Cannot use cut/copy/paste keyboard commands with system dialogs in Tahoe

They work fine for me, as always. It's a setting on your system. First place to check is System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts (button at the bottom) > Modifier Keys. If the issue occurs in specific application, check the key mappings for those applications.

If that is all normal (i.e., Command is mapped to Command), see if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode, which disables 3rd party extensions and performs some system cleanup.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

This worked for me.

Verify Full keyboard access did not get turned on...

>System Settings>Accessibility >Keyboard>Full Keyboard Access>OFF

Thank you.

PatrickKing7k wrote:

I've also checked whether the system is currently in safe mode (using these directions to check), and it looks like the mac has booted up in normal mode.

My point was that you should follow those directions and reboot into Safe Mode to test if your problem is caused by a 3rd party extension (a Bluetooth keyboard driver, for example).

PatrickKing7k wrote:

• Since updating to Tahoe, when using system dialogs like Save file, basic keyboard commands do not work.

These don't work (but you can trigger the equivalent function through the context menu)

CMD + C, copy

• CMD + X, cut

• CMD + V, paste

• CMD + A, select all

•

But these keyboard commands do still work:

CMD + left/right arrow, jump to start or end

• CMD + left/right arrow + shift, select through to start/end

As far as I can remember, this failure is new to Tahoe.

Not seeing the issue.

Have you shut down and restarted more than once since your Upgrade to Tahoe...?

Verify Full keyboard access did not get turned on...

>System Settings>Accessibility >Keyboard>Full Keyboard Access>OFF

Tahoe there are reports of several copy&paste issues, including a bug in the Contacts app, problems with specific applications like FileMaker Pro, and general intermittent failures to copy&paste text or formulas. Quit the problem apps and test.

Possible resolve— simply changing the highlight color in >System Settings > Appearance can fix the issue

From the Terminal you can try restarting the clipboard process from the Terminal.app

killall pboard 

report back your success or failure here.

verify your software is up to date—

The current stable release of Tahoe including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 26.0.1

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

PatrickKing7k wrote:

I'm running Tahoe 26.0.1

Edited:

I've also tried changing the highlight colour, and the `killall pboard` command. No luck.

Adobe Creative Cloud has been known to interfere in Tahoe...with basic copy & paste.

disable /off/ or uninstall (?)

Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe >System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > App Background Activity

leroydouglas wrote:

Adobe Creative Cloud has been known to interfere in Tahoe...with basic copy & paste.

disable /off/ or uninstall (?)

Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe >System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > App Background Activity

FWIW, I have Adobe Creative Cloud running on 26.0.1 and have no issues with copy/paste in system dialog boxes (or elsewhere).

Try creating a new macOS user account. Log out of your main user account, then log into the new user account. Do you still have the issue? If not, then the issue is limited to your main user account.

Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Like neuroanatomist, all of these are working just fine for me. Also, I have not seen this reported elsewhere; this reinforces our conviction that it is something peculiar to your system.

Do please follow neuroanatomist's solid advice and let us know how it goes.

PatrickKing7k wrote:

I tried booting into safe mode.

The problem still persists, though when I try to use one of the failing keyboard shortcuts, I see the whole screen flash grey. It reminds me of the visual terminal bell effect.

The screen flashing is a setting in Accessibility, it is a way to convey an error, useful for people with hearing disabilities, who might not be able to hear a beep or other alert sound.

You can disable that in System Settings->Accessibility->Audio: