Prevent apps from stealing focus

Oct 18, 2010 5:49 AM in response to baltwo

baltwo wrote:
As Barney's already noted, why are you launching an app if you don't want to use it? I usually have Terminal, Activity Monitor, Eudora, Safari, TextEdit, and Preview opened always. When I need to go to another, I launch it. Doesn't slow down things for me.

Oh come now; this isn't a serious question is it. It is usually because ℹ I am multitasking; or (ii) I actually want to launch App #2 then and there but then find it is taking so long, thus want to go back to whatever it was I had been doing (App #1).

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frankxiv

Level 2

458 points

Dec 8, 2010 8:31 AM in response to hotoru

iPhoto does this almost every time I launch it. An application should be able to launch in the background without stealing focus from the user just so they can watch it finish launching. Here is what happens.

1) Launch iPhoto
2) Switch back to whichever application I was working in before launching iPhoto
3) iPhoto steals focus
4) Switch back to other application
5) iPhoto steals focus
6) this goes on and on and on until iPhoto finishes launching

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rocker88

Level 1

8 points

Jan 4, 2011 8:25 AM in response to jhockman

I absolutely agree. This didn't happen in earlier versions of OS X, and it's extremely annoying. The computer/OS should NOT be deciding which app gets primary focus. That choice belongs with the user.

I wish Apple would show signs of addressing this and put out a patch to fix it without having to upgrade to the newest OS.

This issue actually PREVENTS people from getting work done, and is a FATAL FLAW in Apple's OS X design.

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thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 4, 2011 8:44 AM in response to rocker88

And none of you, responding to Mr. Hockman, are considering that the only apps involved in stealing focus in this case are Photoshop and some script? How exactly is this Apple's fault? It's not like the computer is doing it all by itself... either the script is bringing Photoshop to the front when finished or Photoshop is bringing itself to the front. Complaints need to be addressed to the appropriate party.

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Whitecity

Level 2

344 points

Jan 4, 2011 8:58 AM in response to frankxiv

iPhoto is pretty egregious about this.

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Whitecity

Level 2

344 points

Jan 4, 2011 8:59 AM in response to Barney-15E

There's no real excuse for splash screens. It's not the 1990s any more.

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Lucas_D

Level 1

4 points

Jan 25, 2011 10:44 PM in response to hotoru

I just found a partial workaround for this issue by using the free third-party app Afloat:

http://infinite-labs.net/afloat

With Afloat, I can choose to have the app I am currently using remain on top of other windows. What I have found is that while an application opening in the background still has the ability to disturb cursor focus, it thankfully does not visibly move in front of the app I'm currently using. Perhaps folks here could talk to Afloat's developer about further tweaking his app to resolve the issue(s) described in this thread.

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Feb 4, 2011 12:13 PM in response to hotoru

I run a suite of unit test cases in batch in background while I work on other stuff. Every single time a test case launches and invokes SurefireBooter (every couple of seconds) it steals focus. The test suite takes hours to run, meanwhile my iMac is unusable as I can't so much as type an email. Extremely annoying.

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Feb 28, 2011 12:02 PM in response to thomas_r.

Just about any application can steal focus and therefore "flow" from the user. It doesn't have to be an application that is in the middle of opening, it can be a web page that opened an alert box because it was going to time you out (any alert boxes from any app, in fact will steal focus). It could be I started a big batch process (like a file synchronization) and it finished while I was doing something else, like trying to type this post.

Heck, I hate when I close or minimize a Finder window (trying to clear a path to a different window) and the OS thinks I want to see different Finder windows! Grr.

Any of these are greatly annoying for far little value.

I've not used Windows 7 much, but XP solved this with the PowerToy TweakUI. Granted you had to download it separate, but it provided a simple "Prevent applications from stealing focus" check box. In this scenario, if something wanted your attention for some reason (critical dialog boxes might be the exception), the Task Bar would flash it's application task. Replace that with "the Dock icon should jump" for OSX.

Simply put an OS should follow the design rules of "Don't disrupt a user's flow unless it is critical" and "Don't annoy your user". 🙂

BTW, Spaces sometimes jumps all over the place and I'm not sure why. Like I click to a space and it jumps to another then immediately to the one I chose or even to a different one. I think this is another manifestation of the Stealing Focus problem.

(I'm going to try Afloat now.)

jason.

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May 8, 2011 3:31 AM in response to hotoru

Just to add some support to any efforts being made to fix this "focus" problem and to thwart any of the negative comments being thrown at people experiencing this problem, I've experienced it with multiple applications that have no relation to each other. Users on this support forum like Barney have not done much but blame this problem on the users. Some people take full advantage of this excellent operating system and use it to its maximum capabilities, which Barney does not understand. I was slightly peeved by some of his responses, and i felt obligated to explain the problem like a few people before me have already done. Hopefully word gets out there, and a solution can be found.

I encounter this problem every day. I open up a certain application, and while it loads I continue typing on my current application. What helps this process is I dont even have to switch out of anything to open this new application due to the fact that I only have to click one icon on my dock, which is very convenient. Unfortunately, in the middle of a sentence, the focus will change to the opening application and its possible that it hasnt even full loaded yet. Instead of waiting, I switch back to my first application, and continue typing once again. When the application has fully loaded, focus switches back to it and my typing is interrupted once again.

It is highly possible that maybe I still want to use my current application, maybe im in a middle of a thought and need to finish it, or maybe the application being opened doesnt actually need my attention in order for it to start working as intended. Regardless, theres many applications varying from entertainment, work, to just common uses that interrupt the focus of the current application, and it happens constantly, consistently, and can be quite vexing depending on my patience at the moment. Hopefully a solution in the operating system is made in the future, or at least being worked on.

I think there's enough people out there that experience this somewhat small problem, but either don't know what to do about it, or appreciate the Mac OS in its entirety, and just ignore the problem. I appreciate the OS a great deal, and I just wish to help fix a small flaw in any way I could by reporting my experience. Thanks.

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RMNL

Level 1

10 points

Jun 29, 2011 7:43 AM in response to hotoru

+1

I would love to see a system preference that allows you to select the programs that are allowed to take focus. If not in the list, an application cannot take focus and you must actively switch to the application by selecting one of its windows, by clicking its icon or by cmd+tab.

An application that would like to steal focus could easily request for permission in a similar way iOS applications ask for location service access.

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Aug 10, 2011 8:39 AM in response to RMNL

An application that would like to steal focus could easily request for permission in a similar way iOS applications ask for location service access.

yeah, great idea. Let's have apps pop-up and steal focus to ask us if they can pop-up and steal focus from what we're doing. 😀

Well that was my sarcastic remark for the day, but I DO AGREE that having " a system preference that allows you to select the programs that are allowed to take focus" is a great idea. I'd use that definitely.

by the way, I am going to try that Afloat app and see if it helps the problem for me.

Thanks people for continuing to find a solution!

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w.pasman

Level 1

44 points

Sep 15, 2011 1:30 PM in response to hotoru

As a small update on this, I am happy that the later versions of Eclipse now do not steal the focus anymore. I think someone actually picked up my requests for that 🙂

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Sep 19, 2011 9:53 AM in response to thomas_r.

One application I can think of that has been annoying the crap out of me, is not only designed by Apple, but is an integral part of OS X: the Modem Dialer / Status menu.

I use it all the time to connect to the internet with my 3G wireless modem. Every time the modem looses the signal (which happens a lot where I am located) it pops up an annoying box, stealing focus from what ever I'm doing, to tell me that Network connection was lost. Well, gee, thanks! Like I wouldn't notice otherwise!

Worst thing yet: I then have to reconnect *manually*

This can typically happen 5 - 10 times per HOUR on a bad day. Even full screen applications are interrupted!

What I'm missing here are two obvious things:

1. An option to tell it to shut the f#@ up, and

2. Reconnect!

How hard can it get? Modems have been around for what, 25 years? Even my Commodore 64 could do that!

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Dathin

Level 1

8 points

Mar 4, 2012 6:46 AM in response to hotoru

Seems that this is still not resolved and does not seem to be a plan for it...

I know that most people do not care abou it but advanced users know what they activate and why. They do not need anything to pop up in their faces to let them know. For that reason there should be a global preference pane that allows you to choose which application steals focus and which doesn't. There are so many cases that such a funcionality is useful..

On Linux things like that are available with even more options for advanced functionality. Hopefully they will eventually find their way to osx in the same way that spaces did..

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