Working with DataTables for the first time I was having some issues with the UI. The search textbox was not allowing the user the backspace. They were able to select the text and use the delete key to clear it out, but it almost felt like there was a script capturing and suppressing the backspace key press. Upon closer inspection the “type” of the input was “Search”. According to w3schools (and Visual Studio’s Intellisense) this was valid HTML. The example of their site worked as well. Perhaps it had something to do with the other scripts running on the page, or possibly the Bootstrap library addon for DataTables? Changing the type to “Text” fixed the issue. I found an easy workaround here until I can fix the root of the problem.