Safari iOS 15 web view invisible keyboard bug

Question

Level 1

22 points

Safari iOS 15 web view invisible keyboard bug

Hello,

Web apps that are loaded through Safari and then added through "Add to Home Screen", have an extremely annoying bug – the keyboard sometimes appears, sometimes doesn't. The only thing that solves it, is to completely close the "app", and reopen it. It happens very often, in different apps of this type. Such apps use different front-end frameworks (e.g. Bootstrap, Materialize, etc.), so it does seem like an iOS bug. It wasn't happening to me prior to iOS 15.

This is also shown well here:

Blank keyboard in iOS web app - Apple Community

And also mentioned here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253243639

(many users experience the same)

There's some "solution" that maybe helps with it, it's related to disabling the fancy animations (for whole iOS) through Accessibility Settings, but it's not a real solution, even if it 100% solves the problem. Users should not give up on good iOS (animated) experience because of a keyboard bug. Keyboard is one of the basic features of a smartphone.

ios 14 keyboard not appearing | Apple Developer Forums

Also, the bug may be related to multitasking (may happen after leaving the app and going back to it again).

I've been waiting for the fix in iOS updates, since the release of iOS 15, but none of the updates seem to address this significant bug – it's still there exactly the same.

Please fix this experience. It impacts a lot daily usage. Thank you.

Posted on Feb 20, 2022 10:22 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ifunk9

Level 1

13 points

Feb 25, 2022 8:53 PM in response to SnickZ.

@SnickZ.

This is a problem I have been experiencing while developing my own PWA, and it is incredibly frustrating.

I am able to reliably reproduce the bug – it happens when two PWA's are open at the same time.

I have reproduced it using a very simple PWA on my iPhone X running 15.3.1 and also in Simulator running 15.2 (from a fresh Xcode installation).

Here is a screen recording of it happening, with the steps to reproduce.

https://one.ifunk.net/PWA-bug.mp4

Open "PWA One" and focus input – keyboard appears!
Open "PWA Two" and focus input – NO keyboard!
Open "PWA One" and focus input – NO keyboard!
Quit both apps
Open "PWA One" and focus input – keyboard appears!
Close "PWA One" and open "PWA Two" and focus input – keyboard appears!
Quite both apps
Repeat steps #1-3 and get the same results.

The sample apps can be found here, they must be added to the Home Screen to see the bug.

https://one.ifunk.net/

https://two.ifunk.net/

They are essentially the same app, with a different background colour and app name. Please note, I have been able to reproduce this bug with other PWAs not developed by myself (eg. Wordle and Worldle).

The source code can be found here:

https://github.com/adamroyle/pwa-one

https://github.com/adamroyle/pwa-two

I hope this is enough to show that it is a legitimate and reproducible bug.

Cheers,

Adam

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Answer 2

denpis Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 22, 2022 9:43 AM in response to SnickZ.

@SnickZ.

Thank you for trying to help with the issue.

So Apple's solution is to make users work instead of fixing bugs? I'm one of the proactive users that go to forums to look for the solution, but the majority of users wouldn't do it. Apple shouldn't ask users to clear history, cache, etc. This is not how QC works. I reported a bug (even with links that have screenshots), somebody needs to take the responsibility and to debug it + to fix it. I already wrote that I updated the iOS, multiple times, but there's no change, so why do you send me to update again?

I'm here not to solve it for myself. I'm here to solve it. I'm also doing a favor to Apple by reporting it. Please help me getting this report to the right people. The report has three additional links to similar messages of other people who suffer daily from this bug. Thank you.

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Answer 3

SnickZ.

Community Specialist

Feb 22, 2022 7:08 AM in response to denpis

Hey denpis,

It appears that the onscreen keyboard on your iPhone keeps disappearing when using Safari, and we're glad to provide assistance.

In order to determine the best path to resolve this issue, we have a few isolation steps to try. Please test the issue after each step:

Clear the history and cookies from Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support -- Follow the steps under "Delete history, cache, and cookies".

Turn Private Browsing on or off on your iPhone or iPod touch - Apple Support -- Try using Private Browsing.

Make sure that your iPhone is up to date. The current iOS version is 15.3.1. You can see which iOS version your iPhone is on under Settings > General > About. If your iPhone needs updating, be sure to back up first: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support, and try updating using a computer instead of wirelessly:

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with the Finder - Apple Support (For Macs on macOS Catalina or later)

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes - Apple Support (For Windows PCs and Macs on macOS Mojave or earlier)

Please let us know the results when you're able by replying to this post.

All the best.

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