Bug 168369 - Paste tables from 3rd party application into Calc unreliable
Summary: Paste tables from 3rd party application into Calc unreliable
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.2.5.2 release
Hardware: x86 (IA32) Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on: 165744
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-09-12 05:28 UTC by mads
Modified: 2025-10-04 09:33 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Text file to reproduce the issue. (1.38 KB, text/plain)
2025-09-19 00:22 UTC, m_a_riosv
Details

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Description mads 2025-09-12 05:28:44 UTC

    
Comment 1 mads 2025-09-12 05:31:36 UTC
Am experiencing some erratic and very frustrating behaviour pasting table contents copied from a proprietary 3rd party application (running in a VMWare virtual machine, but don’t see how that could be a factor - functions work normally into Excel).

1) I copy the table with multiple columns by highlighting then CTRL C

2) I try to paste it into Calc running natively (ie not in a virtual machine). Sometimes it works as expected, other times the entire contents of a table row is pasted into the first cell of a column. Other times it works as expected correctly inserting it into correct columns in Calc, but only after 3 or 4 attempts via CTRL V. Sometimes CRTL V does not work, but paste special SHIFT+CTRL V does work!

But it really seems to be very random, although I have noticed the failure rate of ordinary CRTL V tends to increase dramatically when the row count of a table to be pasted is relatively small, maybe 8-15 rows.

This was certainly working reliably last year and probably spring 2025 too, but something appears to have broken since
Comment 2 m_a_riosv 2025-09-12 09:39:24 UTC
Please paste here the information on Menu/Help/About LibreOffice (There is an icon to copy)


Is there any clipboard manager installed?
Comment 3 mads 2025-09-12 16:55:24 UTC
Many thanks for your reply! No, there is no dedicated clipboard manager installed (just the standard windows functionality)

Version info:
Version: 25.2.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 03d19516eb2e1dd5d4ccd751a0d6f35f35e08022
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 26100); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-GB (en_GB); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 4 m_a_riosv 2025-09-13 00:19:13 UTC
Please test disabling the clipboard history in the system.
Comment 5 mads 2025-09-13 04:24:02 UTC
Clipboard history in the systems settings was already off!

Thanks again for you attention to this matter
Comment 6 m_a_riosv 2025-09-13 20:47:08 UTC
Please test in safe mode, Menu/Help/Restart in Safe Mode
Comment 7 mads 2025-09-14 07:43:10 UTC
no change/improvement in safe mode unfortunately.
Comment 8 m_a_riosv 2025-09-14 21:35:45 UTC
We are sorry, but as it is not possible to access that application under these conditions, I have no option to test it.
Comment 9 mads 2025-09-15 05:01:20 UTC
I have just reproduced exactly the same behaviour copy/pasting from the Open Source DBeaver database workbench application, copying data from a table with 7 columns/fields and seven rows.

1) Highlight data, then CTRL C to Copy, and CTRL V into Calc

2) First CTRL V worked as expected, correctly inserting into cells, so did the second time, 3rd time entire row contents pasted into the first column cell, with items space delimited.

On my first attempt
Comment 10 m_a_riosv 2025-09-15 07:59:24 UTC
Are you sure when pasting the second/third time, the focus is in the same place?
Comment 11 mads 2025-09-15 08:33:37 UTC
Not sure quite what you mean by if "the focus is in the same place?"

No, I pasted into new locations on the Calc sheet, a few rows immediately below the prior paste.

But I am not CTRL C/copying anything new before, so it is the same item in the clipboard buffer that just comes out randomly. Which is the same basic faulty behaviour that I initially raised.

It should be consistent, right?
Comment 12 mads 2025-09-18 04:22:26 UTC
Hi again, this is the first time I have ever filed a bug report on this platform, and I am a little confused/concerned that the status is still showing as unconfirmed, now that I have provided a route to demonstrating this random behaviour.

Is the reason for that you do not consider it a bug, as prior comments seemed to suggest

If so this software is not useable for me. You have to have confidence in what commands produce, otherwise too much time is simply wasted, with frustration building.

Thanks for any information on where this is going!
Comment 13 m_a_riosv 2025-09-18 07:18:40 UTC
This is an open source project, and although we appreciate your cooperation, as volunteers, we are unable to confirm the issue at this time.

Please note the special configuration you report.

Copying from an unknown application from a VM
Comment 14 mads 2025-09-18 14:28:44 UTC
right but i have confirmed it from DBeaver which is a known, open source database workbench. See
https://dbeaver.io/

You can also get it via Chocolatey

Seems to me clear there is a fundamental issue copy/pasting into Calc from apps that produce plain text data tables.

Understand this is open source, volunteer maintained software, and that's why I have tried to be as helpful as possible, and generally want to support this philosophically. But this kind of behaviour has to be stable for me to use it. Randomness is simply a dealbreaker, and I suspect similarly so for other reasonably "power users".
Comment 15 m_a_riosv 2025-09-19 00:17:01 UTC
This is following tdf#165744

Not marked as duplicate because the old one is resolved fixed.

Tested with the sample database of dbeaver.

The possible issue is that sometimes the separator change to Detected (none) instead of Detected (tab)

Version: 26.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 8bf0692331c335fc285794de8858eb555b19e1d1
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26100); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: es-ES (es_ES); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded


Hi Bodgan, can you take a look
Comment 16 m_a_riosv 2025-09-19 00:22:39 UTC
Created attachment 202878 [details]
Text file to reproduce the issue.

The file was produce copying from DBeaver a table (with copy without special options,
pasted in Notepad++ and saved as txt.

Opening the file in Notepad, select all, copy.

Pasting in a new spreadsheet, works fine at first glance, but e.g. pasting in a new sheet, the detected separator change to none.
Comment 17 m_a_riosv 2025-09-19 00:27:34 UTC
Sometimes Detected (none) appears after change to Separated by.
Comment 18 mads 2025-10-04 09:33:27 UTC
Thanks to m_a_riosv for persevering with this.

Would just like to reiterate for anybody trying to replicate, for some strange reason this behaviour especially - but not exclusively - manifests when a relatively small number of rows is copied/pasted (7-10 in my experience). 

Many thanks!