EditText.clear() doesn't work due to triggerring a popup menu on Android device

This is a blocker issue, I didn’t find any workaround so far.
Any help and clues?!
Hope it is my wrong usage about the clear().

The test code below with Android default Calculator (by appium python client):

el = driver.find_elements_by_class_name(‘android.widget.EditText’)
assert el is not None
el.clear()

It will trigger a popup context menu, with cut/copy/paste items.
Since no one to handle the popup meun, then .clear() failed finally.

Two things made it worse!

  1. .send_keys() and set_text() will call .clear() automatically, so
    ,these two fundamental functions will fail too. Actually, I find the
    issue from .send_keys().

  2. It’s difficult to workaround it with inserting a clicking action on
    menu item to make clear() success, since the clear() action is one step.
    Any action follows the .clear() would be executed after the clear()
    failed.

I tried latest versions:

Appium: 1.4.1
selenium (2.46.0) – (with Appium 1.4.1, it’s 2.45.0, same issue even I upgraded to 2.46.0)
Appium-Python-Client (0.14)

Mac OS: 10.10
device with Android : 4.4.2

Thanks.

Also opening a bug here:

One idea is to disable the popup menu.
Then, how to disable the popup menu if not change with the app code?
I mean by system setting or one configuration on somewhere?