Synergy-core: Unable to drag-select in MS Office

[nbolton]

Imported issue:

• Author: Jaspreet Sidhu
• Date: 2012-02-21 07:22:43
• Legacy ID: 3113
• Version: 1.4.7

Steps to reproduce:

1. Click and drag no longer works when using 1.4.6 or 1.4.7. Using a Logitech Performance Mouse MX and in applications such as Chrome address bar, Photoshop, Microsoft Word, I can double-click to select/highlight a word, but cannot click & hold to select/highlight text. In Photoshop, I can not draw a selection box by clicking and dragging.

Expected: should be able to select, highlight text
Actual: unable to create a selection box and/or highlight text

Versions (Synergy, OS):

Server: 1.4.7 Windows 7 x64 both as a service and just running normally
Client 1: 1.4.7 Mac OS X 10.7.3

Workaround:

Disable server

Comments:

log shows no errors, is there a debug version?

Also applies to, Photoshop, and other applications

[nbolton]

• Author: Jaspreet Sidhu
• Date: 2012-02-21 07:23:33

also, unrelated, but autoupdater request ?

[nbolton]

• Author: Nick Bolton
• Date: 2012-03-04 14:57:54

Which platform does the problem occur on? I'm guessing Mac client?

[nbolton]

• Author: Nick Bolton
• Date: 2012-03-04 14:58:28

Jaspreet Sidhu wrote:

also, unrelated, but autoupdater request ?

#2948

[nbolton]

• Author: Jaspreet Sidhu
• Date: 2012-03-04 17:57:43

Nick Bolton wrote:

Which platform does the problem occur on? I'm guessing Mac client?

No, on the Windows server... that's the interesting part. For example, (on the Windows x64 server), I can double click and highlight words or text whether it's in the address bar and/or in a word document, but I cannot "left click, hold, and drag" to select text.

I need to check to see if this also is a problem on the Mac client or not. Will check back today and update.

[nbolton]

• Author: Peter Peter
• Date: 2012-03-06 12:26:46

I have the same problem, 2x Win7 x64 and click/hold/drag doesn't work in chrome or photoshop; it works in other applications though and also works fine on the client

[nbolton]

• Author: Justin Chant
• Date: 2012-03-24 17:49:07

This issue occurs on my 1.4.7 Server running on Windows 7 _32 bit_.

[nbolton]

• Author: Robert Murphy
• Date: 2012-04-02 15:16:00

I'm using this on two 64-bit Windows 7 machines. I have this issue, but it appears to me that what is actually happening is that additional mouse clicks are being sent. When you try to drag something it will often start to drag then stop dragging. Sometimes when I single click on something, it double clicks instead. For example, in NetBeans I go to click on a tab, but it double clicks instead, causing the tab to be selected and the side panels on the left to be hidden. So I think the nature of the bug is that perhaps an extra phantom click is being transmitted, like maybe a deprecated function call is still being called in addition to the new function, causing things to appear to work normally when they both execute close enough together, but when one is delayed, having the clicks separated more causes strange behavior when clicking or trying to drag a window or icon. Just speculating, I really have no idea what I am talking about as far as the internals, just trying to describe what I observe.

[nbolton]

• Author: Geoffrey Knutzen
• Date: 2012-04-06 23:50:50

I can verify this as well, though I can't give anymore details than have already been given.
Windows 7 64 bit, server. Can not drag in photoshop or word. Comes and goes though. If I stop synergy server, the problems go away. And never happen until I start the server.

[nbolton]

• Author: Ray Barbieri
• Date: 2012-04-09 16:46:20

I am using windows 7 64-bit. I can't select with the mouse (as others indicate). I am not seeing the irratic bahvior that Robert Murphy indicates. It acts like there is a _meta_ key pressed. If I kill Synergy, the problem goes away.

1. Using synergy as the host to two other windows 7 machines
2. once everything is connected and working, open word and either triple click or try to select a word with with right mouse click-drag

Result: the selection highlight does not move.

Quit Synergy on the host and the problem goes away.

A possible related problem is I'm having trouble launching new tabs in IE9. Sometimes when I click a link, I don't get a new tab and IE is in some in-between state. I'm still troubleshooting this but did notice that the problem disappeared when I killed synergy.

Again, could be some sort of meta key but I tried pressing alt, ctl, shift, windows etc but selection capability does not return until I quit synergy.

[nbolton]

• Author: Ray Barbieri
• Date: 2012-04-09 17:07:22

Also, when it gets into this state (which I haven't figured out yet), the scroll mouse also stops functioning on the host (server) only. Still works on the clients.

Also, select in notepad works but select in winword (2010) does not.

[nbolton]

• Author: Thorsten Kneisel
• Date: 2012-04-17 08:39:14

In Photoshop no brush stroke is possible due to this bug. Every stroke is just a dot as the mouse-down is interupted immediately.
I cannot confirm any problem in chrome's adress bar, works fine here.
I do not have MS Office installed here so I cannot confirm this bug there neither.

The bug only happens on the server. It is there since I started to use Synergy (v 1.3)

2x Win7-64bit. Photoshop CS5. Wacom Cintiq.

[nbolton]

• Author: Geoffrey Knutzen
• Date: 2012-04-23 17:00:51

I can also replicate not being able to open new tabs in IE8 when the server is running. It is intermittent though

[nbolton]

• Author: Joshua Lewis
• Date: 2012-05-11 07:12:04

Running Windows 7 x64, with Synergy 1.4.8
Same issue on Windows Vista x32, with Synergy 1.4.8

I only get the error when running the server in Service mode, but not desktop mode. Client does not exhibit these issues.

Chrome 18.0.1025.168 m:

Open fresh application
Must manually type an address or search term, this will stop click and drag from working in all address bars in tabs and new windows until restart of Chrome.
Will not break if using a link from the "Most Visited" or "Apps"
Stopping the service while "click and drag" is broken in Chrome will instantly correct the problem and "Click and Drag" returns.

I found this is also affecting ViaCad Pro v7, to replicate the server has to be running. To start the issue the user must click the "space bar" to pan the model view. This causes the issue to not allow for any additional moves. As is with Chrome, stopping the service will instantly correct the issue.

[nbolton]

• Author: nikolaus p
• Date: 2012-06-20 09:35:06

I can confirm the same Problem. Using a WIN7 64bit as server and a MACBOOk Pro 10.7.4 as a client.
Trying to move a picture in Lightroom it only accepts the first click but doesn't recognize that I'm holding the button.
I'm using the latest Beta 1.4.8.

[nbolton]

• Author: nikolaus p
• Date: 2012-06-20 09:47:42

Just found out it only happens during draging a foto, when i paint on a picture its recognized the right way.

[nbolton]

• Author: Jason Simone
• Date: 2012-06-25 18:56:59

I experience this issue as well. It is consistent within Photoshop CS6, whereas some applications like Microsoft Word are intermittent. In that case, I was able to correct the dragging issue by restarting the Synergy service.

I am running version 1.4.8 in Service mode on a Windows 7 Pro x64 machine. I have not yet tested to see if this still occurs when in Desktop mode as Joshua suggests.

[nbolton]

• Author: Bill Deakin
• Date: 2012-07-04 08:10:22

Same problem here. Running Synergy 1.4.8 in server mode as a service on a Win7 64bit machine, controlling 3 clients : a Win7, a Vista and an OSX 10.6. I get the same problem of not being able to drag some of the time. As other people have reported, dragging in Photoshop doesn't work (though strangely, drawing lines which requires a mouse drag does). Same in several other applications. Selecting text by dragging in the Chrome address bar doesn't work, but does in the body of the application.

I've discovered that double tapping the Windows key will allow me to drag one time, but then it happens again. So, I have to double tap the Windows key every time...

Problem only occurs on the server, no problems on any of my host machines.

[nbolton]

• Author: Mark Ache
• Date: 2012-07-05 20:49:09

These bugs are likely all duplicates of each other. There are probably more but I only looked through about 12 pages of issues:

#437 #3264 #3113 #2751 #3060

• Problem
  
  
  
  • Actions (mostly with the mouse) do not have expected results (mostly click and drag, some just clicking, some keyboard input)
  
  
• Reproduce Prerequisites
  
  
  
  • The problem occurs with Synergy Server running on Windows 7
  
  
  • The problems are on the Server/Host Machine
  
  
  • A connected client is not required to reproduce
  
  
  • Seems like a requirement is Synergy running as a service
  
  
• Workarounds (somewhat):
  
  
  
  • The problems seem to start after keyboard input to the current window
  
  
  • Alt-tabbing away and back removes the problem until more keyboard input
  
  
• Applications with the problem:
  
  
  
  • Chrome - can't click and drag in address box
  
  
  • Internet Explorer
  
  
  • clicking new tab shows new tab window, but doesn't make new tab
  
  
  • ctrl-t does the same as above
  
  
  • Photoshop - can't use click and drag tools like marquee
  
  

Currently the best fix seems to be to not run Synergy as a service.

[nbolton]

• Author: Dustin Davisson
• Date: 2012-11-19 19:04:50

Verified on Windows 8 Professional 64-bit using both 32 and 64 bit versions of applications.

[nbolton]

• Author: Guy Atlas
• Date: 2013-02-03 21:52:23

Same problem on Windows 8 x64, server side, with Word 2010. If you do not type first, you can click and drag to select. If you type anything, you can no longer click and drag. Wow, this seems like a strange bug to me. Good luck.

[nbolton]

• Author: Guy Atlas
• Date: 2013-02-03 21:55:48

more info. also occurs in google chrome. no client is attached. shutting down the Synergy server immediately solves the problem without having to even restart word.

[nbolton]

• Author: Michael Rodger
• Date: 2013-02-05 18:19:53

Confirm the same problems with Chrome on Win7 x64 running 1.4.10 as a service, elevated privileges.
Client doesn't have the same problem, only the server.
Word 2010 does the same thing.

NOTE: Turning off elevated privileges makes the problem go away. I think I turned it on for UAC, but I'll see how it goes.
Far more convenient than not running as a service.

[nbolton]

• Author: Shabad Chawla
• Date: 2013-02-11 11:47:59

Confirm the same problem running Synergy v1.4.10 in server mode on Win 7 x64 Enterprise SP1.

Additional information: I only see the loss of click/drag (highlight) functionality in certain applications and the loss of functionality is intermittent. It seems to routinely disappear when switching to a Mac client and back to Windows server (but not always).

[nbolton]

• Author: Bronislav Gabrhelik
• Date: 2013-02-12 11:04:08

I am confirming the same problem running Synergy v1.4.10 in server mode on Win 7 x64 Enterprise SP1. I cannot select the text by click and drag in Microsoft Office 2013 applications. I can repro it in Outlook 2013 & Word 2013.

[nbolton]

• Author: Jonathan Taufer
• Date: 2013-02-12 17:25:10

This bug should be a higher priority.
I've noticed historical iterations of this bug that show up through google have been marked as invalid. As in, synergy has known about this since 2009 but can't replicate it. Oh well. Guess we'll just have to deal with buggy software.

[nbolton]

• Author: Johnny Walker
• Date: 2013-02-27 21:44:42

I have this problem in Windows 7 32bit without Synergy even running. Uninstalling synergy fixes it. Another workaround is to click into an MS Lync window and back to Word/Outlook (Word editor) and it will allow you to select and highlight text again.

[nbolton]

• Author: Vitor Antunes
• Date: 2013-03-12 17:53:47

I am experiencing this same bug in Windows 8 x64 with photoshop CS6 x64. No dragging even in the menus before opening a file. Sometimes works ok for a while after ctrl+shift+alt Photoshop startup, but most of times when you trigger something like curves etc dragging is gone. disabling the server fixes it with no need to restart photoshop.

[nbolton]

• Author: Angel Delgado
• Date: 2013-04-12 19:35:04

I have this issue also, on Windows 8 64-bit.

[nbolton]

• Author: Stuart Clark
• Date: 2013-04-16 16:59:58

Confirmed for Windows 8 64bit, tested on two different installs. Word 2010, Chrome

[nbolton]

• Author: Dan Darden
• Date: 2013-04-16 19:56:10

I'm not even sure what Synergy is. I found this thread because I was having a problem clicking and dragging, as well as double-clicking to select text. Mainly in Internet Explorer. Some windows will allow it, others will not. Sometimes quadruple clicking will select text, sometimes triple clicking will do it, and sometimes no number of clicks will do it. No matter what, I cannot click and drag to select text. Some text boxes will not operate properly. I have a Logitech M215 mouse, and a wired keyboard. Also, Alt-Tab will not function. If I hold down Alt-Tab for a while I can see the program selection overlay appear for a short time, and other times it will not appear at all but the focus of the window changes. Not sure what is causing this problem but it does not appear to be related to Synergy, or Adobe CS software. First noticed it after a Flash update today.

[nbolton]

• Author: Jean-Michel Berne
• Date: 2013-04-18 09:20:25

Synergy 1.4.10 on Vista Home Premium (32), in use for a about week.
Clic and drag becomes impossible in MS Word 2010 once you've hit a key.
It's also impossible to move margins, indents and tabs.
Restarting the Synergy service or typing text in another app (even Windows Run... dialog box) makes C&D working again as long as you do not hit any key.
I didn't want to give any money before an evaluation of the tool. I think I'll still wait, though Synergy is a very good idea.
JMB

[nbolton]

• Author: Dan Darden
• Date: 2013-04-19 18:00:56

I have fixed this error. This whole system of errors and bugs was due to Java being installed. I uninstalled Java and EVERYTHING WORKS GREAT!!!!

[nbolton]

• Author: mark weisenfeld
• Date: 2013-04-24 20:20:27

This has nothing to do with Java. Here is what I know, and it's pretty encouraging.
I have a 64bit Windows8 (pro) as server (elevated) and a Mac OSX 10.7.5 client (BTW This Mac will not allow the client to insert text on the clipboard, but the Win machine will take text from the Mac. That's OK for me.)
I just tested after Java uninstall and the problem still exists. I had both JRE and JDK and took them both off.
I scanned the bugs for which one to vote for and saw that there are a few that are related to clipboard, cut/paste and sticky keys between consoles.
The sticky keys problem was completely new to me so I decided to research that as a possible reason for this problem.

PROBLEM REVIEW: On restart and doing some normal work most Windows applications will no longer select text with the mouse. You can select with the shift arrow keys. When you do get something selected you cannot drag it anywhere.

I can go to the Mac and select with the mouse and use the right-click context to copy.
Then go the Win machine and paste using the right-click context menu.
From this point on the problem exists on the Win machine.
Some fixes, I found just now, are:

1. Type an uppercase letter into this data entry textarea, here, as I am typing these words. (but not by typing into the original document.) WEIRD!
2. Hold down the shift key while sliding over to the Mac and click or double-click and release the shift key, then return to the Windows server and the problem is gone.

I am very happy to learn all this myself and will now deploy this work-around whenever I see the problem occur. It is far better than shutting down the Synergy service in disgust.

[nbolton]

• Author: mark weisenfeld
• Date: 2013-04-24 20:41:29

POOP!
The preceding "work-around" did NOT work in the Outlook editor.
Still working to isolate the work around.

[nbolton]

• Author: mark weisenfeld
• Date: 2013-04-24 20:46:57

If I open up another one of these textarea data entry controls (on this web page in Chrome) and enter text, then the Outlook email editor will again allow dragging to select etc.

[nbolton]

• Author: mark weisenfeld
• Date: 2013-04-24 22:35:18

Me again.
Apparently the 32bit text editor used by Outlook is somehow more sensitive to whatever this bug is. I can be working completely in the Win machine (Synergy server) and Outlook will stop dragging. Then I can go to some other application, like this web page (32bit Chrome), and do some edits, and come back to Outlook and it will work again. Something associated with Synergy causes the Outlook editor (and other apps) to lose drag functionality and then later some other actions make it come back. None of this entails any access of the Mac, the remote client machine. If I paste from anything into Outlook I will loose the drag funtionality.
(If I stop the remote Synergy client he problem is unchanged. If I stop the Synergy server all this weirdness goes away.)

[nbolton]

• Author: Jeremy Radwan
• Date: 2013-05-17 13:31:10

I started having this problem after upgrading to 1.4.12 (Windows 8 Pro x64). It seems to happen mostly in Office apps (Outlook, Word, etc.).

[nbolton]

• Author: Guy Gordon
• Date: 2013-05-19 10:54:51

I'm having the same problem. Been having it a little while, but only recently came across this thread, and hadn't even considered Synergy as the cause. But sure enough, if I stop the Synergy server, clicking and dragging in apps like Photoshop immediately starts working. Start Synergy again, and it stops working. Consistently and easily reproducible. Using Synergy 1.4.12 on Windows 7 SP1 x64.

[nbolton]

• Author: Billy Boulton
• Date: 2013-05-20 16:29:58

I have been searching for a while as to what my problem is and this is the only thing like it. It has been occurring since I have been using photoshop in the last couple of days and, even with photoshop not running, the mouse pauses whenever I click (writing this and navigating this page is a pain in itself) and won't move until I click again and therefore I cannot click and drag. The same thing happens when I scroll. People are saying that it is down to synergy but I searched and couldn't find it so Im pretty sure I don't have it but my brother may have installed some similar software that has the same problem. What should I be looking for? Is this just some simple setting that IM missing. Im on Window 8 btw

[nbolton]

• Author: Josh Bula
• Date: 2013-05-24 13:44:10

I've had this problem for years, quit using Synergy, then just installed it again hoping it would be fixed by now, but, nope. Acrobat, Photoshop, Word, etc. in Win 8 64-bit ... unusable because I can't drag. I promise to make a big donation when it's finally fixed. Please. :)

[nbolton]

• Author: John Colley
• Date: 2013-05-25 06:55:48

I'm also having this issue between two Win8 x64 machines. Mark Weisenfeld's work around seemed to work for me when dealing with the address bar for Chrome 26.0.1410.64 m - thanks for that Mark!

[nbolton]

• Author: Federico Lorenzi
• Date: 2013-05-26 21:40:17

I was also having this issue with selection in Word 2013, disabling the "Elevate" option seemed to fix it for me.

[nbolton]

• Author: Guy Gordon
• Date: 2013-05-31 06:05:51

Disabling Elevate seems to have fixed it for me.

[nbolton]

• Author: mark weisenfeld
• Date: 2013-07-18 00:06:46

I have added many comments to help with the fixing of this issue. Now I must let you all know that SUDDENLY EVERYTHING WORKS!
I once again, tried a bunch of stuff that did not have any effect, including turning off elevation, and none of those things worked. After trying as many things as I could think of I even emailed Nick to ask if there was a command line switch that could turn off listening for drag/copy/paste events. He said there was none.
SO, having thoroughly tested various scenarios, I know nothing I did had any effect and the the problem still existed as recently as last week ... until yesterday.

Yesterday I noticed some UNRELATED things suddenly working like they should. My little popup display of my ShiftLock/NUmLock/ScrollLock status started working again. A little while ago I had installed something to assign an action to the middle mouse button. Pushing the wheel was supposed to invoke the "show desktop" command. It never worked either, something was hijacking the events. I just wrote it off as something weird about the HP mouse driver or Windows 8. Well, it started working at the same time. My USB "LifeChat LX-3000" headset was supposed to bring up an onscreen display of volume level when I hit the +/- buttons on the cord. That suddenly started working as well. I may discover other things later too.

All I can figure is that some update fixed a system problem that was at the root of all of this. As I reproduce the scenario I wrote about above, I see it works properly. I can drag to highlight even in MS Outlook editor windows. I CAN EVEN COPY & PASTE BOTH DIRECTIONS to/from my Mac. I had given up on that.

I will make a brief attempt to diagnose all of this but, as you can imagine, I don't really want to upset whatever it was that is making it work, so I will not work too hard at it. I do recall, I believe on Monday, cussing at Microsoft for their goofy way of forcing my machine to reboot for updates. (I was getting work done and ignoring the warnings that it was going to reboot until it just did it out from under me.) I suspect there in that reboot something was installed that fixed everything.

[nbolton]

• Author: Bill Lee
• Date: 2013-08-18 03:34:14

I just loaded 1.4.12 beta on Windows 7 (from 1.4.7) because of this issue. But I am still having problems with the mouse click-drag not working. The client is OSX 10.8.4, synergy client 1.4.12. I did not have the problem with Windows Synergy server 1.4.7 with OSX 10.6 running SynergyKM.

[nbolton]

• Author: Colin Bernard
• Date: 2013-10-14 22:01:32

I am also having the problem of drag-select not working with Synergy.

A fix at the time for me is to press the Windows key twice - drag-select then works again for a short time which could be just a couple of minutes or it could be an hour. I cannot identify the sequence of events that stop it working again but a double press of the Windows key clears the issue again.

[nbolton]

• Author: Malcolm moody
• Date: 2013-12-04 10:32:47

Same problem here, along with a few other related key presses in excel, couldnt terminate calc by pressing escape for example. Switching off 'elevate' as suggested by Federico and Guy has fixed this for me.

[nbolton]

• Author: Greg Spragle
• Date: 2014-02-10 15:43:46

I also have this problem. Disabling the Elevate option didn't help, but hitting the Windows key twice did resolve the issue.

[nbolton]

• Author: James McFadden
• Date: 2014-02-13 21:07:25

I am having these issues as well and never had them before. Nothing mentioned in this thread has helped and I'm using version 1.4.15 Is there any chance we're going to see any significant progress on this?

[nbolton]

• Author: Matthew Becker
• Date: 2014-02-27 23:23:26

I just installed version 1.4.16 and can confirm that I am still having the same issue with 'Elevate' enabled. I could click and drag to select text in Microsoft Word 2010 upon opening a document, but once I entered or modified any text, I was no longer able to click and drag to select. However, switching off 'Elevate' as suggested previously seemed to fix the issue.

[nbolton]

• Author: Gregory Cazillo
• Date: 2014-07-24 20:15:08

Still happening in 1.5.

[nbolton]

• Author: Johnny Podhradsky
• Date: 2014-08-21 15:39:37

Verified happening in 1.5. I cannot highlight text in my Outlook emails. Very frustrating!!

[nbolton]

• Author: Preston Garrison
• Date: 2014-08-25 03:40:36

I have the same problem, it makes synergy unusable. Windows 8.1 64bit photoshop can't drag windows..

[dlebauer]

I have the same issue, Synergy 1.5, Windows 8, MS Word 2013.

Related question on http://superuser.com/questions/704656/cant-select-text-with-mouse-in-word-or-outlook

[FiZiX]

I have the same issue with 1.6.2 on Windows 7 64-bit. I've had this issue with Synergy for years, even on Windows XP. As soon as I stop the Synergy service, the issue goes away.

[ashenkin]

I seem to be having the same issue in 1.6.2 on Win 7 Ent x64. Intermittent.

[shadeflayer]

I have the same issue but its limited to tables within Office 2013 on the Win8.1 system. However it seems to be intermittent and I can not easily replicate it. Synergy setup is as follows: I have a Linux Mint 64bit client (v17 Cinnamon) on the left, Win8.1 server in the middle (dual screen), and a Macbook Pro client (OS X v10.10.3) on my right (laptop).

FYI - The crazy mouse movement problem still exists in WoW. Scroll Lock is enabled. Shutting down the Synergy server solves the problem.

Server config file is as follows:

section: screens
Linux:
halfDuplexCapsLock = false
halfDuplexNumLock = false
halfDuplexScrollLock = false
xtestIsXineramaUnaware = false
switchCorners = none
switchCornerSize = 0
PALADIUM-D:
halfDuplexCapsLock = false
halfDuplexNumLock = false
halfDuplexScrollLock = false
xtestIsXineramaUnaware = false
switchCorners = none
switchCornerSize = 0
MacBookPro:
halfDuplexCapsLock = false
halfDuplexNumLock = false
halfDuplexScrollLock = false
xtestIsXineramaUnaware = false
switchCorners = none
switchCornerSize = 0
end

section: aliases
end

section: links
Linux:
right = PALADIUM-D
PALADIUM-D:
right = MacBookPro
left = Linux
MacBookPro:
left = PALADIUM-D
end

section: options
relativeMouseMoves = true
screenSaverSync = false
win32KeepForeground = false
switchCorners = none
switchCornerSize = 0
end

[Amatyr]

This has started to be a problem for me in 1.7.4 after moving to Windows 10. Worked perfectly for me on Win7.

[BenKelada]

win 7 x64 1.7.4 word 2007 , cant drag and select text
having come back to synergy, and updating to a paid user account my memory was that it used to be a lot more stable! thanks for fixing the cpu bug if you could fix this it would improve the usability

[bogardpd]

I'm having the same thing happening as Amatyr. Running Synergy 1.7.4 as server and Word 2013 on Windows 7 it worked fine; I upgraded to Windows 10 and now Word isn't letting me consistently drag to highlight or change table column width. Stopping Synergy fixes the problem. It doesn't seem to matter whether elevate is selected.

However, it does work better if I use the interactive configuration rather than a saved configuration file. With a saved configuration file, I have to use the double-tap-windows-key trick; if I interactively configure the server, the glitch will often reset itself with a single mouse click.

[altjx]

Any updates on this? I just identified this problem when trying to select text in Microsoft Word. Seemed like it was a race with selecting as much text as I can before my "drag select" stops working.

[sthilaire]

The "click drag" issue with the combination of Windows 10 and Word 2013 is confirmed here also.

[askay4]

Same here; upgraded to Win10 and highlighting and drag capability went away; returns when I turn off Synergy on the server side. 1.7.4

[bitroniq]

Same thing here. On host @Win10 64bit Synergy 1.8.0-alpha-19835b6 only double-tap-Win-key helps.

[lucanos]

Same Problem Here:

Synergy Pro v1.7.4
Windows 7 (64 bit)

[ajn1985]

I'm experiencing the same issue (cannot click, drag to select text), mainly with microsoft office programs. The moment I turned off the synergy server the issue is resolved.

well I did see MS Office on the conflicting programs list. Any idea as to the cause of the problem?

[zdyang]

I have the same issue.
Synergy 1.7.6
Windows 10 (64 bit) with MS Office 2016.

Double-tap win key works for me but very annoying.

[lucanos]

@nbolton, this is a "priority-soon" according to your own tags, but has seen no resolution for over 12 months. Can we at least get an update? An indication that some action is underway?

[jk3us]

I've noticed this problem as well, but for me just opening the Synergy UI and clicking "Apply" (making it restart the service) temporarily fixes the problem.

It might be related to what I described at https://github.com/symless/synergy/issues/5202#issuecomment-195030954, where certain "pseudo-events" seem to get swallowed by synergy and don't make it to the intended application.

[jk3us]

This also causes problems with Ctrl+Backspace, which usually deletes the previous word, but when this problem occurs it doesn't work in outlook, it prints a square instead.

[arbourp]

Version 1.7.6 on Windows 7 x64 enterprise.
Problem occurs, as noted, fix by jk3us works, stop and restart synergy. I'm connected through a VPN, so my remote system can't find me, and thus I can't leave the local screen, but i suspect if I jump in and out to a remote screen the problem will re-occur.

Will test some iterations tomorrow.

[ENickRyan]

@nbolton I am a long time Synergy user. Love this product! Please fix this bug. It breaks my workflow 10 times a day. Stopping and restarting Synergy is a pain to do that often. I am running 1.7.6 at this moment with a Windows 7 Pro server and El Capitan client. I suspect this one is impacting to many users so it warrants a quicker fix.

[cmalmqui]

Same problem with version 1.7.6 on Win7 64bit making selection via mouse in Word/Outlook useless. Had to uninstall the software as I unfortunately spent most of my time there.

Used Synergy extensively in multimachine setups on offshore survey installations 2005 to 2010 and will not ask for refund as I was mighty happy back then and hope to see the project make a living.

[LittleLama]

So much annoying bug ... please fix it before I throw my laptop threw the window lol.
Happening on MS Word.
Windows 7 x64 on Server x86 on laptop.
Pressing Windows key seems to unlock the problem.

[MitchTalmadge]

I am also facing this problem and have been ever since I first installed Synergy. The latest version still has the same issues. Please fix this!

Windows 10 x64

[ashenkin]

One year later, problem persists

[ITN1nja]

I face this issue. Is it true that the issue has roots back to a 2012 version?

I am on Win7 x64, Synergy 1.7.6.

As some have mentioned logitech mouses (mice? meeces?), I am using a M705 with a unified receiver. I can work around the issue on the host by simply stopping the service.

[prophoto]

@ITN1nja I've had this issue for years...

[dvassy]

I have tracked it down to the following (Windows 7-64 environment):

• If synergy server is running, then a press on the CTRL key will inhibit the ability to select text, or drag-and-drop text, in some applications (including Word, Outlook, Skype - list not necessarily exhaustive) on the server machine
• A press on WIN key (and back) will return the Mouse selection behavior it to normal, until the CTRL key is pressed again
• Stopping the Synergy server fixes the problem
• Restarting the Synergy server dos not make the problem reappear until a client connects
• This issue does not show up when Synergy is being run in client mode

The problem is very easy to reproduce, just follow the protocol above.

[MitchTalmadge]

Nice find @dvassy! It should be much easier to track down and solve the problem after knowing how to reproduce it.

[dvassy]

Thanks @MitchTalmadge. Also worthy of note, contrary to what the title picked by @nbolton for the bug report suggests, this behaviour is not dependent on the type of mouse being used, as far as I can say. At least for me, Bluetooth mouse or wired mouse => same story.

[jk3us]

@dvassy Maybe this is what you meant, but it does appear that pressing CTRL _while focused on a client_ causes the problem. Pressing CTRL while focused on the server doesn't.

The WIN key fix only fixes some of the problems for me. Selecting text in outlook works again, but things like mouse keys mapped to keypresses and print screen key triggering greenshot still require synergy to be restarted.

[dvassy]

Fair comment @jk3us. Also, it appears that reproducing the bug may be less straightforward than I thought. After doing it reliably for 3 days in a row, I cannot reproduce it anymore. Not idea yet "what has changed". Il will document that when I find out

[lucanos]

It's terrific that so many users are working together to try and locate the cause of the problem, or at least the conditions under which the problem can be reliably reproduced, but unless the Synergy Developers are getting involved in the discussion, we're stuck talking about the angle of the list on a sinking ship - no matter how detailed we can get in describing the problem, the damned ship is still sinking.

We really need the Synergy Devs to start taking ownership of this critical bug and giving us some feedback on when we can expect it to be resolved.

[prophoto]

@lucanos 2nd that.

I've been dealing with this issue for years, ever since I found synergy.

[prophoto]

Seems there is a fair bit of discussion about using ctrl key on the client. This happens to me on the server all the time until I stop the service.

[ITN1nja]

A few additional comments on the symptoms.

I, too, have verified that the issues is presenting when a CTRL key is press while a client is in focus. However, it does not appear to be consistent.

The actions also seem to affect my ability to scroll with the mouse wheel as well when the conditions are triggered.

[genepool99]

I can confirm the issue on windows 7 with Windows as the server and ubuntu 16.04 client. I can also confirm clicking the crtl key on the client then going back to windows temporally resolves the issue.

[nlyan]

We have reproduced this reliably with Wordpad on a Windows 10 server.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start Synergy server
2. Start Wordpad and type something
3. Try to select text with the mouse

Expectation:
Text selected

Results:
Nothing happens

[cooch17]

Confirmed -- using Win 7 Pro SP 2 as server (Synergy 1.7.6), with GNU/Linux client (RH 6, running 1,7,6). Problem is intermittent (i.e., it doesn't always happen, and sometimes, if you wait for a minute or two, things revert back to normal).

Makes using Synergy really a tough choice at present. I'm frequently trying to cut/copy code from a terminal on Windows machine to paste into my number crunching Linux box, but at this point, can't even use the mouse to select the code. I can use various keystroke solutions to select text, but using the mouse to select blocks of text is not functioning consistently.

[nothinelse]

Just adding my 2 cents on this very annoying issue:

Synergy 1.7.6
Synergy server on my Win7 SP1 64-bit laptop
No client connected

I take my laptop to work and regularly experience the issue when the client is not connected. It seems Synergy works along happily for a while and then eventually gets into the fault state where selecting text is blocked (in Outlook for me). Once it is in this fault state I can 100% reproduce the problem by alt+tabbing away from Outlook and then back again. Hitting the Windows key twice will clear it but the very next alt+tab combination brings it back every time. If I open up the Synergy client and click Apply, the fault clears and remains cleared for some time (alt+tab combo no longer reproduces the fault). As for what gets it into the fault state I haven't made that connection yet.

[alexwatever]

This effects me in photoshop with version 1.7.6 on win10 64-bit. A shame really, I wouldn't have purchased this if I'd known, it's quite disruptive.

[MitchTalmadge]

1 year and 8 months with not even a word from the developers :+1:

[virtualdxs]

@MitchTalmadge I see that 3 days ago Jerry referenced it.

[MitchTalmadge]

I stand corrected; 1 year, 7 months, and 27 days and finally a word from the developers. Hope it gets fixed soon

[orcinus]

Keep hoping, i hear hope dies last.

[orcinus]

"priority-soon"... fucking LOL.

[nothinelse]

Hi everyone if you're using Windows only I've found the solution. Follow these easy steps:

• uninstall Synergy
• install Input Director (http://www.inputdirector.com/downloads.html - I installed the v1.3 beta which hasn't been updated since 2012 but still functionally better than Synergy, works fine in Win10 even though it gives a warning)
• follow the easy configuration setup
• problem solved

For cross platform users:

• continue to wait
• never get a fix

good luck!

[alexwatever]

I have been able to reproduce this fix in my local environment.

[jmacko]

This one bug makes the product nearly unusable for me. So much so that I'm forced to only turn it on selectively.

I'm at a loss for if it's a bigger pain to reach for the keyboard or start synergy. Rather disappointing that this isn't a critical bug. Given the sheer number of people that use Microsoft Office, I would of expected this to be a critical must fix now bug.

[cooch17]

It isn't just MS Office that is impacted -- in fact, I don't use Office at all. I do, though, use any number of other applications (coding editors, statistical and mathematical software), where I have the same problem. I suspect that all of the affected applications use the same basic API for mouse calls etc, that doesn't play nice with Synergy (the end result being that Synergy breaks those applications).

This is a known problem -- and I suspect that Synergy folks are working on it. But what is a bit disconcerting is that it has been known for some time. 100% of dev effort should be on this bug. Period. Not on folder drag and drop or other such things, and especially not on irrelevancies like what the Synergy GUI looks like. Synergy now has a near-fatal flaw. It breaks the work environment for a _lot_ of people. It didn't used to. Something has been added between 1.2 (when I started using Synergy) and the most recent build, which breaks things. I don't have the time to roll back through every earlier version of Synergy to see where the problem first showed up -- but that is what the dev team should be doing. Full time. Full stop.

[orcinus]

"Some time" in this case being almost 10 years, like with most Synergy issues.

[prophoto]

Does the latest beta address this issue? I filled out the beta request form, how do I install it on Win10x64 to test?

[nlyan]

The latest betas do not address this issue, but we're currently working on it. Its an extremely curious issue and, although we know precisely when it occurs, we cannot yet explain the behavior.

[cooch17]

Three quick comments:

1\ thanks for the update. Nice to get an 'official' comment on the status of things -- even if the news isn't announcing a solution...

2\ a point I made earlier -- and worth remembering. This isn't an Office-specific bug. I suspect a number of people might assume as much, but I suspect that is an artifact of said people spending a lot of time working in Office. I rarely spend time using office (unless I have to), so I have more experience with the 'bug' as it affects other applications. And it affects a lot of applications. And not simply drag-select. Any number of 'mouse actions' are DOA if I'm runnng Synergy -- again, not all the time, just some of the time. And, only on the server, and not on the client (I run Win 7 server, GNU/Linux clients).

3\ sorry, but this bug renders Synergy all but useless for me and a number of folks -- t the moment, I have a couple of .bat files on my desktop -- one to turn the Synergy service on, and one to turn it off. I turn it on long enough to switch over to my GNU/Linux machines to start some number-crunching project, then switch it off once I'm finished. Kind of annoying to have to do this, no?

4\ whats odd is that this is a _new_ bug. Back in the 1.4.x, 1.5.x days, never saw this bug. There is something in the 'new (but apparently 'not improved') version of Synergy that is causing the problem.

[ghost]

I changed to Elevate mode and now I can drag-select in MS Word

[XinyuHou]

Can anyone test this nightly?
http://symless.com/nightly?filter=85bbbd4

[cooch17]

Trying it now. So far so good (buts it's only been 20 minutes ;-)

[MitchTalmadge]

Nightly solves all the issues I've been having with Photoshop and Illustrator. As stated above, it's only been 20 minutes, so I'll report again later.

[bambooLoutre]

seems okay for me too

[MitchTalmadge]

Still working perfectly. I think you take the cake on this one, @XinyuHou

[joubertredrat]

Hi guys,

About https://github.com/symless/synergy/issues/4768#issuecomment-232332581

On nightly http://symless.com/nightly?filter=0034ca4 the problem doesn't happen, work normally.

[XinyuHou]

Random read client with 0034ca4, was after open World of Tanks game client to test about caps lock.

https://gist.github.com/joubertredrat/a990637e4323ce94bf934bda991ea4c2

[XinyuHou]

@joubertredrat
Did you run WoT in full screen mode?

[joubertredrat]

@XinyuHou no, I run in windowed mode.

[XinyuHou]

@joubertredrat
I can't reproduce this on my Mac 10.10 server and Windows 10 client.

Running World of Warships on windowed mode. Use Mac keyboard and press caps lock and random keys doesn't do anything weird.

Could you give me some instructions about how to reproduce this.

I seems to remember my colleague found a similar problem before. But he in on holiday. I will ask him as well after he is back.

[prophoto]

Just tested 85bbbd4 on Windows 10 x64 in a domain (server) with macOS Sierra beta 16A238m (guest) and so far so good. Drag to select bug seems to be gone! Tested in Photoshop CC 2016.5 and Lightroom 2015.6 (both latest versions, not beta). I've not had any issues so far, drag/select works fine in chrome and Outlook 2016 too. Yay! I can use synergy again!

[staaronis3]

I have just updated to 1.8.2-beta-85bbbd4 and I think that it resolves the problems with Photoshop/Office/Dell Display Manager. I have tried to reproduce following the steps that I had posted on issue #4508.

[GollyRojer]

I followed the instructions as given, using Wordpad (no Office). The selected text was highlighted successfully.
Synergy Version: 1.8.2-rc1-12e0120
Tested OS: win10

[LeadManPL]

Tested Issue #3044:

1. Configure as server on Windows
2. Edit > Settings > Ensure 'Elevate mode' is ticked
3. Click 'Apply'
4. Start Microsoft Word or Wordpad
5. Type some text then try to drag select
6. See that text is highlighed sucessfully

Synergy Version: 1.8.2-rc1-12e0120
Tested OS: Windows 7 Pro

Result: SUCCESS. I was able to highlight text in Word.

[TxRxFx]

Followed instructions:

Works on both Win10 and Win7 x64

synergy-v1.8.2-rc1-12e0120-Windows-x64

[btg308]

Tested and working on Win10, Word 2016.
synergy-v1.8.2-rc1-12e0120-Windows-x64