402045 - [10.5] window does not get focus when switching applications across spaces

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: Widget: Mac, defect)

Description

[Rob Dosogne]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

In Mac OS X 10.5, Firefox's window will not be in focus by default when using application switching when the 1st app is in a different "space" (virtual desktop)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Activate "Spaces"
2. Open any application in 1 space
3. Open firefox in 2nd space
4. While using first application in space 1, cmd-tab (app switching) to firefox
Actual Results:  
Firefox appears on screen but is not in focus, you must click on the window to focus it.

Expected Results:  
Main window in Firefox should automatically gain focus.

Problem can be reproduced with Thunderbird as well.

Comment 1

[Rob Dosogne]

Also occurs when you are working in 2nd space and click Firefox icon (already running) in Dock.

Comment 2

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

Rob: I am not sure I see a difference between how Safari and Firefox behave when I follow your STR. If I assign Firefox space 2 and Safari space 1 and switch between the two, neither application immediately is put in focus. Can you give me a little more info about what you are seeing that is different between Firefox and other apps?

Comment 3

[Rob Dosogne]

(In reply to comment #2)

When I use Spaces.app to switch between them, Firefox will have focus.. but using the Dock or Application Switcher, Firefox does not have focus.  Other applications retain their focus in each space when switching.  The best way I can explain is with a short video: http://truthsolo.net/firefox_spaces.mov.zip (12.7MB, zipped MPEG-4).

I have both in focus in their respective spaces.  Starting in Safari, I scroll up & down with the keyboard; I use dock to go to Firefox and try to scroll with arrow keys but the window is in the background, then I click in the window and scroll; then back to Safari.

I hope this helps!

Comment 4

[Alexey Melchakov]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Rob: I am not sure I see a difference between how Safari and Firefox behave
> when I follow your STR. If I assign Firefox space 2 and Safari space 1 and
> switch between the two, neither application immediately is put in focus. Can
> you give me a little more info about what you are seeing that is different
> between Firefox and other apps?
> 

I have app on space 1 and firefox & safari on space 2. When i sitch to safari i can call search by command-f immediatly, cant do this with firefox, have to click and focus it first.

Comment 6

[Rob Dosogne]

This behaviour is not present in Gran Paradiso 3.0a7; focus is returned to most recent window when switching back via Dock or Application Switcher.

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.9a7) Gecko/2007080209 GranParadiso/3.0a7

Comment 7

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Clearing blocking nom for Fx3 until this can be reproduced on trunk.

Comment 8

[gregory tomlinson]

In firefox 2.0.0.9, on Mac 10.4.10 the firefox application window is not brought to the front and doesn't become focused both when using Tab Switching between applications (Tab + Command). This also occurs when using "witch" an (option + tab) switcher for changing between application windows.

this issue doesn't happen in 2.0.0.8 also running on 10.4.10

Comment 9

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Version-->2.0 branch

Confirming on: 
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.10pre) Gecko/2007110605 BonEcho/2.0.0.10pre
taken from <http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8/>.

I also tested the equivalent trunk build, and could not reproduce.

Using Mac OS X 10.5 (9A581)

Comment 10

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

I'm also experiencing this in both FF 2.0.0.9 AND TB 2.0.0.10pre

I cannot reproduce in FF3b1rc1, trunk behaves as expected, so whatever's causing it is already fixed on the trunk apparently.

Comment 11

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Another data point that may be related...  if I have Firefox and Terminal running in two different spaces, and I command + shift + click on a link in Terminal, the space Firefox is in shifts into focus, Firefox's frontmost window does NOT focus (as mentioned above) and then the new window for the link I just clicked opens BEHIND the front window instead of in front where I can see it.  I usually have to go pick it off the Window menu to find the window I just opened.

Comment 12

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

er, ignore my last comment, that can't be related because it's on trunk. :) (and the front window does focus, but the new one still opens behind it).  So that's for another bug, not this one.

Comment 13

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Thinking that this bug might be an Apple bug that effects only Carbon
apps, I tried the STR from comment #3 on Apple's SimpleText sample
app.

But I was wrong -- I can't reproduce comment #3's STR with SimpleText.

Comment 15

[Stephan Jaensch]

I cannot reproduce this issue with Firefox 3.0b1. Seems to be fixed in trunk but present in 1.8 branch.

Comment 16

[Daniel Mateos]

Cmoon its been two releases and this annoying bug still isn't fixed, its reproducible on every single 10.5 mac i own (intel, not sure about power-pc).

Comment 17

[falldg]

agreed, this is an annoying one -- i still make the mistake of expecting the proper behavior to be observed...

Comment 18

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Annoying, yes; happy to approve a patch, yes; stop-ship for a release? No, sorry.

Comment 19

[Mason]

This bug is still happening in FF 2.0.0.13, OS X 10.5.2.  It does not happen in Safari or any other application.  If you watch the FF window's titlebar closely, as Firefox slides in, the window comes into view with focus, and then immediately loses it.

Comment 20

[Samuel Sidler (old account; do not CC)]

Mason, this bug is NEW. It has not been closed. We know it's still happening.

Comment 21

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

I cannot see this issue with Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.15) Gecko/20080623 Firefox/2.0.0.15 on OS X 10.5.4.

Opening Firefox 2 and Safari on Space 1, givinng focus to Safari and opening Thunderbird on Space 2 afterwards. Now switching back to Firefox 2 via Cmd+Tab opens Space 1 with focus set to Firefox 2.

Anyone who also had the trouble can still see this bug? Otherwise it can be closed as WFM.

Comment 22

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

The release notes for Mac OS X 10.5.4 contains following sentence:

Addresses an issue in which switching from a space with a Finder window keeps the Finder as the active application instead of the application residing in the destination space.

I believe that this fix also fixes our problem. If anyone can still see it with the latest upgrade feel free to reopen the bug.