For the character not picking up objects, it's because you "need" to wait that the animation of the previous pick-up is completly finished, so that your char is standing up and still again. If you do that before, when the item name just disappeared and your char is still crounched, the pick-up animation will start but item won't be picked.
That's why this bug often takes place on tables or when there's multiple objects close to each others.
