All of a sudden cannot type anything in Notepad++ 8.8.8

Salam Elias

This morning, all of a sudden, I switched to NP++ to type but I had a blue square blinking, I type nothing happens, on my keyboard pressed on “Insert” blue square transformed on a dash still cant type.
This happened after I tested the NPP string random generator 5 minutes earlier.
I visited the edit menu, chose Clear read-only on all documents but it did not help.
Thanks for your help

PeterJones

@Salam-Elias said in All of a sudden cannot type anything in Notepad++ 8.8.8:

This happened after I tested the NPP string random generator 5 minutes earlier.

Notepad++ doesn’t have a random string generator natively. If that is a plugin that you have, it is my guess that something about the plugin is incompatible with modern Notepad++.

To fix Notepad++ typing for now, my guess is that all you have to do is to completely exit Notepad++ then run the application again. If that doesn’t work, try a reboot. If one of those works, then grab the ?-menu’s Debug Info and paste it here. Also, see if running the random text generator again causes the problem again (and let us know) – if it does, the exit/restart or reboot should fix it again.

If the plugin continues to cause problems, I suggest not using it until there’s an updated version of the plugin available – maybe even uninstalling the plugin so you don’t accidentally use it.

Salam Elias

@PeterJones I did peter, relaunched NPP did not help, rebooted the machine, did not help neither. Here is the debug info (I have alrady removed the plugin for random string generator)

Notepad++ v8.8.8 (64-bit)
Build time: Nov 16 2025 - 20:55:01
Scintilla/Lexilla included: 5.5.7/5.4.5
Boost Regex included: 1_85
Path: C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line:
Admin mode: OFF
Local Conf mode: OFF
Cloud Config: OFF
Periodic Backup: ON
Placeholders: OFF
Scintilla Rendering Mode: SC_TECHNOLOGY_DEFAULT (0)
Multi-instance Mode: monoInst
asNotepad: OFF
File Status Auto-Detection: cdEnabledNew (for current file/tab only)
Dark Mode: OFF
Display Info:

primary monitor: 2560x1440, scaling 125%

```
visible monitors count: 1
```
```
installed Display Class adapters: 
```

    0000: Description - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

```
    0000: DriverVersion - 32.0.15.6094
```
OS Name: Windows 10 Enterprise (64-bit)
OS Version: 22H2
OS Build: 19045.6456
Current ANSI codepage: 1252
Plugins:
```
AutoSave (2)
```
```
ColumnsPlusPlus (1.3)
```
```
ColumnTools (1.4.5.1)
```
```
ComparePlus (2.2)
```
```
CSVLint (0.4.7)
```
```
CsvQuery (1.2.7)
```
```
CustomLineNumbers (1.1.10)
```
```
DSpellCheck (1.5)
```
```
Explorer (1.9.3)
```
```
FileFinder (0.3)
```
```
FWDataViz (2.6.6)
```
```
GotoLineCol (2.4.5.1)
```
```
HexEditor (0.9.14)
```
```
JsMapParser.NppPlugin (4.2)
```
```
JsonTools (8.4)
```
```
Linefilter3 (1)
```
```
Linter (0.1)
```
```
MarkdownViewerPlusPlus (0.8.2)
```
```
mimeTools (3.1)
```
```
NppConverter (4.7)
```
```
nppcrypt (1.0.1.6)
```
```
NppExport (0.4)
```
```
NppFTP (0.29.14)
```
```
NPPJSONViewer (1.40)
```
```
NppMarkdownPanel (0.9)
```
```
NppScripts (2)
```
```
NppTextFX (1.4.1)
```
```
NppTextViz (0.4.2)
```
```
NppVim (1.4)
```
```
NppXmlTreeviewPlugin (2)
```
```
PlanetCNCNpp64 (3001.21.1125.1)
```

PoorMansTSqlFormatterNppPlugin (1.6.13.31508)

```
pork2sausage (2.6)
```
```
PreviewHTML (1.3.3.3)
```
```
PythonScript (2.1)
```
```
qkNppReverseLines (1)
```
```
QuickText (0.2.5.1)
```
```
RandomValuesNppPlugin (0.3)
```
```
RedisPlugin (1.0.2)
```
```
RegexTrainer (1)
```
```
Remove Duplicate Lines (1.3)
```
```
RunMe (1.6.1)
```
```
SelectQuotedText (1.1)
```
```
SessionMgr (1.4.4)
```
```
SpeechPlugin (0.4)
```
```
SQLinFormNpp64 (6.25.8.28)
```
```
urlPlugin (1.1)
```
```
WakaTime (4.2.1)
```
```
XMLNavigator (1.4)
```
```
XMLTools (3.1.1.13)
```

PeterJones

@Salam-Elias ,

Anytime you have that many plugins, and have a problem, the first thing to try is to exit Notepad++ and run notepad++ -noPlugin and see if the problem still occurs with no plugins.

To then narrow it down to which plugin is the culprit, follow “Possible Culprit: Plugin” in this FAQ

Also, make sure you don’t have a UAC icon on your taskbar (the little shield icon) – if you do, it might be prompting you to do something in the background, and won’t give up control until you do.

But in general, there is nothing in Notepad++ that would prevent you from typing… unless the file is locked. I know that in your original post, you tried “Clear Read-only for All Documents” – but that only affects Notepad++'s Read Only flag, not the windows OS / filesystem Read-Only flag. On the file you are editing, if there is the lock icon (or the grayed-out disk, if you’re still using the old, ugly, 90s-based tab bar icons), then you should also look at the Edit menu and see if "Read-Only Attribute in Windows** is checkmarked; if it is, you have to uncheckmark it (which will have Notepad++ ask the OS to clear the filesystem read-only flag).