I don't think this would be a change in your Firefox because you are using an Extended Support Release version of Firefox that only receives security patches until the next huge annual update. My first thought was that it must have been a transient problem, but since it continued after a system reboot, I wonder whether maybe an add-on is somehow involved??

If you are pasting into a rich editing area (an area that supports formatting), could you try pasting using one of these and see whether Firefox pastes the URL:

• right-click > Paste without Formatting
• Command+Shift+v

You're onto something.

I HAD already tried pasting into macbook "Notes", that also only pasted the title. But yes, when I pasted to macbook "Pages", no matter if I select "paste" or "paste and match style" (your requests don't exist in PAGES) it DID correctly paste the url in both cases.

So why on earth does the paste to social media no longer function? I have no new extensions.

I don't know how the clipboard works on Mac OS. On Windows, Firefox will populate multiple formats and the receiving application uses whichever one it prefers. When I copy a bookmark in Firefox 111, what I see when I call up the "Paste Special" dialog in MS Word are:

• Unformatted Text => plain URL
• HTML Format => hyperlink with title visible and URL as the destination
• Files => I don't know what this is
• Unformatted Unicode Text => plain URL

On Mac PAGES (EDITED FROM PREVIOUSLY ERRONEOUS REFERENCE TO Mac Word), the equivalent option is "paste match style" and it's the LINK that gets "chosen" for the paste, so my Mac Word behaviour is the same as the MS Word you're using. So obviously my clipboard is working just fine.

That gets us nowhere closer to the Firefox problem. If my Firefox is pasting correctly, copy/pasting the LINK from a Toolbar Bookmark to my mac Word, why is Firefox not pasting the LINK in Firefox browsing social media.

As stated in the OP, I think something changed in the recent version of Firefox where the submenu used to say Copy Link and now only says Copy. So it seems that on Mac, newest Firefox programming is allowing the computer to "choose" Title over LINK whereas previous Firefox versions was a proper Copy Link submenu item.

Are you trying to copy selected text like you get if you set focus to the location bar or an input field ?

Like I said, on Mac Word, the equivalent option is "paste match style" and it's the LINK that gets "chosen" for the paste, so my Mac Word behaviour is the same as the MS Word you're using. So obviously my clipboard is working just fine.

I didn't say anything was wrong with your clipboard, I described a method to investigate what formats Firefox is saving to the clipboard when you right-click > Copy a bookmark, using Microsoft Word.

I don't have a Mac, but this YouTube video shows the Microsoft Word Paste Special dialog which lists the formats that the last app to copy put on the clipboard. These are the formats the receiving app can choose among when it determines how to paste from the clipboard.

That gets us nowhere closer to the Firefox problem. If my Firefox is pasting correctly, copy/pasting the LINK from a Toolbar Bookmark to my mac Word, why is Firefox not pasting the LINK in Firefox browsing social media.

When you paste, the receiving application chooses its preferred format. Web browsers are little complicated because web page scripts can choose their preferred format. Does Command+Shift+V override that and paste the URL?

As stated in the OP, I think something changed in the recent version of Firefox where the submenu used to say Copy Link and now only says Copy. So it seems that on Mac, newest Firefox programming is allowing the computer to "choose" Title over LINK whereas previous Firefox versions was a proper Copy Link submenu item.

It's very possible that at some point Firefox changed what it sets for the HTML format when you copy a bookmark. Instead of just specifying a plain URL it started specifying a hyperlink. I have no idea when that would have been.

For now, you apparently need to find a workaround to paste only the URL into "rich text" or scripted contexts. Does Command+Shift+V work to paste the URL text on the social sites?

fix of previous reply. I wasn't referring to WORD. I do not use WORD. my only word processor is PAGES, which I misspoke in calling it mac Word, sorry for confusion, brain fart. The paste variation in PAGES doesn't change the paste result to mac PAGES, regular paste and "match format" both produce a paste of the LINK.

As stated in OP, I already have the twice as long workaround, with is to do : right-click bookmark, edit, click-drag-copy the url, close window, then paste url into social media.

Social media does not offer paste variations. It seems Firefox did something to the mac Firefox and it's down dysfunctional for this task, it was working correctly only a couple of weeks ago.

I've just tested with facebook, which I no longer use, and the url is what gets pasted there too, so it seems be a specifically Firefox/Twitter problem, which WASN'T a problem a couple of weeks ago.

I've edited question title to try and get more relevant answers.

Okay, I looked at Twitter and I get this on Windows after copying a recently added bookmark:

Plain paste (Ctrl+V): Safe Browsing Site Status – Google Transparency Report

Text-only paste (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V): https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?hl=en

Text-only paste (context menu > Paste without formatting): https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?hl=en

(Or see attached screenshot)

ok, well, that modified "Paste" worked 1-I use "Command+V" (Mac is Command) pretty much all the time. 2-in word processors, I on occasion use menu-driven special paste functions. 3-I had never before heard of "Command+Shift+V" to use special paste functions outside of menu options, and certainly never heard of using it in social media posts!!!

On occasion, I've noted that holding down a command or shift or ctl key before clicking a menu sometimes offers an alternate menu (a programming approach I abhor and never remember of), but when I use modifying keys in this case no alternate menus pop up.

So how on Earth are we supposed to be able to find such functions! ;) I'm not a dufous, been on computers since the 80s. I know plenty of small daily hacks, but never heard of this one.

So I will rate this as Partially Solved. It is a fast/useful workaround, if I endeavour to not forget it. But it still does not fix the issue that I never had to do this until two weeks ago.

PS. I created an entry in Bugzilla to have them deal with this what I consider a bug.

PPS. I'm a little confused as to why no one on Mac answered this... would have been easier communications ;)

Thanks

I don't think this is a Mac-specific issue.

Currently, Twitter uses an editable HTML element for writing comments (contenteditable="true").

When you do a normal paste into an editable HTML element, Firefox pastes HTML. As far as I know, it's been that way for many, many years, so possibly Twitter recently changed how its editor is set up.

Note: I didn't check Twitter in any other browsers to see whether they get a different editor setup.

As for how you might discover that Firefox can do a text-only paste / paste without formatting, I don't know. I guess it's pretty obscure. It's helpful that it now appears on the right-click context menu when it would make a difference (starting in Firefox 105).