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Windows Phone Mango users reporting disappearing keyboards

By | October 17, 2011, 1:54pm PDT

Summary: A number of Windows Phone Mango users are reporting their soft keyboards are disappearing intermittently since upgrading to the newest Microsoft mobile operating system.

This is one for the “hasn’t happened to me (yet), knock on wood” files.

A number of Windows Phone users who have upgraded to the “Mango” operating system release are reporting their soft keyboards are disappearing intermittently.

WMPowerUser.com noted last week that there seem to be a number of random problems surfacing among users who have upgraded to Mango, of which disappearing keyboards is one. The disapparing-keyboard issue doesn’t seem to be tied to specific phone form factors. In other words, some HTC Trophy 7 users are reporting the disappearing keyboard issue, while other Trophy users are not.

WMPowerUser reported on October 12 that on the XDA-Developers.com Forums, “a number of users are complaining of either the keyboard not popping up when the user touches an input field, and even worse, disappearing in the middle of typing a sentence.”

The @WindowsPhoneSupport account on Twitter noted on October 14 that Microsoft Support is aware of the disappearing keyboard issue. I asked Microsoft officials for information on how and when Microsoft plans to fix this — or at least what they’re advising users who are affected to do to alleviate the issue.

“Customer support is working with the individuals reporting changes to their experience. We are investigating these reports to determine the root cause of any issues users are having,” said a Microsoft spokesperson via e-mail at the end of the day (ET) on October 17.

I’m hearing from a growing number of Mango users via e-mail that the disappearing keyboard issue has hit them. Anyone else out there? Any other newly introduced problems you’ve seen since upgrading to Mango?

(Thanks to @aharpaz for persistence in reporting this issue.)

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Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

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RE: Windows Phone Mango users reporting disappearing keyboards
prothor 15th Dec
Had my HTC Radar for 3 weeks now and the problem started the last week. Very annoying!
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Is this statement now inoperative?
HollywoodDog 18th Oct
@tatiGmail ... [iPhone] "doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine." - Stephen A. Ballmer
@tatiGmail

Been running mango for 3 weeks without any issues on my HTC Tropy.
@rob.sharp@... Would be curious on percentages that are being affected. Is this like the iPhone's antenna gate which was blown way out of proportion.
@tatiGmail You're holding it wrong.
Absolutely, its definitely happening to me.
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Using Mango since June...
GoodThings2Life 17th Oct
...when it hit beta and have NOT experienced the issue on my Arrive. The only time my keyboard disappears on me is if I accidentally tap outside a text block while typing (for example in text messaging if I tap right above QWERTY).
@GoodThings2Life

Not on my HTC Mozart either
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It's not disappearing. They are typing/texting too slow.
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You're doing it wrong!
HollywoodDog 18th Oct
@Return_of_the_jedi ... type faster.
@Return_of_the_jedi I have the same ideas with you magento themes
Haven't experienced this on my Trophy. Maybe a driver issue?
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Driver issue?
Info-Dave 18th Oct
@jatbains on a virtual keyboard?
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RE: Windows Phone Mango users reporting disappearing keyboards
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 17th Oct
Microsoft is forcing people to use the voice functions of the phone wink
Haven't had this happen to myself. HTC Surround here.
IT did'nt happen to me... But then I use a Dell Venue Pro with Querty Keyboard for days like these.
i hate having to tap outside the keyboard to remove the keyboard. wish you could slide it away or click on an Exit link
I have another problem: Mango update not appearing for my phone on AT&T
I've noticed this as well but thought it was just me. HTC Trophy.

Side note: the phone has crashed a couple of times when clicking on landmarks found in the new Bing map search.

Still love the phone though.
happened to me - on a mobile banking app!! trying to xfer funds between accounts and no ability to enter amount !!! very inconvenient. (was OK pre-Mango).
using HTC Trophy - using a mobile banking app - couldn't enter data when trying to transfer funds - very inconvenient!
worked ok pre-Mango.
hit the back button to make the keyboard go away...
htc trophy here. have seen it across multiple apps, including homebrew.

i always type in landscape. i wonder if that's a common thread too?
@bc3tech

Suggestion about writing landscape was really helpful. Thanks a lot man, haven't tried that. Shame on me!!! happy
But it's still a Mango bug, that with portrait holding of the phone is it not working. I'm really glad, that now I can configure all my accounts.
No disappearing keyboard but I've noticed in IE that the address bar sometimes disappears. I'm using Samsung Focus, hardware vers. 1.3. Also, like dude up above said my data usage seems to have spiked significantly. sad
@stevenjayrocks : "data usage up"... aaahh "ET .. phone home.."
What better way to make sure the brand gets a bad reputation than rushing out software before it is ready for production.
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@wackoae Yes, this is just like when iOS4 came out and practically bricked all the iPhone 3G's.
@dazzlingd Hardly "bricked"... piss poor attempt at FUD.
@Pete "Athynz" Athens
When it takes between 10 and 15 seconds to switch screens or to swipe to answer a call, then I would call that "practically" bricking my iPhone 3G.

If you think that's FUD, then that's your problem.

It wasn't until iOS 4.2 that they fixed it. By then I had moved to a phone that actually worked...
@dazzlingd "bricked" means that it is inoperable... what you had - from you description - was slow not inoperable. I must be one of the lucky ones because I did not have that issue when I upgraded my iPhone 3G from 3x to 4... it was slower yes but not as slow as you say yours was.

So yes FUD.
@dazzlingd I upgraded my 3G to 4.0 and it did slow somewhat but absolutely nothing like you said and FAR from bricking the phone so yes, sounds like FUD to me.
happens when I type... disappointed. Sometimes I'll open it by touching the text field again and it will close immediately before i even start typing. Other times it will close quickly between letters of the same word. Completely random. LG Optimus 7.
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Maybe they're holding it wrongly [nt]
ego.sum.stig@... 17th Oct
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Happening on the HTC Titan too
Peter252 17th Oct
Yes, definately had it here too, and the Titan is an original Mango phone, not an upgrade.

It happened only once when i needed to enter a password, it also displayed the wrong keyboard sometimes (the phone keyboard instead of special symbols)
Have HTC Arrive and haven't experienced it yet. Not sure it would affect me anyway since I typically use the slide-out keyboard for text entry.
Been using Mango on HTC HD7 for past 30 days without problem. Mango is iphone equalizer; it does everything iphone purport to do!
@pdihal@... Wait a minute, for the past 11 months all we have heard from WP7 fans is it's better than the iPhone but now you are saying that with Mango it now catches up with the iPhone? wink
No problems here with my Trophy.

Haven't heard from my family member with a Trophy that they're having issues either.
I've had the keyboard disappear on me when using the "word suggestion" feature as I'm typing. If I don't hit the right area on the suggested word, the focus goes off the text input area, which closes the virtual keyboard. Of course, I have sausage fingers, so virtual keyboards and small touch screens aren't my friend.
My HTC HD7 does that occasionally
I have a HTC HD7 it happens to me occasionally.
Microsoft heard that most of the users of Smartphones were fine without using a Physical Keyboard and assumed that they could extrapolate that into using "No Keyboard At All".
Oooopppss !
No issues on my Samsung Focus. All I've seen is goodness.
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Me too
garyc2011 18th Oct
I updated my phone to 7.5 and it is now useless, keyboard disappears all the time, the battery life is rubbish now ?!?!?!, and it freezes all the time.

Im going back to Android where I should have stayed after my contract is up, Im trying to see If I can get out of it as basically the phone they have given me is "not fit for purpose"

Microsoft needs to sort this out.......................................

As far as I can see this is too little, too late for Microsoft, too many people have invested too much time and effort learning IOS or Android, not to mention money invested in apps purchased. No one will want to have to learn a whole new OS and loose their apps they bought...............
@garyc2011
"too many people have invested too much time and effort learning IOS or Android"

There are more NEW phone users being added in the emerging markets of India and China every year who have no legacy time invested on iOS or Android. These new-gen users will take to Windows phones in a huge way, especially with the Nokia tie-up.
@jaykayess These new-gen users will take to Windows phones in a huge way...
Based on what? Just because something is your dream come true doesn't mean it's going to happen.
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Mango don't know.
ThatOtherApple 18th Oct
Mango only pawn in game of life.
Not on my Focus, works beautifully.
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Well that's not good
symbolset 18th Oct
Going to be hard to get folks excited about Mango phones with this in the press. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out quickly.
Had my HTC Radar for 3 weeks now and the problem started the last week. Very annoying!

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