Copilot auto deleting my code when trying to add to an existing line. Help?

[spherous]

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Previously this behavior was witnessed just in VSC Insiders for Github Copilot Chat (and is why I stopped using Insiders and Copilot Chat entirely and went back to VSC and the release version of Copilot), but it seems it's made it down to the release version of VSC/Copilot now as well. When I'm typing code, I sometimes want to add some code to the left hand side of the line, but it's randomly just deleting variables on the right hand side of the cursor when I press space.

This isn't the insert behavior, which would replace the right hand character for every character I type.

This is a weird like contextual variable replacement. For example, if I had a line "obj.Foo()" and I wanted to add "var foo = " to the left hand side of that, so I put my cursor to the left of "o" and type "var", then when I have "varobj..." and press space between the "r" and "o", it removes all of "obj" leaving me with "var .Foo()". If I don't notice it then, and type the whole line, I get "var foo = .Foo()" which is an error because it lost my variable name "obj". This is incredibly annoying. how can I turn this off? When I disable Copilot extension it goes away. But the copilot extension says it has no settings.

I'm about to just remove copilot entirely because of how annoying this anti-"feature" is. I like what copilot does in general, but this is not at all even somewhat helpful and is actively slowing down my development process, forcing me to undo all the time because it's automatically deleting my variable names. I'm all for copilot suggesting edits and changes that I can choose to accept, but to just automatically alter (and delete) my code when I press the spacebar through normal use, is unacceptable.

The work around for the behavior is to press space, then left arrow, and then type, but that's just annoying. I have no idea why this feature would ship, it's the most annoying thing I can think of when trying to code, deleting my valid and desired code.

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[jhawkins11]

I am having this issue as well, and haven't found anyone outside of this post having the same behavior.

[davecheney]

@jhawkins11 a lot has changed in the product, and vscode, since last july. Please contact support https://support.github.com/contact who can escalate to the development teams.

[max-nothacker]

Same here...

[frankoxio]

same

[jaykilleen]

+1 'hey CoPilot, can you add a field to this form without deleting anything else in the form, thanks'.

copilot proceeds to delete surrounding fields in form and adds new field

lol 🤦‍♂️

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[vCodeTech]

I am having this issue as well. im using vs code

[morgano86]

I'm also having this issue in VSCode: Highlighting a function and using /doc works for a few functions, but then it starts deleting lots of code (multiple functions) to add documentation for 1 function.

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[dajbear]

I am also having this issue. Funny how before I decided to part with cash and subscribe there were none of these problems!

[Noikar]

Yeah this happens to me all the time too. I asked it to adjust positioning of players in the battle maps and it deleted 80% of my battle code instead

[Eupham]

It's been doing the same here. I'll ask it to add to a file and it will get rid of most of my code

[Noikar]

It hasn't done it for a while for me, but I'm working on a project right now without any super long files. It was usually doing that on longer files

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On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 3:13 PM Eupham ***@***.***> wrote: It's been doing the same here. I'll ask it to add to a file and it will get rid of most of my code — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#58416 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AJIPZIHTMAUCYUK7DETV7N323UT4BAVCNFSM6AAAAAAZLGBBB6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTEOJWGI3DINA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[wagenheimer]

I have the exact same problem, and I'm using the most recent versions. It does not happen all the time, but it happens frequently. As a workaround, I ask it to show me the complete code for the file, and then I copy and paste it. But that's not a good solution.

[itech0307]

Copilot auto deletes unrelated code blocks during editing without any specific explanation. This is very dangerous for people who do not double check the positions that Copilot has edited. 😑

[astrobc1]

This is not only still happening, copilot even claims it didn't touch the unrelated code it has deleted. Incredibly dangerous, but also incredibly stupid.

[itech0307]

Someone on Reddit suggested I use instruction.md to set rules so Copilot would follow exactly what I want. But honestly, it didn’t help much — all it does is ask me to confirm before Copilot makes automatic changes. And Boommm!!..... I still have to waste an extra prompt just to get it to fix things in a dumb way, like deleting unrelated code or adding new files I never asked for. -_-

[Noikar]

I'm using Gemini Code Assist now so I don't have that problem.

[hn4882078-del]

z

[2dcon]

It didn't happen to me before but it started happening since last month... And i think it mainly happens in my C# code. Most of the time it happens when it edits a block at the end of a method, during which it removes the closing bracket of the method. Some times it removes the first few lines in the next method.