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Why can't I highlight NYT text with Firefox but can with Edge?

  • 8 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by RichiPho

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My question pretty much gives the details. What more do you want? If I attempt to highlight a word, sentence, paragraph in a New York Times article nothing happens.

My question pretty much gives the details. What more do you want? If I attempt to highlight a word, sentence, paragraph in a New York Times article nothing happens.

All Replies (8)

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I think this thread from a couple weeks ago has our standard troubleshooting suggestions. Could you see whether anything there is helpful:

Can't select text on New York Times site (unsolved)

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Thanks for your response but I wasn't able to find anything to solve problem which I have lived with for months, been too lazy to complain. I had contacted the NYT Techies and their response was it's a Mozilla problem, so now what? Do I switch browsers because I am tired of having this issue or does Mozilla put some brains into it and solve?

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How about a sample link and let others try with their FF57+ or FF58 to see if they get the same problem?

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No problems here.

You can try these steps in case of issues with web pages:

You can reload web page(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.

  • hold down the Shift key and left-click the Reload button
  • press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • press "Command + Shift + R" (Mac)

Clear the cache and remove the cookies from websites that cause problems via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button (Options/Preferences).

"Clear the cache:

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"

"Remove the cookies" from websites that cause problems.

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> "Use custom settings for history" -> Cookies: "Show Cookies"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window
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I've finally tried everything suggested but nothing has worked. But I did find out some interesting things. 1. I have an older Dell Laptop running Windows 10 which does not exhibit the problem. 2. If I enter reader view I am able to highlight contents of the NYT page.

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It is possible that the text gets selected, but that you do not see the highlight color. You can check that via the right-click context menu when you have tried to select some text.

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Done that no joy.