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Access Build 2603 (19822.20114) - Copy/Delete fails for the entire field content

Diego Balboni 25 Reputation points
2026-04-01T07:31:48.4666667+00:00

In previous versions, clicking the label of a Long Text field would select the entire field content, allowing the me to copy or delete everything instantly.

In the current build (19822.20114 released on March 24th), this behavior is broken. When clicking the label, Access no longer copies or deletes the entire field content. It only affects a partial selection, making it impossible to manage the whole string quickly as before.

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~~In the current MS Access build (19822.20114, released on March 24th) clicking the field label appears to highlight the entire field, but when copying the selection elsewhere (e.g., Notepad or MS Word) or attempting to delete it, Access only processes a partial selection. This issue specifically affects long content; for example, when selecting a string of 2000 characters, only about 1300 to 1700 characters are actually copied to the clipboard or deleted. This makes it impossible to manage long strings quickly as before.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For business | Windows
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Gabriel-N 17,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-04-01T11:57:14.6133333+00:00

Hi Diego Balboni

Thank you for the update.

I did some further testing on my side and managed to reproduce the behavior you described. I found something quite interesting that might clarify why it works sometimes and fails others.

As you can see from the image I shared earlier, my initial input text box was quite wide. When the text box is large enough to show most of the content, the "click label to select all" behavior works fine. However, I tested the case where the input text box is smaller (shorter) or when the content has multiple blank lines/gaps.

I realized that the “small input box” theory seems to be the culprit. When clicking the label, even though it looks like everything is selected, it sometimes only captures the text that is currently visible within the text box. Any content that requires scrolling or is hidden below the fold doesn’t get copied correctly.

For example, if the content has four paragraphs but the text box is small and only shows the first two paragraphs, then only those first two paragraphs are copied.

User's image

In the meantime, I found two potential workarounds you can use:

  1. The Scroll Method: If you scroll down to the very end of the text box manually and then click the label/F2 to select, the copy-paste behavior seems to reset and work correctly for that session until you close the file. User's image
  2. Resizing: If you increase the height/size of the input text box in Design View to show more lines, the "select all" via label click becomes much more reliable.

Please keep in mind that this is a peer‑to‑peer community where users help other users. As such, I don’t have sufficient tools or backend access to directly fix this issue. Because of that, I highly recommend reporting it to Microsoft so it can be properly investigated. You can submit feedback by going to Help > Feedback or choose Contact Support via the Help tab in the Access ribbon. You may also post this on the Microsoft Feedback Portal to help raise visibility with Microsoft engineers.

Sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

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  1. Diego Balboni 25 Reputation points
    2026-04-01T09:42:22.1166667+00:00

    Dear Gabriel, thank you for your reply. I realized that I misreported the issue: the problem is not that the field content isn’t fully selected, but rather that even when it is entirely selected, copying it elsewhere (e.g., Notepad or MS Word) only pastes a part of it. The same happens when I try to delete the selection: it only deletes a portion. This occurs with long content (e.g., I select all 2000 characters, but only 1700 or 1300 are copied or deleted).

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  2. Gabriel-N 17,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-04-01T08:59:37.18+00:00

    Hi Diego Balboni

    I have tested this behavior in my environment using the same build as yours (Build 19822.20114).

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    From my side, the behavior seems to work as expected. When I click on the label of the Memo/Long Text field, the entire content is still being selected within the text box.

    User's image

    To ensure we are on the same page, could you please verify a few settings in your Access options? Please navigate to File > Options > Client Settings. Under the Editing section, check the "Behavior on entering field" setting to see if the "Select entire field" option is currently chosen.

    User's image

    If this option is already selected but the issue persists, you can use the following workarounds to manage your data quickly in the meantime:

    • While the cursor is inside the field, press F2 to toggle between "Edit mode" and "Navigation mode" (which selects the entire field).
    • Place your cursor at the start of the field and press Ctrl + Shift + End to select the entire string.
    • If your keyboard options are set to "Select entire field" on entry, try using the Tab key to navigate into the field, which should automatically trigger the full selection.

    For better assistance and to investigate further, would it be possible for you to share a sample file where this is happening via private message? This will help me determine if the issue is environment-specific or related to a particular file configuration.

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    Looking forward to your reply.

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