How disable Copy, Cut, Select, Select All in UITextView

H

33

114

The UITextView's Copy, Cut, Select, Select All functionality is shown by default when I press down on the screen. But, in my project the UITextField is only read only. I do not require this functionality. Please tell me how to disable this feature.

Heiress answered 15/9, 2009 at 12:0 Comment(1)

place [UIMenuController sharedMenuController].menuVisible = NO; in - (BOOL) canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender method. – Gaskins 1/7, 2011 at 9:51

F

111

The easiest way to disable pasteboard operations is to create a subclass of UITextView that overrides the canPerformAction:withSender: method to return NO for actions that you don't want to allow:

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender
{
    if (action == @selector(paste:))
        return NO;
    return [super canPerformAction:action withSender:sender];
}

_{Also see UIResponder}

Frum answered 15/9, 2009 at 19:58 Comment(3)

@rpetrichm, I used you solution, copy/paste/cut/select/selectAll options are disabled but there's still coming Replace...|BIU|Define options. I want to disable that complete menu. – Feasible 8/5, 2014 at 10:38

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender { return NO; } - to block all of the options – Guinn 10/1, 2015 at 18:9

This is not working for UITextView, though I've seen this solution suggested in a number of places on SO. Has anyone figured out how to do this? – Lodmilla 24/6, 2018 at 22:16

R

69

Subclass UITextView and overwrite canBecomeFirstResponder:

- (BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder {
    return NO;
}

Note, that this only applies for non-editable UITextViews! Haven't tested it on editable ones...

Resonator answered 6/8, 2010 at 19:46 Comment(1)

I think return NO; on - (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender method is a better option. – Guinn 10/1, 2015 at 18:10

C

31

This was the best working solution for me:

UIView *overlay = [[UIView alloc] init];  
[overlay setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, myTextView.contentSize.width, myTextView.contentSize.height)];  
[myTextView addSubview:overlay];  
[overlay release];

from: https://mcmap.net/q/189787/-how-can-i-make-a-uitextview-not-selectable-duplicate

Carlcarla answered 26/3, 2012 at 21:46 Comment(0)

R

28

If you want to disable cut/copy/paste on all UITextView of your application you can use a category with :

@implementation UITextView (DisableCopyPaste)

- (BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder
{
    return NO;
}

@end

It saves a subclassing... :-)

Remote answered 4/11, 2011 at 17:39 Comment(6)

you can also put this only in your /, file where you need this behaviour. – Thorrlow 3/4, 2012 at 10:7

This only works as a side-effect and prevents the UITextView from behaving as expected when, for example, it is editable and gets a touch. It is much to override canPerformAction:withSender:; that's what the protocol is for. – Remediable 6/3, 2013 at 23:9

You cannot safely override a method using a category. This is undefined behavior. You must subclass in order to safely override a method. – Anon 22/4, 2013 at 18:42

Note: This will apply to all UITextViews in your application. Not ideal most of the time. – Jayejaylene 22/8, 2013 at 17:10

Also note that Apple advises against this: "If the name of a method declared in a category is the same as a method in the original class, or a method in another category on the same class (or even a superclass), the behavior is undefined as to which method implementation is used at runtime ... [and] can cause problems when using categories to add methods to standard Cocoa or Cocoa Touch classes." – Kylstra 28/7, 2015 at 19:59

This is dangerous: if any dependency or even Apple code you trigger presents a UITextView you're breaking the behavior of that third party component. – Phenomenal 5/9, 2017 at 4:55

C

27

@rpetrich answer worked for me. I'm posting the expanded code in case it saves someone some time.

In my case I want no popup whatsoever, but I do want the UITextField to be able to become first responder.

Unfortunately, you still get the magnifier popup when you tap and hold the textfield.

@interface NoSelectTextField : UITextField

@end

@implementation NoSelectTextField

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender {
    if (action == @selector(paste:) ||
        action == @selector(cut:) ||
        action == @selector(copy:) ||
        action == @selector(select:) ||
        action == @selector(selectAll:) ||
        action == @selector(delete:) ||
        action == @selector(makeTextWritingDirectionLeftToRight:) ||
        action == @selector(makeTextWritingDirectionRightToLeft:) ||
        action == @selector(toggleBoldface:) ||
        action == @selector(toggleItalics:) ||
        action == @selector(toggleUnderline:)
        ) {
            return NO;
    }
    return [super canPerformAction:action withSender:sender];
}

@end

Swift 4

class NoSelectTextField: UITextField {

    override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
        if action == #selector(paste(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(cut(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(copy(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(select(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(selectAll(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(delete(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(makeTextWritingDirectionLeftToRight(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(makeTextWritingDirectionRightToLeft(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(toggleBoldface(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(toggleItalics(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(toggleUnderline(_:)) {
            return false
        }
        return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
    }

}

Conserve answered 20/11, 2014 at 19:2 Comment(0)

U

21

If you don't need UITextView to scroll, then the simplest solution that doesn't involve sub-classing is to simply disable user interaction for the text view:

textField.userInteractionEnabled = NO;

Unwary answered 9/11, 2010 at 15:46 Comment(3)

This takes away tapping on links etc. if that is what is in the textview. Should be noted that this is not a good solution for wanting to hide the select/copy/paste, but also keep some level of interaction enabled. – Fia 9/2, 2012 at 3:47

Well, I would have thought that would be obvious. – Unwary 10/2, 2012 at 19:47

I'm using text fields as labels for pictures in a game and I don't want the magnifying glass to appear and there is no reason to copy the text. This works great for me. I'm using styled text in a UIWebView and the same line works there as well. – Sheepish 17/2, 2013 at 18:48

B

15

The easiest way is to create a subclass of UITextView that overrides the canPerformAction:withSender:

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender    
{    
     [UIMenuController sharedMenuController].menuVisible = NO;  //do not display the menu
     [self resignFirstResponder];                      //do not allow the user to selected anything
     return NO;
}

Bradski answered 24/4, 2010 at 6:13 Comment(0)

D

13

When I return NO in the canPerformAction on iOS 7 I will get a lot of errors like this:

<Error>: CGContextSetFillColorWithColor: invalid context 0x0. This is a serious error. This application, or a library it uses, is using an invalid context and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system stability and reliability. This notice is a courtesy: please fix this problem. It will become a fatal error in an upcoming update.

My solution is the following:

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender {
    [[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] addOperationWithBlock:^{
        [[UIMenuController sharedMenuController] setMenuVisible:NO animated:NO];
    }];
    return [super canPerformAction:action withSender:sender];
}

The trick is to hide the menu controller in the next cycle on the main queue (just after it is displayed).

Discotheque answered 4/3, 2014 at 12:34 Comment(3)

really nice. the only problem is that i have 2 textviews and one textField and i want to avoid the copy-paste only on the textView fields. how to identity who called the canPerformAction? the sender variable is the UIMenuController – Tophus 24/5, 2015 at 17:5

It works on the subclass of UITextField (or UITextView). If you don't use the subclass you made, it won't have any effect. E.g. I created a TextFieldWithoutCopyPaste and used that where I didn't want to have copy paste functionality. – Discotheque 25/5, 2015 at 8:33

ok, you're right. But in my case, the textView needs subclass to use the canPerformAction and the textField needs subclass to use the textFieldDidBeginEditing in order to animate the window when the keyboard is shown. the animation moves the window with the keyboard. I use this method to avoid that the keyboard covers the textField. – Tophus 25/5, 2015 at 16:33

W

9

This is the easiest way to disable the entire Select/Copy/Paste Menu in a UITextView

-(BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender
{    
    [UIMenuController sharedMenuController].menuVisible = NO;
    return NO;    
}

Widely answered 10/11, 2009 at 18:54 Comment(0)

N

6

You can fix this in your storyboard by uncheck these boxes:

Or you can set programatically like so:

textView.selectable = false
textView.editable = false

Notochord answered 6/2, 2016 at 10:30 Comment(0)

W

6

If you want to disable popup for UITextField then try this UITextFieldDelegate method to toggle isUserInteractionEnabled.

func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
    textField.isUserInteractionEnabled = false
    return true
}
func textFieldShouldEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
    textField.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
    return true
}

Whale answered 10/9, 2018 at 9:12 Comment(0)

S

5

If you are looking to replace the keyboard with a, let's say, UIPicker as the inputView (with of course a toolbar as an inputAccesotyView), then this workaround might help...

Implement textFieldShouldBeginEditing:
inside put textField.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
Then when you are about to close the UIPickerView, set it to YES.

By doing this, you'd be able to tap on the UITextField and show the options to choose from the UIPickerView, at this time your UITextField would, indeed, not react to any touch event (this includes touch and hold for cut, copy and paste). However, you would have to remember to set it back to YES when you are closing your UIPickerView however you won't be able to access your UIPickerView again.

The only moment when it fails is when the user starts by tapping and holding the UITextView, then you'd see cut copy and paste again for the first time. This is why you should always validate your inputs. This is the easiest I can think of. The other option was to use a UILabel for read-only text but you miss a lot of great functionality from UITextView.

Science answered 29/5, 2014 at 0:23 Comment(0)

M

5

Subclass UITextView - swift 4.0

     override public func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
        return false
    }

Macknair answered 3/4, 2018 at 11:51 Comment(1)

How weird? it still shows the option "Paste" but don't do it if pressed... – Debauched 10/4, 2018 at 0:40

T

4

Since iOS 7 there is a property on UITextView:

 @property(nonatomic,getter=isSelectable) BOOL selectable;

This keeps a view from allowing text selections. Works great for me.

Tickle answered 23/2, 2014 at 17:16 Comment(0)

D

3

This worked for me. Make sure you are calling resignFirstResponder on the textView

-(BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender
{
  [self.textView resignFirstResponder];
  return NO;
}

Decca answered 24/3, 2013 at 11:5 Comment(0)

D

3

This can be done easily in storyboard (Xcode 6). Just uncheck Editable and Selectable in Attributes Inspector. You can still scroll the text view.

Designation answered 13/8, 2015 at 2:31 Comment(0)

S

2

I have done it. On my UITextView I have disabled cut, copy, select, etc. option very easily.

I placed a UIView at the same place where i had placed the UITextView, but on self.view and added a touchDelegate method as follows:

(void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event 
{
    UITouch *scrollTouch=[touches anyObject];
    if(scrollTouch.view.tag==1)
    {
        NSLog(@"viewTouched");
        if(scrollTouch.tapCount==1)
            [textView1 becomeFirstResponder];
        else if(scrollTouch.tapCount==2)
        {
            NSLog(@"double touch");
            return;
        }

    }
}

and it worked for me. Thank you.

Smegma answered 9/11, 2009 at 19:25 Comment(0)

M

2

I provided a working answer here to disable text selection + magnifier, keeping enabled clikable links Hope that helps :

After quite a long time trying, I managed to stop text selection, magnifying, and keeping data detection (links clickable etc) by overriding addGestureRecognizer on a UITextView subclass allowing only UILongPressGestureRecognizer delaying touch ending:

UIUnselectableTextView.m

-(void)addGestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
{
    if([gestureRecognizer isKindOfClass:[UILongPressGestureRecognizer class]] && gestureRecognizer.delaysTouchesEnded)
    {
        [super addGestureRecognizer:gestureRecognizer];
    }
}

Mcalister answered 9/3, 2015 at 10:51 Comment(0)

V

2

For Swift 3 it's changed to:

override public func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
    return false
}

Vatic answered 18/8, 2016 at 9:53 Comment(0)

D

1

Swift

textView.selectable = false // disable text selection (and thus copy/paste/etc)

textView.editable = false // text cannot be changed but can still be selected and copied
textView.userInteractionEnabled = false // disables all interaction, including scrolling, clicking on links, etc.

Dilatory answered 26/9, 2015 at 7:23 Comment(0)

P

1

If you want to add a custom option to your UITextView but disable the existing functions this is how you do it on Swift 3 :

To disable the copy, paste, cut funcionality create a subclass and override the following:

override public func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
    return false
}

On the ViewController you have your CustomTextView add the following to add your options:

  let selectText = UIMenuItem(title: "Select", action: #selector(ViewController.selected))

    func selected() {

    if let selectedRange = textView.selectedTextRange, let 
     selectedText = textView.text(in: selectedRange) {

     }


    print("User selected text: \(selectedText)")

    }

Peckham answered 6/9, 2017 at 6:31 Comment(0)

S

1

This method will completely disable the Select, Select All, Paste menu. If you still get some other action, then just add that to the if condition as below.

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender // This is to disable select / copy / select all / paste menu
    {
        if (action == @selector(copy:) || action == @selector(selectAll:) || action == @selector(select:) || action == @selector(paste:))
            return NO;
        return [super canPerformAction:action withSender:sender];
    }

Stockton answered 23/2, 2018 at 6:0 Comment(0)

C

1

UITextView has two property that will do what you need: isSelectable and isEditable.

Setting isEditable to false you will avoid the user to edit the text and setting isSelectable to false you will avoid the user to select text inside your textView so this will prevent the action menu to be shown.

Clarisclarisa answered 6/8, 2019 at 12:31 Comment(0)

P

1

If you are looking for a iOS >=13.0 version you can simply use this extension at any level of implementation down to the UIResponder:

extension UITextField {
  override var editingInteractionConfiguration: UIEditingInteractionConfiguration {
      return .none
  }
}

Psychoanalysis answered 17/9, 2020 at 10:2 Comment(0)

B

0

You can just create category like this:

UITextView+Selectable.h

@interface UITextView (Selectable)

@property (nonatomic, assign, getter = isTextSelectable) bool textSelectable;

@end

UITextView+Selectable.m

#import "UITextView+Selectable.h"

#import <objc/runtime.h>

#define TEXT_SELECTABLE_PROPERTY_KEY @"textSelectablePropertyKey"

@implementation UITextView (Selectable)

@dynamic textSelectable;

-(void)setTextSelectable:(bool)textSelectable {
    objc_setAssociatedObject(self, TEXT_SELECTABLE_PROPERTY_KEY, [NSNumber numberWithBool:textSelectable], OBJC_ASSOCIATION_ASSIGN);
}

-(bool)isTextSelectable {
    return [objc_getAssociatedObject(self, TEXT_SELECTABLE_PROPERTY_KEY) boolValue];
}

-(bool)canBecomeFirstResponder {
    return [self isTextSelectable];
}

@end

Babar answered 3/5, 2014 at 8:43 Comment(1)

This isn't a good way of solving it. Firstly it affects everything, as it's in the category. Secondly, using associated objects for rather easy task may case more troubles later with debugging (why does it work like this when you forget what you did) than give profit. It's good to avoid it whenever possible in my opinion. Makes code less easy to find&debug and understand by new programmer in the project. – V2 15/9, 2014 at 11:15

H

0

Subclassing UITextView and overriding - (void)addGestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer is another possibility to disable unwanted actions.

Use the class of the gestureRecognizer-object to decide if the action should be added or not.

Hambrick answered 24/6, 2014 at 12:57 Comment(0)

S

0

(SWIFT) If you want just a basic text field with none of the menu options or magnifying glass then create a subclass of UITextField returning false to gestureRecognizerShouldBegin:

class TextFieldBasic: UITextField {
    override func gestureRecognizerShouldBegin(gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {

        return false
    }
}

This will bypass all the touch functionality on the text field but still allow you to use the popup keyboard to add / remove characters.

If you are using storyboard just assign the newly created class to the text field or if you are creating a text field programatically:

var basicTextField = TextFieldBasic()
basic = basicTextField(frame: CGRectMake(10, 100, 100,35))
basic.backgroundColor = UIColor.redColor()
self.view.addSubview(basic)

basic.becomeFirstResponder()

Saks answered 24/9, 2015 at 12:59 Comment(0)

L

0

override func canPerformAction(action: Selector, withSender sender: AnyObject?) -> Bool 
{
    NSOperationQueue .mainQueue().addOperationWithBlock({ () -> Void in   

        [UIMenuController .sharedMenuController() .setMenuVisible(false, animated: true)]

    })
    return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)}

Lawton answered 6/1, 2016 at 12:59 Comment(0)

R

0

Swift 3

In order to do this, you need to subclass your UITextView and put this method.

override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
        if (action == #selector(copy(_:))) {
            return false
        }

        if (action == #selector(cut(_:))) {
            return false
        }

        if (action == #selector(paste(_:))) {
            return false
        }

        return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
    }

Rutheruthenia answered 25/5, 2017 at 12:0 Comment(0)

A

0

Please find the sample code for reference:

 override public func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
        if action == #selector(copy(_:)) || action == #selector(paste(_:)) || action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.paste(_:)) ||
            action == #selector(replace(_:withText:)) ||
            action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.cut(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.select(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.selectAll(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.delete(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.makeTextWritingDirectionLeftToRight(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.makeTextWritingDirectionRightToLeft(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.toggleBoldface(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.toggleItalics(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.toggleUnderline(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.increaseSize(_:)) ||
        action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.decreaseSize(_:))

       {
            return false
        }

        return true
    }

Arceliaarceneaux answered 30/12, 2019 at 13:7 Comment(0)

A

0

You can use method swizzling for acheiving this. Method swizzling is to be performed for the method : func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool

If you have multiple textFeild/textView throughout app, in different storyboards and if you want all of them to discard clipboard options at once then this is best solution.Method swizzling implementation can be added in the textFeild/textView extensions. Swizzle function can be called in didginish launch in app delegate.

Archive answered 19/5, 2022 at 16:19 Comment(0)

H

0

I solved the problem of my picker in text field. To remove selection. Enough "CGRect.null"

override func caretRect(for position: UITextPosition) -> CGRect {
    return CGRect.null
}
override func selectionRects(for range: UITextRange) -> [UITextSelectionRect] {
    return []
}
override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
    return false
}

Hesta answered 26/1, 2023 at 13:18 Comment(0)

C

-1

Use func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool { retrun bool } in place of textFieldShouldBeginEditing.

class ViewController: UIViewController , UITextFieldDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var textField: UITextField!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        //Show date picker
        let datePicker = UIDatePicker()
        datePicker.datePickerMode = UIDatePickerMode.date
        textField.tag = 1
        textField.inputView = datePicker
    }

    func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
        if textField.tag == 1 {
            textField.text = ""
            return false
        }

        return true
    }

    func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
        if textField.tag == 1 {
            textField.text = ""
            return false
        }

        return true
    }
}

Create a new class with name StopPasteAction.swift

import UIKit

class StopPasteAction: UITextField {

    override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
        return false
    }
}

Add the class new class with you current TextField

Canadianism answered 5/9, 2017 at 2:38 Comment(0)

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