Text on screen is blurred
People ask this as
- the text in the app is blurred and i thought it broke
- there are dots in the field instead of my address
- i cannot select the address with the mouse
- half the page went blurry after the update
- the address in the drop-down list is cut short
This is the app working, not failing
Blurred text and fields full of dots are the application covering things that should not go out on camera. It arrived switched on and there was no message about it, which is why it reads as damage. Nothing has broken and there is nothing to repair.
The whole of it — what is covered and what is left alone on purpose, how to read a covered value, why one copied out of a hint comes out short, and what the covering does not take back — is the guide "What the app hides on screen".
What to check
- You cannot drag-select blurred text — click it first. While a value is blurred the mouse cannot highlight it at all, so copying it by hand appears to be broken. One click uncovers it and selecting works again. For a link there is no need to select anything: the page's own copy button is the way, and the guide "What the app hides on screen", section "How to use it", says why.
- A value copied out of a pop-up hint or a drop-down list comes out short. Expected — see the same section of that guide for what to do instead.
- It can flash before it is covered. The screen is swept in batches, roughly a tenth of a second after the page redraws, so on a page that fills slowly an address can be readable for an instant first. On a recorded stream that instant is a frame or two. If you are about to open a page live, give it a moment before you switch the scene to it.
- A value you expected to be covered is not. Read the list in the guide "What the app hides on screen", section "What is covered", before you report it — part of what stays visible is deliberate.
Worth writing to support
- A whole card, list or panel goes blurry instead of one line. Only the smallest piece holding the value should be covered. A blurred block means that page keeps the value in the same element as everything around it — name the page in the request.
- Something harmless is treated as a secret — a long identifier of letters and digits that is nothing of the sort, for instance. It is covered because of its shape, and the shape has to be taught the difference.
- A value is covered on one page and plainly visible on another. Both pages should behave the same; if they do not, say which two.