Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

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Posted on by CRM Learner 88

Several users in my company are typing in text into the 'Description' field on an activity record like phone call and the text will sometimes disappear. This happens randomly so its hard to reproduce. We tried clearing out cache but it keeps reoccurring.

We are on CRM 2016 with IE 11 browser. Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this and what can be done to correct this?

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donalmc 125 on at

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

We are seeing something similar and believe the issue is related to multi-line text fields and autosave.

In certain scenarios, users are typing something into a multi-line text field, pause to have a think, and lose what they have just typed.

See the issue below from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 release notes.

www.microsoft.com/.../Microsoft_Dynamics_CRM_2015_CRM_Online_Readme.htm

Auto-save may reposition mouse cursor (325877)

When Auto-save occurs, a blur event is triggered on fields to ensure we capture all changes. Unfortunately, this also causes the mouse position to move and may potentially disrupt input. The workaround is to disable auto-save for organizations where users type a lot in one field. For example, if users are expected to type in multi-line text fields for long durations, then this may be disruptive.

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

I wondering if the properties on text box is smaller than the size of the content the field holds. For example. If in the form the text box is set to 100 px, but the underlying data from crm is NVARCHAR(MAX), they could keep on typing , but the limit of the size of the text box will restrict them from seeing what their typing, like if you have word wrap turned off typing in Notepad.exe

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

Glad to be of help. The developers should also be able to identify if those scripts are causing your issues.

I think it would be strange for webresource scripts to be running on a page out of the box, but let's see what the developers come back with.

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CRM Learner 88 on at

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

I'm sorry for the late response here. I appreciate all the information. So I went into our production environment and see both the Form Libraries and Event Handlers. However I only 2 items for each. Is it possible these are in there by default and weren't created? I'd probably escalate the testing of this to our developers but before I do want to make sure that these aren't the out of the box scripts on the page.

I appreciate all your help.

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

Hi,

The following describes how to disable scripts. A WORD OF WARNING! Do not disable scripts in your production environment unless you are sure of the flow-on effect of doing so. If you don't know what the script does, you could potentially damage the integrity of your data. So, this process should only be carried out in the Test environment. However, you have not stated whether the same problem occurs in Test as it does in Production. If you are not experiencing the problem in Test, there is little point in trying this in Test (obviously).

But since you are a capable adult who can make your own decisions, let's get on with it.

These are the instructions for CRM 2011. I realise you are on 2016 but it should be a similar process. If not, search for 'Disable scripts in CRM 2016'.

Open the form designer for the entity that is experiencing a problem (either through Customizations or via the entity form).

Click Form Properties on the menu bar.

On the Events tab, the Form Libraries section will show the web resources (scripts) associated with the form. The Event Handlers section will show the functions that are called by each event (you may have to change the Event drop-down to see all the active scripts). Your likely culprit is the OnLoad event. Select a function in the Event list and click Edit.

Un-check the Enabled check-box. That event is now disabled.

Write down the Event and Function names so that you have a check list of functions to turn back on afterward.

Continue disabling the other events and recording them.

Save and publish.

You can then test whether the problem goes away. If it does, re-enable the scripts one at a time (remember to publish each time) and try to determine which script causes the problem.

If the problem doesn't go away... well... um... at least we know what is not causing it?

Please post the results here either way. Maybe there is someone smarter than me (quite likely) who can help you further.

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CRM Learner 88 on at

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

Thanks for the information. I've tried to test this on my own and I haven't had them delete but I believe this is the most likely the issue and it makes sense.

I didn't write any code or scripts but is there an easy way through configuration I can check which scripts are on the page and disable them one by one?

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

It sounds like a slow running script could be your issue. The page opens but takes some time to fully load because of the script. Users can start typing before the page is fully loaded, but once the form it is loaded it may refresh or update and clear out the text.

There are two ways that you can test if this is happening.

Open the offending form and start typing immediately. Do this a few times and see if the problem occurs. Next, open the form and don't even click or press a key for at least 10-20 seconds. Start typing after waiting and see if the problem still occurs. Do this a few times too. If the text does not disappear after waiting for the form to fully load, it is probable that the page is loading slowly.

Alternatively, you could disable all scripts on the form and see if the problem still occurs. This will probably need to be done in a test environment. If the problem goes away when the scripts are disabled, re-enable one-by-one until you find the offending code.

Unfortunately, the above will only help you discover the cause of the problem, not the solution.

Please let us know the results of the tests.

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CRM Learner 88 on at

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

Is it occurring while the users are still typing, when they hit Enter or click on a the next field?

Answer: It is occurring while they are still typing.

What happens after the text disappears? Are the users able to type in the field again? If so, does it disappear again or does it usually work the second time?

Answer: They can type in the field again and it usually works the second time.

I appreciate any help you can provide. This is such a weird issue :(

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RE: Disappearing Text in Activity Description Field

Would you please describe in more detail exactly how and when the text is disappearing?

Is it occurring while the users are still typing, when they hit Enter or click on a the next field?

What happens after the text disappears? Are the users able to type in the field again? If so, does it disappear again or does it usually work the second time?

This reminds me of an issue we had a long time ago. I will have a look at my records and see if I can find out what the cause and solution was.

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