# Copy and Paste of Widgets Not Working Until DevTools Is Opened (Possible Clipboard Event Bug)

**URL:** https://community.tulip.co/t/copy-and-paste-of-widgets-not-working-until-devtools-is-opened-possible-clipboard-event-bug/15757
**Category:** Support, Troubleshooting, & Help
**Tags:** bug, bug-fix
**Created:** [October 23, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/copy-and-paste-of-widgets-not-working-until-devtools-is-opened-possible-clipboard-event-bug/15757 "2025-10-23T15:19:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![mathias.dubois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@mathias.dubois](https://community.tulip.co/u/mathias.dubois)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/copy-and-paste-of-widgets-not-working-until-devtools-is-opened-possible-clipboard-event-bug/15757/1 "2025-10-23T15:19:38Z")

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Hi Tulip team,

I’ve run into a consistent issue in the Tulip App Editor where **copying and pasting widgets doesn’t work** , even though cutting and duplicating do. It appears to be related to how the clipboard event handlers are initialized in the browser.

#### **Environment**

- Tulip App Editor (latest cloud version, as of October 2025)

- Browsers tested:

- Clipboard permissions: **Enabled manually** for the Tulip site

- Same behavior across **multiple apps** and **steps**

- OS: Windows 11

#### **Observed behavior**

- **Ctrl+X (Cut)** → Works

- **Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V (Copy & Paste)** → Does _not_ work for widgets

- **Copy/paste of text inside text boxes** → Works

- **Right-click Copy/Paste** → Fails as well

#### **Workaround discovered**

Opening the browser’s **Inspect / DevTools** window (`Ctrl+Shift+I`) immediately re-enables copy and paste functionality.  
After doing so, widget copy/paste works — though with a slight delay — and continues working even after the DevTools window is closed.

This suggests that Tulip’s clipboard or keyboard event listeners are not properly initialized until the DevTools context is opened (possibly an issue with `navigator.clipboard.read()` permissions or React event binding).

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![OlgaStroilova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.tulip.co/olgastroilova/32/7199_2.png) [@OlgaStroilova](https://community.tulip.co/u/OlgaStroilova)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/copy-and-paste-of-widgets-not-working-until-devtools-is-opened-possible-clipboard-event-bug/15757/2 "2025-10-31T20:37:17Z")

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Thank you for this detailed issue description. Appreciate all the extra logs and troubleshooting steps!

We’ll investigate and circle back.
