436777 - When switching between firefox and other applications on Macintosh via CMD+TAB, Firefox does not focus back to the currently active tab, forcing you to use the mouse

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect)

Description

[Craig Fairhurst]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14

Hello
This is more of a generic oversight than a bug that I truly hoped would be fixed in FF3, doesn;t appear to have been yet.
When you switch between applications on Macintosh with CMD+TAB you are forced to use the mouse in order to carry on navigating / performing commands inside the currently viewed tab.
Part of the charm of Mac's is that your mouse is less of a necessity and the window not focusing back to the currently active tab is a restriction of what is otherwise a common feature of applications developed on Mac.
It is my opinion that this is typical of Firefox on Mac, a platform used by your most vocal supporters, web developers. 
Same thing happens when you click the icon in the dock.

regards



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Firefox
2. Highlight a portion of text from a web site
2. Now open Safari
3. Switch back to Firefox
4. Try to copy the text with CMD+C
5. Check the clipboard for results
Actual Results:  
Nothing gets copied

Expected Results:  
Expected the text to be copied. This is a generic example of how keyboard navigation doesn't work in Firefox when switching between applications. I define "doesn't work" by having to use the mouse to continue working.

This is very, very annoying and as a web developer this is not a problem that is encountered a few times a day, it is a part and parcel of my daily routine.

Comment 1

[Craig Fairhurst]

A good example of where this does not happen (good because it's the first one I thought of) is the Mail application:
If you were last using the Top panel before switching away via CMD+TAB, then switch back to the application and press up or down, the keyboard navigation allows you to navigate up or down the email list.
Similarly, if you follow the steps mentioned above and replace Firefox with Mail, you will see this works.
I also tried this with the following applications:
 - Photoshop CS3 (by opening the Colour Picker, highlighting the HEX code, switching to code editor, accidentally copy instead of paste, go back to photoshop, no need to re-highlight the hex code with mouse)
 - Eclipse PDT (Similar to above, no need to use mouse in order to continue what you were doing)
 - Terminal (command line program, built in - again, no need to use mouse to re-focus)

And so on

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

Does it work correctly for you in Firefox 3?

Comment 3

[Jan Brucek]

I had an exactly same problem, but it seems not to happen when "Spaces" are disabled.

However the problem occurred even if the windows that were switched were on the same "space". I cmd+tabbed mostly between Eclipse PDT and Firefox.

I suggest disabling spaces for a while and re-check the problem.

Comment 4

[Craig Fairhurst]

It does happen in Firefox 3, yes.
And Spaces are enabled on my machine. I can't find another program this is a problem for, even cross platform programs such as Illustrator, etc.

Comment 5

[Jan Brucek]

Have you tried turning spaces off? It might be useful later for fixing the problem whether it behaves the same. For me, when spaces are disabled CMD-tab switching works as expected.

Comment 6

[nathan]

This bug is caused when web page text inputs receive focus onload or on window focus. I tried it with Spaces on and off, and the only time my mouse back/forward buttons or copy and paste shortcuts didn't work was when a page opened with a text input that automatically receives focus.

What happens for me is that my mouse back/forward buttons jump to the beginning and end of lines.

My setup: Mac 10.5, FF3, Intellimouse Explorer.

Comment 7

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was reported using Firefox 3.0 or older, which is no longer supported. The bug has also not been changed in over 500 days and is still in UNCO.
Reporter, please retest this bug in Firefox 3.6.10 or later using a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles. If you still see this problem, please update the bug. If you no longer see the bug, please set the resolution to RESOLVED, WORKSFORME.

This is a mass search of unconfirmed bugs that have no activity on them, so if you feel a bug was marked in error, just remove the CLOSEME comment in the whiteboard within the next month.

Comment 8

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.