Failed to run command 'Copy'

[tbean]

Nearly always, when I try to copy something... anything... I receive this message:

Failed to run command 'Copy'.
Exception: Requested Clipboard operation did not succeed.

This happens seemingly no matter what I select, be it a letter, a word, a block, or a file. At first I thought I was selecting a bad combination of things in the XML Editor, you know... only part of a block, or my cursor might be picking up an opening tag but not an end tag, or perhaps it just didn't like selecting multiple blocks. But I am now quite careful to select an entire block, one at at time, using the bars and still have the same problem.

The error occurs whether I use the Copy icon, Ctrl-C, Edit>Copy, or the right-click menu.

If I open the file with the internal text editor, Copy is successful.

Am I alone in this? Some days I can copy, some days I can't. But mostly, I can't.

[Richard Ferrell]

What version of Flare are you using? Also if you uninstall and reinstall does that work better for you.

[tbean]

I've not reinstalled recently, but I've had this issue since the first install and it has been reinstalled a few times along the way.

Flare 3.1 (upgrading to 4 is not currently an option)
Windows XP SP 3
Parallels 3.0 Build 5608/BootCamp partition/OS 10.5.4

I don't have Copy problems in any other app, Win or Mac, so I don't think it's any type of system issue.

[trent the thief]

I've had windows choke and refuse to copy things, too. It usually requires a reboot. I'm not familiar with the setup on a mac. Let us know how it turns out.

[tbean]

Relaunching Flare has no effect. Rebooting Windows sometimes, though not always, resolves the issue.

To clarify: this occurs *only* in Flare. It doesn't occur in Word or Notepad or any other Windows app.
When it does occur in Flare, it does *not* occur in the internal editor. So my usual recourse when I can't copy in the XML editor, I open the same file using the internal editor, copy, paste, and save, then return to the XML editor.

It also occurs when I try to copy a file in the Content Explorer. The workaround is to use the OS to copy/paste/move files.

Any suggestions in addition to rebooting? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from occurring at all?

[trent the thief]

Hi,

Nope. Sorry. It's a windows thing. It'll happen in one app and not another, or in the windows explorer and nothing else, or in everything. Windows is flaky. I've been dealing with this sort of crap since Windows was only a runtime package with delusions of becoming an OS platform.

It's still fairly delusional, but is starting to show some signs of stability.

[LTinker68]

I've never had problems in Flare or any other app using Windows' copy function. Windows is flaky about a lot of stuff, but that one's never given me problems.

I don't know how Macs handle the .NET framework. You might want to check with Apple to see if they have any patches/updates for how Macs deal with .NET. It could be that the only reason you have the problem in Flare may be because it's the only app you run that uses the .NET framework. Also, I believe Flare 3.x requires .NET 2.0, but the latest version of .NET available is 3.5. Make sure you have .NET 2.0 installed.

[RamonS]

AFAIK Parallels is a virtualization software that runs on top of OSX. That means that any issues with .NET and copying under Windows in Parallels are not problems with OSX. I'd check with Parallels and see if they have a patch that enables fully compliant clipboard functionality. That seems to me to be the most likely source of the problem.

[tbean]

Thanks, All -- Here are a few responses and an update:

I don't know how Macs handle the .NET framework. You might want to check with Apple to see if they have any patches/updates for how Macs deal with .NET. It could be that the only reason you have the problem in Flare may be because it's the only app you run that uses the .NET framework. Also, I believe Flare 3.x requires .NET 2.0, but the latest version of .NET available is 3.5. Make sure you have .NET 2.0 installed.

Lisa, .NET lives within the Windows side of my Mac's existence, so that isn't an issue (and the Mac OS is up-to-date as well, running 10.5.4). I do have .NET 2.0 SP1 and .NET 3.0 SP1 (for the app I'm documenting).

AFAIK Parallels is a virtualization software that runs on top of OSX. That means that any issues with .NET and copying under Windows in Parallels are not problems with OSX. I'd check with Parallels and see if they have a patch that enables fully compliant clipboard functionality. That seems to me to be the most likely source of the problem.

Ramon, yes, you're right -- Parallels is as you described. Clipboard synchronization is enabled -- copying from the Mac OS and pasting to XP apps, including Flare, is fine. When Copy is functional in Flare, copying there and pasting to Mac apps is also fine. I've also reinstalled and confirmed that Parallels Tools, the part of the app that contains clipboard synchronization, is functioning.

Here's something that I find interesting: Parallels can show me the current clipboard content. I just launched Flare, opened a project, and attempted to copy the word "display". Flare promptly gave me the "Failed to run command" error. Parallels, however, shows that the current clipboard content = "display". So I went back to Flare and pasted. Yes, indeed, it pasted the word "display". I've done this a few more times and at least today, Flare seems willing to let me paste even with the message.

Now I'm sitting here, shaking my head. Can it be that the error message is in error? Has it been working all along? If paste-after-erroneous-error-message fails, I'll update this.

[RamonS]

That error message may indeed be in error. I do not know if Flare expects any response from the clipboard when assigning it a new content or if there is a response if it is the correct one and if there is supposed to be no response and it gets one if that is what causes the error. Bizarre behaviour...

[trent the thief]

It's Windows. It's always Windows.

[RamonS]

Yea, why would one want to run Windows on top of a Mac?
I know, for one Flare is Microsoft only and for two Mac OS X is IMHO not better than Windows. It looks prettier, but being purdy doesn't equal being more functional. I have a tough time to find my way around in OSX despite it being so intuitive and "just working".

[trent the thief]

Nah. The last time I used a mac was ages ago.

It's just that any odd behaviour is going to be a windows glitch, especially basic stuff. Copy and paste isn't a fancy function. If it causes an app to throw an odd error and still works, it's a windows problem. It's always windows. That's the only constant in the PC industry. Windows and resource shortages are synonymous. That's typically the basis of all copy/paste errors.

XP is the most stable version I've touched, and it isn't so hot.

[Andrew]

I have seen this issue in Flare 3.0/3.1 as well. For the most part, the copy *did* succeed, and I can paste whatever I copied, but the error popup is annoying. I didn't see it in any previous versions of Flare that I recall. I haven't noticed it in Flare v4 yet, but I haven't used F4 nearly as extensively (nor for all the same projects) as Flare 3. I always meant to report this issue, but I don't think I ever got around to it (i.e., it happened only every couple of days, and since nothing was really "broken," I just moved on). It happened most often when I did a bunch of copy/paste in a session, so perhaps there was some buffer issue or something.

I run Flare on Windows Vista, XP Pro, and Windows Terminal Server 2K (can't remember if I've seen this issue on Vista, but I know I've seen it on TS2K and XP Pro). No Mac, so that's definitely not the problem.

"It's Windows it's Windows" is unhelpful (and frankly, probably wrong...unless you have some reasoning you haven't mentioned). No other application does this -- only Flare. I would guess this is a defect in Flare somewhere.

[trent the thief]

I'd suggest it's a Windows resource problems based on 20 years of dealing with it. Anytime you run a windows application and basic functionality begins to fail it is a resource problem.

[Andrew]

Or a corruption problem. Or an application problem.

What kind of resources do you mean? This happens to me on fairly good hardware, when I'm not running out of RAM, virtual address space, or anything else of the sort.

[trent the thief]

It's windows own resources. I'd surely love to explain the technical details, but I lost interest in staying current with them when they never went away. The amount of RAM and the power of the hardware has little to do with the internal coding problems that exist in windows. I have 4GB and still hit problems processing large file lists in the shell and in explorer.

This used to be the Windows GDI resources error. It was the one that gave people headaches when saving large MS Word files. Word would report back that the drive didn't exist or that the file was in use, or some other problem. The standard resolution from MS at that time was "Delete win.ini. It'll be re-created when you restart."

Fortunately, I knew better and didn't do that. I was not sure what the problem was until I had a chat with a tech support guy from Frame Technology who was very familiar with the issue.

So, eventually, windows 95 hit the street and alleviated the problem a little. In Windows 2000, it was still there and it's in XP, too, even though the heap name is different now. I've never tried ME or ME2 (Vista).

The wall exists and is waiting to giggle when you hit it.

[tbean]

I realized just now that I hear one of two sounds when the "Failed to run command "copy"" message is generated:

The first -- on my system it is a slightly quieter, modest sounding little beep -- indicates that the copy really did fail.
The other sound -- more of a "phoomph", really, than a beep -- indicates that the message is a little lying scoundrel and that the copy was successful.

Then there is the blissful sound of silence. That one means that the copy did indeed occur.

[trent the thief]

I am so anxious! I can't wait for Windows 7 (to see how much it'll make me cry).

[Jerry Anderson]

If text copy is failing from an external source such as word or a pdf using the windows Copy command, in a text editor, check the content of the css that is applied to the topic. If it contains the following lines:

input
{
mc-disabled: true;
}


...the copy function will be blocked.

I learned this the hard way: while deleting what I thought were unused styles in the Flare stylesheet editor, my copy functions disappeared. To fix this I had to backtrack line by line through all the "disabled" references in the css.
Hope this helps.

[Centauri27]

I've started encountering this same problem recently, with the same symptoms: Flare would occasionally throw up a "failed to run command" when I try a Copy or Delete. However repeating the action usually works. There's no pattern that I can see.

I'm running flare 4.2 on Windows XP XP3, with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. I do believe it's a Windows error, but Flare must be doing something odd to trigger it. I've never seen any other Windows app throw this error in all the years I've been using Windows.

Carl

[Centauri27]

Well here we are, two years later and I'm STILL getting that "Failed to run command 'Copy'" error in Flare! This despite using the latest Flare 6.1.0, with a fully patched XP SP3. I'm seeing exactly the same symptoms as the other posters to this thread and despite this apparently being a "Windows" thing, this error has NEVER surfaced in any of my other Windows apps.

Anyone else have any ideas? Perhaps I should stop ignoring this and log a bug with MadCap....

Carl

[RamonS]

Anyone else have any ideas? Perhaps I should stop ignoring this and log a bug with MadCap....

Yes, please, if you don't complain they may not bother to look into this and fix it.

[Centauri27]

Well, I logged the bug yesterday and they got back to me today already! Unfortunately, their response was "Unfortunately, I was not able to reproduce this issue." Their workaround is do delete the Analyzer folder--this seems to be their all purpose "cure all". It would appear that Analyzer is the weak link in their ecosystem.

I cannot believe a bug as old as this has not caught their attention or have been experienced by their own people. I urge everyone else who has encountered this to log a bug!

Carl

[RamonS]

There are two issues to this whole thing. The first one is the fact that .NET is used. Any flaw in the .NET runtime will become a flaw of Flare if that part of the runtime is used. The second, and in my opinion even bigger issue, is the dismal error reporting that Flare has. That may, again, be partially due to .NET, but it is also lackluster development that puts features first and ignores the rest.
Can you consistently reproduce this problem? If yes, then there may be a point in doing remote debugging. If the problem cannot be reproduced consistently then there is still something off, but a lot depends on the circumstances which can be as obscure as some solar flares flipping a bit in RAM.