p345adx said

After upgrading to FF 44.0 dragging URLs from the address bar no longer works as in previous versions:

Dragging a URL to such programs as AnyVideo Converter now fails, dragging URLs into Win7 Notepad also fails - both used to work in prev. versions (dragging it into an Internet Explorer tab does still work)

Dragging selected text to Word or Windows Notepad is no longer possible (manual copy&paste does work)

For me, I can drag the (selected) content of the address bar and drop it into a Word 2010 document without a problem (if I select less than the entire address bar contents, it isn't automatically converted to a link), but nothing is dropped in Windows 7 Notepad.

Firefox 44 appears to contain numerous changes related to drag-and-drop, including crash fixes (see the complete list of changes link from the Release Notes). I'm not the best person to inspect those to see which are impacting Notepad and other applications.

since we found a reproducible way for this issue in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1106690 i did some regression testing, an found that this is a by-product of bug 943294. i'm not sure if this intentional - to find out i will file a new bug :-)

philipp said

this is a by-product of bug 943294. i'm not sure if this intentional - to find out i will file a new bug :-)

Oh, if Firefox doesn't "advertise" non-Unicode formats to applications which only look for ANSI formats, that could explain why Word 2010 sees the content but a less sophisticated program like Notepad does not. Hmm... it might have been intentional, but maybe the impact was underestimated.

For info only, if it's any use: I have the same problem with FF45. I don't think (but am not sure) I had the problem with FF44. I can't drag an address to (say) the desktop to create a link, drag tabs to reorder them, or drag highlighted text in a form (e.g., editing a Wikipedia page). I haven't done any serious debugging (I'll wait a couple of versions; I can always use another browser in the meantime), but this is with a FF that's been updated for years without a reinstall, with lots of extensions. A barebones FF45 (and 44) on a virtual machine on the same physical machine drags and drops fine.

pol098 said

I can't drag an address to (say) the desktop to create a link, drag tabs to reorder them, or drag highlighted text in a form (e.g., editing a Wikipedia page). ... A barebones FF45 (and 44) on a virtual machine on the same physical machine drags and drops fine.

This suggests a settings problem in your profile. Could any of your extensions be incompatible with Firefox 44-45? If you don't find the problem, I suggest starting a new question and including your system configuration information. You can use this link -- scroll down past suggested articles to continue with the form:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new/desktop/fix-problems

Regarding creating Windows shortcuts on the desktop or elsewhere, dragging a text address doesn't work, it needs to be either:

• a link
• the padlock or globe or "i" icon to the left of the address in the address bar

Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen or hold down the Shift key) to see if that has effect.

• http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-start-windows-in-safe-mode/
• http://www.7tutorials.com/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10

Do a clean reinstall of the current Firefox release and delete the Firefox program folder before installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.

• Download the Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
  *https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows Registry and settings in security software.

• Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

• (32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
• (64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"

• It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox

Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you uninstall and reinstall or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.

If you keep having problems then create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

I posted a "me too" about the drag problem a few days ago; it worked fine in a clean FF in a VM, so it was due to my setup. As I said (but thanks for the response anyway) I wasn't going to spend time on serious debugging, I'd wait for a new release to see if the problem resolved itself, as often happens. It didn't resolve with 45.0.1, so I thought I'd do a very quick and dirty debug; the technique might help others, much quicker than what's been recommended here, though less thorough and reliable. I started with a full backup, so nothing at risk. I closed FF and moved ALL the contents of c:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\randomname.default\extensions (so Windows, obviously) to a temporary directory and started FF. Dragging now worked, so it was presumably an extension, not profile, issue. I moved half the files (the second half alphanumerically, no subtle selection) back and started FF. Then repeatedly, closing and opening FF each time, if drag worked I moved half the remaining files back; if it didn't I moved half of the most recently restored files out. You'll recognise the classical binary chop, much faster than one-by-one. I quickly (5 minutes) found that drag and drop worked if all extensions except ReminderFox (RF) were present. So it's some issue with RF, or some interaction; I've copied RF back and disabled it; drag-and-drop continues to work, but not with RF enabled. HTH

pol098 said

I quickly (5 minutes) found that drag and drop worked if all extensions except ReminderFox (RF) were present. So it's some issue with RF, or some interaction; I've copied RF back and disabled it; drag-and-drop continues to work, but not with RF enabled. HTH

Good work. Someone mentioned that in a review Thursday (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/ad.../reminderfox/) but I don't know whether the author is taking steps to address it yet.