Backspace/delete key in Pages on iPad deleting entire contents of document!

[mliddle]

I am having an odd problem, and have not found a post that is similar. My daughter is using Pages on her iPad 2 (IOS 6) to do schoolwork. She has just had a second episode of working on a fairly long document of several paragraphs, and when hitting the backspace/delete key on the virtual keyboard intending to delete a single letter, the entire contents of the Pages document are erased. UNDO/REDO does not help. Fortunately, I was present both times and saw the work she was doing prior to the deletion, so am certain what she is reporting is accurate. It does NOT happen every time.

Her school requires the work be submitted from Pages on her iPad, or I would have her do it elsewhere.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Having read the only posts that seem similar, referring to occasional whole line deletions rather than single characters, I am having her reset the iPad now.

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[KevinJS]

The only thing I can think of that could account for this behavior is if she touches the screen prior to hitting the backspace key. This would highlight all text, and clear it all without any further chance to correct the action.

It's easy to spot, though. The background behind the highlighted text will turn blue.

 

[KevinJS]

Ignore the above.


This doesn't highlight the text. It requires another action to do this, namely Select All.


Maybe try Settings/General/Reset/Reset All Settings. This will not delete and apps or data, but if there is a dodgy setting somewhere it will restore it to default.

 

[MOTRDYD]

I agree with Kevin make sure u also save a lot and don't depend on auto save keyboards for the ipad now have backspace keys that don't delete and the 4 arrow keys up down left right there way better now and there an arm and a leg
and make sure your ipad doesn't have a lot of other programs running in the background on important stuff for me I shut down to the only app I'm useing

 

[twerppoet]

I don't think this is the problem, but there are ways of selecting of text without going through the Select All menu option.

Double tap a word to select it.

Double tap then drag to start selecting from a word. It's a kind of short cut for using the drag handles. Works both forward and backwards. If you drag left or right, you start including words. If you drag up or down it includes entire new lines. You can then fine tune with the drag handles.

Tap a paragraph with two fingers to select the entire paragraph.


As for the problem. I'm hoping a reset will fix the problem. I can't think of any sort of accidental deletion that would not be amenable to Undo.

If reset does not do the job, I'd delete and re-download the app. Make sure you have copies of the important documents either in iCloud or on the computer; preferably both.