Game using the Xbox Keyboard interface by default for all typing (Chatlog, books, signs, renaming items)

This broke the book & quill for me. I use it as a journal to keep track of projects in my survival world because when I take breaks from the game It make its easier to remember where I left off, and sometimes I take big breaks. Do to this oversite or whatever it is I can't format the text the way I want to, or at lest the same way as before, making it much more difficult then it needs to be. As of now (October 4, 2022) its still not fixed. I guess this is a low priority fix for Mojang which is unfortunate cause this is more frustrating for me than it needs to be.

I don't know if this is a Minecraft thing or just an Xbox bug but on top of it using the wrong interface, whenever you go back to replace something in the text it'll change the characters in front. Hard to explain so this is basically what it does:

Original text
This is sample text

Edited text with expected output
This is some sample text

Edited text with actual output
This is some e text

It replaces the characters in front of it to add in the new text. Weirdly enough it also only does this sometimes. If for example I want to work on some command blocks I can only really do so 50% of the time because if I need to edit anything, this bug can appear.

This issue just started with the recent update 1.19.31. The issue is same as described above.

I often do work with Commands and this oversight is basically cutting off my hands here, I lost a world I have been working on for the last few days due to this update and when I went to try and redo it I've found that this problem will multiply the time it takes to redo the work by several times while I could have rebuilt all the Commands in a few hours normally it will take me days now due to the massive slowdown caused by this bug

Same! Even with command blocks and signs😡

Encountered this in v1.19.31 update. Makes it impossible to edit previous commands, use the tab key to pre-fill or tapping ~ to get your coordinates into a command. So, yea, basically taking a break from creative on console for a while.

Same I use a keyboard to type too because I do a lot of command block work as a realm owner and as a admin for other realms and or servers and this has just either slowed down my work or made me delete a entire command code by accident, it is really annoying!

I notice this behavior has manifested for different users at different times and in different versions.  I didn't see it until 1.19.31 and even then it wasn't until a few days after the update.  Could this be related to a console setting or update and not exclusively a game update?

This appeared more commonly after the new performance update of October 5th. the same applies to MCPE-162847

according to other reports on the keyboard, they state that the issue is "resolved", yet the game has not changed. Am I not understanding somthing? Or is there a problem on mojangs side.
A keybaord issue results in me not wanting to play, as well as the game has become more glitchy as of the new "hotfix" update.

Reply from @unknown:
Please read the Bug Tracker Guidelines to understand what Resolved means. The "other reports" that you refer to were probably resolved as duplicates of this one.

I encountered this in the 1.19.31 update I reported via Xbox report system.

As a large user of command blocks and console commands to build adventure maps, this update whether intentional or not has absolutely broken command blocks, console commands, signs, books and quills and the chat system all together!

I can't see why this would even be added in the first place; at first, I thought it was to prevent spam on servers, but I have seen since that it is still entirely possible to do so. Also, the text modifying system on Bedrock edition by use of § has become since impossible to see what colour or effect the characters have on text. I have already memorised all of these effects, but a new player may have extreme difficulty trial and erroring this system.

Another issue that has presented itself is that Bedrock players are so used to pressing B or exit on a sign to leave text, but now it is mandatory to press enter or else text is lost. This has led to many instances where I have deleted a command block, message, command or line of text by accident. Lastly, signs now are printed with a box that says LINE 1, then LINE 2, LINE 3 and LINE 4. However, it doesn't stop there and keeps going to LINE 5, LINE 6 and so on seemingly forever you cant even see the lines past line 4!

I really hope they fix this in the next snapshot, it is an issue that has made some aspects of Minecraft either hard or impossible.

Any updates on a fix for this issue yet?

It's getting pretty boring not doing any projects due to this issue. I'd rather not waste extreme amounts of my time doing projects with this current text method.

I am definitely having this issue and it is very frustrating. I use lots of commands/command blocks too, but am not as proficient as some and at tines it takes a lot trial and error, not having the xbox keyboard pop up is extremely helpful because as you are typing in a command you know you are correctly entering parameters when the left side of the screen shows suggestions for the next set of parameters. The keyboard popping up makes that much more tedious. Please fix.

I'm experiencing this issue as well. I use commands extensively, and having to have the Xbox virtual keyboard on-screen for any input from my USB keyboard to be valid is counterproductive, as well as counterintuitive. I hope we can get this fixed before the end of the year.

it never happened to me before the interface change. It's like if you try to type something in, the game will overwrite the letter in-front of your curser meaning if you want to edit something you have to retype everything.

Thank you for your patience while we get this issue addressed. We understand this is causing frustration, but please remember that there is not always a simple fix that will resolve the issue immediately. Please be assured we are actively looking into a solution though.

You can read about the latest bug fixes at https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/sections/360001185332, and we will update this bug ticket when appropriate. In the meantime, please remember that the bug tracker is not a forum for discussion.

For further discussion and community feedback you might like to visit one of the following links:

• Minecraft Feedback Site

• Minecraft Discord

This is an issue that has caused serious devastation to my worlds. I cannot write a sign and know what is going to go where. It is incredibly annoying and completely pauses the game until the text is entered in. 

Here's an example on how it breaks the command/chat menu

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open the command line with a keyboard plugged in to the Xbox console

2. Click into the command line

3. begin to type with the keyboard

Observed Results:

 The Xbox Onscreen Keyboard Interface appears and breaks the function of the command line.

1. The auto fill function of tilde key "~" doesn't work anymore. (Because it doesn't actually type in the command line anymore but the Keyboard Interface instead.)

2. Clunky navigation of the command/chatlog. (Navigating with the up or down arrow keys in the chatlog either doesn't work or the Keyboard Interface appears. Interestingly, this issue doesn't happen with the Xbox controllers D-Pad but only the Keyboards arrow keys.)

3. If text is highlighted when typing in the Keyboard Interface, it can very easily be accidently deleted. (When the Keyboard Interface appears, the text in the Keyboard Interface is initially highlighted. If you don't unhighlight the text before typing, it will delete the previously written text, meaning you have to back out of Keyboard Interface and start again.)

4. The chatlog doesn't track commands properly anymore. (The "/fill" command for example, say I would go to coordinates "X: 100. Y: 64, Z: 100" and type "/fill 100 64 100" using the tilde key function "~" to get the command in faster, then I would confirm it and go to the place I want filled in with blocks "X: 200, Y:74, Z: 200", then open the chat and navigate to previously typed command to continue with it "/fill 100 64 100 ~ ~ ~ stone 1 replace air".) This doesn't work anymore as for some reason it doesn't remember the first half of the command I previously typed, breaking this technique.

Expected Results:
 What should be expected is the Xbox Onscreen Keyboard Interface shouldn't appear when using a keyboard. Imagine if this bug happened on Java. Before this bug popped up it worked as intended like on Java. I mean I remember before this bug there were similar if not the same types of bugs in other games, but Minecraft didn't have this issue until 1.19. Maybe it's a bug with Xbox? I don't know? it could be both, either way it's weird.

If this bug has been resolved then why is it in the latest released of Minecraft? What does resolved mean by your definition? Just that you have acknowledged it... Because it's 19.50 now and it's still not resolved. What is the resolution? What do I have to do to make it stop happening?

Reply from @unknown:
This (MCPE-159777) bug is not Resolved (see the Status at the top). Your original report was Resolved as a Duplicate. That does not mean your original report was Fixed, only that it is not tracked separately. You might want to review the Bug Tracker Guidelines to see how this system works.

The bug also affects, the market place (On the search bar) when trying to search stuff on the market place. Find it difficult to do with this bug.

Just wanted to add this bug also Affects Preview 1.19.70.20

This also effects chatpad users. (Chatpad = xbox controller mounted keyboard).

I would also like to add that when you are typing and want to give the text a certain effect using the “§” key, it is impossible to tell what effect it will have on the text. For example, “§4” makes text red, but it is impossible to know this until you enter past the onscreen keyboard. Then, if you do not like the effect you have to go back and it is very difficult to edit it, as people have said, you have to rewrite everything. I am surprised this bug has been in the game for over half a year as it is completely game braking. It makes it impossible to type anything in any way on xbox.

I've been more than patient on this issue and am willing to wait longer; but please give us more feedback as to where y'all are at with fixing this. It's coming up on 4 months since your last official Mojang address regarding this issue and I feel as if it's been forgotten about. This bug has effected every aspect of my experience, as I work with commands and NPCs regularly. I've tried reaching out to Mojang's Twitter, to which I had received no response. I think I speak for everyone when I say that there needs to be more feedback, especially for issues as large as such.

Thanks

100% agree with the frustrations on this issue as well, I've been working on a big RPG world for about a year that a lot of people are waiting on and now I just can't work on it at all until this bug is fixed.

It's kinda miserable knowing you can't work on a passion project just because of an unfixed bug, even a timeline would be nice.

Was looking into this- it is possible that this is an Xbox issue, and not a Minecraft issue?

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/on-screen-keyboard-in-minecraft/11eab5b3-2af8-438b-b4a6-95dada0f92c6

Apparently it started up after an Xbox update, and not anything to do with a Minecraft change.

It is highly unprobable that this is a Xbox issue: even before the GDK transition in October 5th for Minecraft, the preview version of the game already was affected to this times ago, but wasn't noticed too much like now. Since the full version of the game is now also affected by this, it got much more attention. You can also notice that this bug was created way before the GDK transition in the full game.

The new parity change in 1.19.80.21 now triggers this bug every time you open the search bar in the inventory screen. Just annoying.

Minecraft as a product is not useable for me in the ways that I play the game, so I guess until this bug is fixed, the game is broken for me, as it is literally game breaking to me and others that require this feature to function. I don't understand how this issue is not a high priority for Mojang.

More communication would be appreciated, or an update on if it is actually being looked at as an important problem.

This issue has been partially resolved in the latest preview(1.20.10.20) although you still cannot use tab to autocomplete commands but you can now once again use a keyboard to type after interacting with chat input on controller by pressing A.

Just tried the preview 1.20.10.20 and still feel broken:

• The TAB button doesn't cycle through commands.

• The mouse becomes unresponsive when the virtual keyboard pops up, it becomes active when you dismiss the virtual keyboard, also when you click the typing area.

• You still have to click in the arrow in the right bottom instead of using the enter directly from the physical keyboard. 

• It is not possible to reuse commands or text that were typed, no access to typed history.

• TAB, backspace and enter can be used to open the virtual keyboard, or to access the typing area, only enter can be used to exit the typing area. 

As of 1.20.10.20 nothing has been fixed when playing on xbox with controller

Fixed in 1.20.10/11

Almost fixed in 1.20.11 can still not press tab to auto fill command line or press enter to send in chat.

Wait until you guys try and edit a command block post 1.20.11 🙂

In the latest version 1.20.11 when playing on xbox with an xbox controller, everything is fixed except, when using signs the 4th line is cut off by the keyboard, and you can still go past line 4; there is also an issue with book and quills where again the keyboard covers the lower lines (lines 13 & 14). Also when using the full screen mode on a command block the keyboard covers the entire upper half of the screen making it difficult to type command blocks.

We are now able to type using a keyboard, however the main issue is that we can still not utilise the TAB key to cycle through the autofill suggestions.

Example: Looking at the floor and grabbing the coordinates of the block your looking at should be as simple as pressing TAB twice a few times to get each X, Y and Z coordinate.

Another nit pick is that we can't just press the ENTER key to instantly bring up the chatbox and begin typing, we must now press ENTER twice.

Hopefully the full fix can come soon, much appreciate the current work on this issue so far, but please address the TAB issue.

I see some progress has been made but for me it’s still not great.
When I open the chat I see that I must click enter to show the chat, then enter to start typing, but the on screen keyboard still is showing up.

I still cannot use tab or the up key shortcuts to retype or auto fill. (I could only get this to work by pressing esc to get out of the on screen keyboard, then repeat. But it should be simple like it used to be.)

^^{So hopefully the on screen keyboard can be gone when Minecraft realizes you are using keyboard and don’t need a second one to be in your way.}^

In addition to the tab key still not working, typing commands into the Xbox keyboard instead of the Minecraft chat bar, the suggested format above the Minecraft chat box doesn’t update as you type.

Trying to press enter to save will now delete all text after the cursor.

This stems from how on a sign or book and quill you would proceed to the next line, but in the anvil or chat it is problematic. I noticed today while using an anvil that you fixed the on screen pop-up problem, which I'm very grateful for. Unfortunately, you can now delete an entire message if you go back to the beginning of it to fix a typo and try to send it. This happens using either the Xbox on-screen Keyboard or a USB Keyboard. Thanks for the progress on this bug, Mojang!

Well since you guys declared my post about how you can no longer read command blocks at all a duplicate of this issue even though it isnt, i guess i should try my best to alert you to the fact that xbox command block users can't read what they are typing into the window making it much more difficult to edit or even write command blocks the only way around this is to copy and paste the contents of the command block into chat edit it there, and then copy the chat command and paste it back into the command block. this basically locks xbox users out of using command blocks, and literally does if you play on controller.

If you dont think this is a big deal write me a comment saying why, but every time you want to type turn off your monitor and start the courser at the end of the comment, oh and make sure you dont misspell anything or miss any punctuation. Because if you do good luck trying to fix it.

Not fixed as of 1.19.12

As if the most recent update, when you are playing on Xbox you can no longer auto fill commands in the chat using right and left D-pad. This makes it nearly impossible to do long commands on Xbox controller.

Reply from @unknown:
The issue with auto-fill is tracked in MCPE-175069.

This issue still afflicts the command line of the most recent non-experimental update as of February 7th, 2024. Xbox virtual keyboard still needs to be up for any keyboard input to be entered into the CLI (Command-Line Interface) after the "/" key has been pressed.

This is still an issue... I'll be it, not as game breaking as it once was.

We still can't use our keyboard's 'enter' key to send chats, commands, or close any text entry. We also can't use 'tab' to auto-fill commands in chat. 

Though it's been removed since this bug came about; we still wouldn't be able to use the copy coordinate system. This is because the Xbox keyboard pop-up still appears when typing anything anywhere. This is super unfortunate, as the copy coordinate system was the best feature they'd added for the command block community.

I have absolutely no hope that this will ever get fixed. I honestly just want someone from Mojang to come out and at least talk about it. We've only had this small space to discuss our frustrations and it feels like we've been abandoned. I don't understand how they can have an entire site dedicated to tracking bugs; but never attend to it. 

Still affects version 1.21.41 

Still affects hotfix 1.21.62

I wonder why something so seemingly simple is so hard to fix. Just hide the keyboard when using a physical keyboard why is that so challenging?