Removing a block(s) with keyboard selection + backspace/delete does not reflect on preview or publish

[mzorz]

Quick summary

Basically, there’s a draft post I was working on on our team’s p2 and it had a block I wanted to remove. I try removing it by deleting the words (i.e. using backspace) and then hit save -> preview. The block is still there. See p1656926868073789-slack-gutenberg-on-dotcom

EDIT: another person said to have observed the same thing. See p1656925260500609-slack-C010KDAPG49

Steps to reproduce

I haven't been able to find a way to reproduce from scratch, but basically just using the reference post pbuuvu-1vz-p2

1. try to position the cursor at the last part of the paragraph I want to delete, and select the text of those 2 blocks
2. start deleting using backspace and delete the 2 lines (2 blocks)
3. save the draft
4. go check the preview and observe the content is still there.

Check revision 17 of the post to see more, I was able to remove the blocks using the code editor:

What you expected to happen

That the removed blocks would remain removed once the draft gets saved.

What actually happened

My changes did not seem to get applied to the saved content (i.e. the blocks I deleted were still there).

Context

I was just using my team's p2 as I do regularly

Browser

Google Chrome/Chromium

Simple/Atomic

No response

Other notes

No response

Reproducibility

Once

Severity

Some (< 50%)

Available workarounds?

No but the platform is still usable

Workaround details

The only workaround I found was to just use the code editor and remove the unwanted blocks, as explained above (so, avoiding the editor altogether).
There was another person reporting to have been able to reproduce.

[mzorz]

Updated the issue description to add:

EDIT: another person said to have observed the same thing. See p1656925260500609-slack-C010KDAPG49

cc @annemirasol (reporter)

[vajrasar]

📌 Changes to the main report

• I changed the title of the report

📌 SCRUBBING

• Tested on P2 ✅
• Tested on Simple ✅
• Tested on AT ✅
• Tested on Self-hosted ✅
• Replicable on Core - Yes

📌 FINDINGS/SCREENSHOTS/VIDEO

• I can replicate the issue.
• The issue can be seen when a new post is created (P2/Simple/AT/Self-hosted) (with or without Gutenberg plugin installed), and you try to remove some lines of text or paragraph by the method of selecting them and pressing backspace/delete. Those lines/para won't be deleted and you can see that in preview, and also when the post is published.

📌 ACTIONS

• Marked as Triaged for Quality Squad review

[mrfoxtalbot]

I have tried a simple site and a self-hosted one and I cannot reproduce myself but I see multiple related reports in WordPress/gutenberg#41416 and WordPress/gutenberg#42213

[mrfoxtalbot]

I seem to be able to delete paragraphs using backspace without any issues:

Screen.Capture.on.2022-07-07.at.10-45-06.mp4

[vajrasar]

@mrfoxtalbot 👋

I seem to be able to delete paragraphs using backspace without any issues:

In the video you shared, it seems you are selecting the blocks to delete via mouse, and not keyboard arrow key selection.

Here are detailed steps to replicate:

1. Create a new post, and put some content on it.
2. Say you have two consecutive blocks of text on the content that you want to remove.
3. Place the cursor on the starting of the first line of text.
4. Use the keyboard to select that line and the line below it.
5. Use the backspace/delete button on keyboard to remove those lines.
6. You should be able to see the expected change in editor.
7. But checking preview, saving draft, and publishing the post won't show the change.

Please check step 4.

[mrfoxtalbot]

Thank you for pointing that out, I overlooked that step. I tried selecting the text using the keyboard (Shift + Down Error as explain in step 4) but I am still unable to replicate it. I tried a simple site and a self-hosted site but no avail.

Do the paragraphs need to be of a particular length? I tried with long and short paragraphs and with/without links but it just does not work for me 🤔

Long paragraphs without links:

Screen.Capture.on.2022-07-08.at.09-14-38.mov

Short paragraphs with links:

Screen.Capture.on.2022-07-08.at.09-15-31.mp4

Any thoughts on what we could be doing different @vajrasar? Thanks again!

[cuemarie]

📌 ACTIONS

• I'm no longer able to reproduce this, and the linked /gutenberg issues are now closed/resolved, so I'm closing this out as resolved.

Gutenberg 16.6.0 on a Free Dotcom site:

vNrUGA.mp4