This has been an issue I have had for months now on multiple computers, and I am not having any luck finding any discussion about it. 

I do a lot of processing scientific figures which involves taking raw svg outputs from graph generation scripts that we write in like MATLAB or R or something and cleaning them up. This involves a LOT of rearranging and grouping objects. One thing I do a lot is selecting groups of objects or groups of groups and merging them into bigger groups, usually using the Layers and Objects panel.

Sometimes however (and it seems to be more frequent in this current version of Inkscape), Inkscape just starts... ignoring which objects I am clicking on in the Layers and Objects panel and selecting whatever the heck it feels like instead. This is particularly a problem when I try to shift-click select a large group of items in the list at once. The quick "solution" is to restart Inkscape, but that can get really inconvenient when I have several files open at once. Besides, I want to know why it's doing it in the first place? Is this intentional behavior? I make a point of deselecting everything before trying to do a new selection, but is there something else I am not taking into account?

Also, with 1.3.2, I am also seeing this incredibly annoying quirk where it will DESELECT all the objects I had selected when I try to right-click to do something with those objects (usually, I select a bunch of objects/groups and use the right-click menu to group them). Is there a setting I need to change so that it doesn't do this?

All of this is in the Layers and Objects panel (ie. selecting objects and groups as list items and moving them around).

I run Inkscape on 3 different computers, all have this problem. Makes me think there is something I need to do to reset the selection behavior, but I don't know what.

Current computer is Windows 8.1, Inkscape version 1.3.2 (laptop, away from my desktop for the holidays)
Desktop is where I do most figure work, runs Windows 10. Not 100% sure what Inkscape version currently, but I've gone through a few and this problem has always been there.

If anyone has any insight on this, that would be amazing.

Thanks!
-B

I can reproduce the right-click deselection issue. Best workaround is to use Ctrl+G to group.

WRT the random selections, I cannot reproduce without an example file. feel free to share one.

Aside from all that, Win 8.1 is rather t dated. End of support by MS is less than a month away. Perhaps consider running a dual-boot to a current Linux OS, if you need to keep Win 8.1 for legacy software.

I am having similar issues with 1.3.2. and am running everything on win7. My workaround is to have more than one install of Inkscape on the machine. I have 1.2, operating-system installed, and 1.3 installed from zip files, and I have setup a shortcut in the sendto folder so i can right click on the file and sendto 1.3, but if i click directly on the file, 1.2 opens the file. You could trial this with 1.1 or earlier as well, it just depends on what tools and workflow you have or need. For me, the reason to use 1.3 is the new ShapeBuiler tool that is such a time saver for a lot of what I do, but most of the time i retreat to 1.2 because of issues with the tool panel, but 1.2 crashes more than 1.3, like about every 30 mins, so, 6 of one as they say. I found the version before they introduced the multi-page pdf stuff to be the most solid, i can't remember whether that was version 1 or 1.1 but i use the pdf tools a lot, so i put up with the issues that has come with the later versions.

  I do have a Win10 machine I could use but I dislike the operating  system to the point I only use that machine when i have no other choice, and I don't think I have Inkscape installed on it, which is a shame because the hardware is insanely more powerful than the old laptop i use for a workhorse.  

Thanks!

Well, at least for now I can just go back to using my desktop for figure processing - I don't know if it's something to do with the OS, Inkscape version, or if the bigger screen just helps but this issue is less pervasive there (though still certainly present). Maybe it's because I start with auto-generated svgs with tons of objects and groups already in and go about moving stuff around rather than doing artwork from scratch? idk. I admittedly have not seen this (to my immediate recollection) when I've used Inkscape for conceptual figures or weak attempts at graphic design, probably because that doesn't involve going through and doing that first pass of clustering a whole bunch of groups into bigger groups and layers?

I have no love for Windows 8, but I've never had a good time upgrading an OS on top of an existing OS, so to upgrade to Windows 10 I need to wipe my laptop, install Windows 10, and set everything up again as if it was a new computer which I plan to do but just haven't gotten around to yet. Need to make sure any software with limited licenses or some other nonsense is properly uninstalled so the license doesn't get eaten by the void. Huge reason I'm trying to move away from that kind of thing. PI wants me to use Illustrator, but I'm not letting Creative Cloud anywhere near any of my personal computers. tbh trying to move gradually to Linux (getting real sick of MS) - only reason I still use Windows at all is software compatibility. 

If at some point anyone is bored later on, I can post an example svg with garbage data or one of the actual figure svgs when our preprint is out (where this selection/grouping thing is a recurring issue). I doubt it's really scoop bait, but I reckon it's bad form to publically share unpublished data willy-nilly 😌