GalaxyMeh

Say you accidentally deleted too much text from a note, or an edit field.

On my 2004 Windows mobile PDA phone, I could undo by tapping Ctrl+Z. On a 2006 iPhone, you can undo by shaking the phone. Undo is a a very basic and useful feature.

How the heck do you undo on the Android?

Last edited by Frisco; September 16th, 2011 at 09:41 AM.

RedMist

Yeah agreed it would be great.

The same problem on a Palm Pre. I started to delete a person's mobile phone number, realised I was deleting their home number. No way to get it back... Grr

classicpenny

Exactly -WTF- Is there some underlying problem implicit in the Android code that precludes an undo function?
Is there any reason at ALL that the undo function was left out?
And why in the heck is this omission being IGNORED by almost everyone? Are GalaxyMeh and RedMist and me the only three people in Android land who make mistakes? Yes, undo also got left out of Web OS over in Palm Pre land, and there are a whole lot of frustrated users over there, who apparently DO make mistakes?
What the heck is going on that such a self-evident blunder could happen?

IOWA

Yes. We are all perfect. You will be too, in time. You have been assimilated.

But yeah, I miss undo. And Androids Copy/Paste sucks too.

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classicpenny

It turns out that DataViz DocumentsToGo for Android DOES have undo

lexi16

"classicpenny It turns out that DataViz DocumentsToGo for Android DOES have undo"
Does undo only work for that DataViz program or does the Undo feature work for all of android os

Dezden

Is this still not possible? I've caught myself doing "ALT + DEL" accidentally on my G2--which deletes an entire row of text.

sandeep108

I do not recall symbian or Palm having undo either. But that is no reason for Android not to have it.

Last edited by sandeep108; January 4th, 2011 at 02:12 AM.

bobneaves

Agreed. I'm on MyTouch4g. Have accidentally deleted text a couple times. Luckily nothing too serious, but a global undo command should definitely be in the phone.

fangorious

It's due to the application lifecycle and programming guidelines. Application developers need to be conscious of how they handle events and save the original field value before displaying the activity.

hate_crew

Actually I used to have a Palm Tungsten (first e then T/x) and they both had undo -- several layers, in fact, if I remember correctly. The total lack of undo in Android is utterly reprehensible, however; if anyone has any suggestions as to how this can be changed, I'm eager to learn. Thanks, peace out.

AndroidSPCS

Just don't screw up in the first place...haha

seriously, my Palm Treo had an undo, but I hated how the Treo didn't have a "cancel" when I was editing my data (eg contacts)...totally screwed you couldn't change your mind when you edit a field or contact.

Every platform has its flaws. I consider this pretty trite. It would be nice if they could update it in the future with an "undo" feature.

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coos lick

Sounds like a useful feature. Just checked if anybody had asked Google - looks like they have.

Issue 13329 - android - Undo - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

System wide (os) update requested just before Christmas. Suggest you go and add your comments there as well - and hope they listen.

paranoid_android

Every O/S has its flaws, and I consider this colossal.

WTF is F'in right.

ninja_reject

I did a market search for keyboards with an undo feature and found very little, but there were some. I suggest emailing the developers for keyboards you use, and and asking them if implementing this feature would be possible.

Mostly Harmless

Colossal flaw? Until reading this post I never even thought about it, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

JohnrC

Colossal flaw AND a big deal. One of the first attractive features of the computer was the ability to Undo. You know... no more white-out.

There are monks who spend countless hours creating beautiful, detailed works of art bordering on perfection, then intentionally add a flaw to remind themselves of the difference between them and divinity. Could this be why we have no Undo in Android; no selecting non-contiguous cells in a Google doc spreadsheets; no fabulous Google toolbar in Chrome? To some of us these are stunningly unreasonable omissions.

That these issues are still outstanding months and years later is a fairly loud statement from developers.

I got frustrated with MS during Vista and Windows Mobile. I just had my iPhone stolen (Apple was a whole different type of frustration) so I thought I'd have a good look at Droid and all that Google has to offer.

I'm reluctant to dig in and make a commitment and find another set of frustrations. So much promise! Yet... well... as the OP put it "WTF".

alostpacket

Star this issue if you guys want this

Looks like the SGS2 has it in some custom apps.

Certainly apps can implement undo themselves, but as of now there is no system wide in Gingerbread at least.

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Last edited by alostpacket; August 2nd, 2011 at 07:50 PM. Reason: implemented undo on my spelling

takeshi

...and subjective. It has never been an issue for me either. If you want it, do as the post above mine says and promote the feature request. Posting here doesn't accomplish anything.

JohnrC

I see. I thought it was actually constructive to discuss in forum and learn other people's position as well.

Happy to promote the feature request as suggested.

Slug

On the contrary, posting in this topic has (a) demonstrated that it's a fairly big deal to quite a few people, (b) revealed that it's important to enough people that it's been suggested to the OHA as an issue for resolution, and (c) informed us that it can be implemented on a per-app as well as a system-wide basis.

Besides, suggesting that people not post kinda defeats the purpose of AF.

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hr0201

Undo & cancel, PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP! Ideally there should be undo for the past several edits.
I'm thinking about going back to Windows Mobile... Even my Palm V had this in 1999 (and graffiti)! I also miss having a stylus.

There should be a disclaimer on the box of Android phones:
WARNING: MAY BE HARMFUL TO YOUR (MENTAL) HEALTH -- NO UNDO OR CANCEL!!!
I wouldn't have bought this Nexus S had I known about this (also no FM, but that's another issue).

Soooo much pain & frustration, lost time (& hair), multiplied by the Android user base worldwide; millions of man hours. Immeasurable stress response, anguish. Psychological damage, psychotic episodes... Grab the wheel, I'm swerving out of controoooool!!!

SUGGESTION for you Android users:
1. I highly recommend the SlideIT keyboard (Swype wasn't available on my Nexus S). I use SlideIT 95% of the time when writing text; it's super fast (watch tutorial video first! Install it from the Marketplace. Hit the ?123 key at bottom left; Settings; scroll down to find video). Well worth the $5 or so (but you can use it free as a trial first).

2. Install the TouchPal keyboard. It has 3 keyboard screens (including T9); just slide keyboard left or right to change. There's also a screen with arrow keys for moving up, down, left, and right!!! A real Del key (not just backspace)! Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, Copy, Cut, Paste... Access the special keyboard with the key at top of the keyboard in the middle (it looks like a notepad with pen) . Note: I couldn't get Select to work, but that's okay as I can do that with my thumb (most of the time!).
NOTE: Another plus for TouchPal is great Chinese input.

boogie38

Good suggestion. Love my new android phone but not the lack of the trusty undo function for klutzes like me. How do we post suggestion to google? Could someone help a newbie? :-)

Frisco

Concerns and issues need to be aired, whether much is accomplished in a material way or not. AF is a great place to do that, as Slug point out earlier.

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chanchan05

I do have to agree that its subjective though.

For the example on deleting someone's number accidentally, as long as you dont save it, hit cancel, and it wont be deleted. I can see "cancel" a lot around the interface... or maybe its a samsung thing.

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WTBUndo

Yeah it's not that big of a deal until you type up a 1,000 word email, then paste in a URL, causing Android to delete the entire email, replacing it with just the URL. WTF?????????

Not buying another Android phone unless GOOG fixes these problems. Buggy software and no undo functionality... it's pathetic. I could implement Undo in a few hours of coding, so why can't GOOG? Android's almost as bad as Blackberry. Shipping a product without a feaure that saves users from losing all of their work is worse than Jobs shipping the iPhone4 with its antenna problems... at least those could be fixed with the purchase of a protective case.

mikedt

^^^^
This.

I've never actually given it any thought before, until I read this thread.

On the edit contacts function with my CyanogenMod Galaxy S, there is a 'Revert' button which does the same as 'Undo'. There is also a 'Done' button which confirms and saves the changes made.

True though, there doesn't appear to be an 'Undo' function elsewhere. But then I'm not one to go typing up 'War and Peace' on my phone. I didn't even know it wasn't there until I read this thread. All the text entry stuff I do are things like 'Are you coming to dinner tomorrow?', 'Reminder: class 433 at 4:30', etc.

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Last edited by mikedt; October 19th, 2011 at 08:59 PM.

lyandra01

This is exactly my problem! Ihave an Asus Transformer that I bought so that I would be able to write stories in the park and watch movies on the bus. I've hated the keyboard from the start because the hypersensitive trackpad sends the cursor all over the place. But the lack of an Undo button is killing me! I've accidentally deleted long message/posts so often that I've started carrying my big Thinkpad again whenever I know I have serious work to do. Uggghhh!!!!!

dwafun

It is incomprehensible that there is no undo. I got a Transformer and managed to wipe out two paragraphs of a gmail that I was writing before I discovered that the <ctrl>-z wasn't hooked to anything. Unbelieveable that it isn't available on an OS for a smartphone. As a OS for a tablet/pad, it is incomprehensible. Off to cast my vote.

DavidEccles

Drives me crazy, and I don't see why it has anything to do with how Apps themselves are developed - Android OS should have it as a function, since if you're entering text into a field, say an editText field, the application itself isn't in control. Should be possible. Drives me crzay

leveleyed

Anyone try this keyboard? Has built in undo/redo and other features. I think you can select it to replace your phone's default KB too.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aitype.android.p&hl=en
There's a free version too.

Last edited by leveleyed; November 18th, 2011 at 11:52 PM.