power mode when this occurred.

I'd welcome a DOpus support person to remote in via TeamViewer if it might help diagnose the problem.

When it goes wrong in a window, try tapping the ctrl key.

If that fixes the window's behaviour then the window must be thinking ctrl is still held down, and not noticing when it is released the first time.

What's the exact sequence of keyboard and mouse actions that you do? For example, I might do this:

[ul][li]Push and hold ctrl[/li]
[li]Left-click and release on a file[/li]
[li]Left-click and release on a file[/li]
[li]Let go of ctrl[/li]
[li]Left-click and hold on one of the files[/li]
[li]Drag over to the Windows desktop[/li]
[li]Release the left button.[/li][/ul]

Are you doing things in the same order, or something slightly different? When is ctrl released? What's the program you're dropping on?

Are you pushing the real ctrl key, or something more unusual like a mouse button configured to mimic ctrl? (I have a button that mimics shift, and sometimes the mouse drivers confuse things and various apps act as if shift is still held down in certain situations, which is why I ask.)

It's far more mundane than that. I just reproduced the condition with these simple steps:

[ul][li] Confirm click/drag is working[/li]
[li] Press Ctrl on keyboard[/li]
[li] Release Ctrl on keyboard[/li]
[li] Observe that click/drag is no longer working[/li][/ul]

Also, I confirmed that Sticky Keys is not enabled in Windows. Though if it were, pressing/releasing Ctrl I would expect to remedy the problem, but doesn't. :frowning:

If you open Settings -> Customize -> Keys is anything bound to just Ctrl on its own? (It'll say "Ctrl +" as the hotkey, i.e. ctrl plus nothing.)

I can't think of anything else that would cause what you're seeing, unless the keyboard drivers are doing something strange. (But then you'd probably have problems in other apps as well.) Might be worth seeing if there are newer keyboard (and mouse) drivers for your hardware, just in case, even if it is a long-shot. (If it's a Logitech keyboard, their keyboard drivers treat different programs differently and have caused me some issues in the past, so it's not inconceivable, but still a shot in the dark.)

If there was a general problem with this then I'm sure we would've heard about it from lots of people, since pushing ctrl, and drag & drop, are really common. Quite odd, really. :frowning:

FYI, failing a resolution here I started a systematic process of elimination, and found the problem was not related to Logitech mouse/keyboard drivers, but rather Synergy software KVM.

I control multiple PCs from one PC's keyboard/mouse using Synergy. Previous versions of DOpus didn't care about it, but 10 appears to not like something about Synergy, leading to the occasional inability to drag/drop described above.

Just to add on....I'll be posting this in its own thread also....

I regularly lose the ability to drag files in DO. It happens in both power mode and details. I'm running DO 10 on Win 7 x64 Ultimate. It's intermittent and VERY frustrating.

Edit: Here is the thread.

In response to REDdimensions problem, I just came across the same bug. Drag/Drop stops working (only inside Dopus, nowhere else) as soon as I press any key inside Dopus (even Alt+Tab to switch windows), and it starts working again if I press any key outside of Dopus, or if you press a button that spawns another program/dialog from Dopus, like F1 for Help (which opens HTML Help) or Alt+Enter for Properties (which opens an Explorer/Shell dialog).

However, it seems it's only apparent when running Synergy in admin mode, so a workaround here seems to be running Synergy in non-elevated state (which doesn't seem to impair any main functionality that I can see).

REDdimension: Did you post a bug with Synergy on this? Hard to say if it's Dopus' or Synergy's fault since I can only find problems between these two programs, no other ones.