2007021 - window-focus bug after MacOS 26.2 update

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)

Description

[zolot]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:146.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/146.0

Steps to reproduce:

click on any message in the inbox list after having been in another app in MacOS 26.2

Actual results:

Thunderbird does not respond -- it's as though I didn't click. Eventually if I leave and rejoin Thunderbird (or if I click on the top of the window) it will regain focus, but this is frustrating. I think this is part of the larger issue with MacOS 26 which is being discussed in MacOS forums as "the window focus bug". This was happening more intermittantly in 26.1, but once Apple released 26.2, it oddly got much worse

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I don't recall seeing reports of this in support.
Does anything in https://mzl.la/4pj57Kj match?

Comment 2

[Eckard Berberich]

@zolot
what exactly is your expected result when another application is in focus and you (left-) click on any message in the Thunderbird thread pane?
In which way Thunderbird "does not respond"?

Comment 3

[zolot]

Again, I suspect that this is an Apple problem, as I've seen many reports from others complaining about MacOS26 Tahoe (a couple of examples here and here). But somehow Thunderbird seems to suffer from the problem more than other apps.
Regarding your question what is my expected result: I expect that when I click on a window, that window will be in the foreground, and I can type or click-to-select a message. Regarding the way in which Thunderbird does not respond: It is as though I had not activate the window or as though Thunderbird is inactive. If I try to click in a list of inbox items, the message does not select, nor does Thunderbird respond to me hitting the up or down arrows to navigate through the list.
Eventually, if I click in the Finder and then return to Thunderbird, or click at the very top of the Thunderbird window, it will come to life.

Comment 4

[Eckard Berberich]

Another way to describe and understand your issue:
let's say you have opened two applications, Firefox.app and Thunderbird.app. Firefox is in the foreground (focus) because you are doing a search with DuckDuckGo. You hear or see (in the Dock) that Thunderbird has downloaded a new message. You want to read it and therefore click on the Thunderbird main window, anywhere at the top or in the folder pane or the thread pane.
My actual (and expected) result is that Thunderbird comes into focus, which is materialised by the the menu bar switch at the top of the Mac's screen from Firefox to Thunderbird.
In your case the application shown in the menu bar is still the one in which you were working before?
What happens if you click on the Thunderbird icon in the Dock instead of clicking in the Thunderbird main window?
Or use the Tab + ⌘ keyboard combination to wander between open applications?

Comment 5

[zolot]

that's mostly right, with one tweak: when I want to switch to Thunderbird, I click on the Thunderbird icon in my dock.
That succeeds in displaying my list of unread emails. But if I click (or use the arrow keys) anywhere in that window of unread emails, nothing happens.

Comment 6

[Eckard Berberich]

You forget one thing. The Thunderbird main window in classic view is divided in several panes:
Folder pane, Thread pane, Message pane and facultatively Today pane.
The focus can be in any of these panes but not all at the same time. It depends in which pane who have clicked with your mouse pointer.
On TB startup in the mail tab the focus will automatically be in the folder pane.
If the focus is in the folder pane and you switch to another application and then back to Thunderbird via the Dock icon, the focus will still be in the folder pane. So using the arrow keys to navigate in the message list won't work. You first have to switch the focus to the thread pane by a single left click in the thread pane.
Generally speaking: if you want to use the arrow keys to navigate in one of the panes, the pane must be in focus.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #1)

I don't recall seeing reports of this in support.

Well, that changed. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1561686

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256140830 doesn't seem to have gone anywhere.

Curiously, other OS are having focus/selection problems, but different mode of reproduction and result:

• Bug 1933913 - Often, click on a folder is ignored until another folder is chosen. Linux
• Bug 2001829 - unified folders: delete or move mail is not working properly - the view doesn't update until I click another email

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Two solutions mentioned at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256140830:

• Logitech GHub
• disable Forti client from App Background Activity in Login Items & Extensions:

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Confirming based on multiple reports

Comment 10

[zolot]

MacOS 26.3 seemes to have solved this problem for me.