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FeedbackCommunityMember
Inspiring
September 22, 2016

P: When launching Photoshop it recurringly takes focus from another application/task (Windows)

  • September 22, 2016
  • 109 replies
  • 2070 views

When I open PhotoShop, it takes my computer a moment or two to open it (most of my PSDs are at least 2GB big), so I switch back to my browser to keep working, but every time there is an alert, or popup, or question, or it simply successfully opens the PSD, PhotoShop forces itself to the front, interrupting what I was doing in another window.
It can be very frustrating, especially since I am more often than not in the middle of doing something.
And I wish it was as simple as Alt+Tab-ing back to my window, but sometimes it just forces its way to the front again!
I don't suppose this is a feature that can be taken off/switched off?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    109 replies

    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 5, 2019
    Sorry Jeff, but it happens on macOS HiSierra and Mojave with us as well in CC2019. You can start batch processing in PS,(Script-ImageProcessor or Automate-Batch) switch to other apps and PS will randomly grab the focus away from whatever app you are on. Also, if you have Finder open with 2 windows, PS will randomly grab focus away from one of these windows which makes it look as if the Finder window has closed. It happens regardless of app window states such as size, full screen or location. And I'm referring to having the PS image window set to full screen, tabbed or minimized as well as regardless of having more than one image open in PS.
    MT
    J
    J453
    Legend
    June 5, 2019
    We could only reproduce this on Windows when trying to change focus to Microsoft's Edge Browser on launch. Switching to other apps we tried kept Photoshop in the background on launch.
    Daviduk
    Daviduk
    Inspiring
    June 3, 2019
    Windows 10 (1903 as of last week), I'll try and video it next time I'm editing an image..hopefully this week
    J
    J453
    Legend
    June 3, 2019
    David are you on macOS or Windows? Can you make a video of what you're seeing?
    Daviduk
    Daviduk
    Inspiring
    June 2, 2019
    I'm still getting the "stealing focus" problem, it happens on startup and when saving an image (once the image has finished saving, PS jumps to the front of other windows).
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 19, 2019
    Peculiar - it used to happen to me (which is why I get updates on this thread) but it's no longer doing it. Win 10 Pro and lastest version of Photoshop CC.
    Daviduk
    Daviduk
    Inspiring
    March 19, 2019
    Yep, LR and PS (latest versions) both steal focus on my PC
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 19, 2019
    1 year after the fix - still not fixed, happens in Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat... and not only on startup, in Acrobat it continuously steals focus while for instance combining many PDFs into one (a task that takes a while and SHOULD be able to work in the background).
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 18, 2018
    This was extremely annoying - thank you very much for fixing it (I just updated Photoshop to get this fix 😉 ).
    Hannah Nicollet
    Community Manager
    Hannah NicolletCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    January 10, 2018
    @G Image - with regard to the Image Processor: Are you on a Mac? There is a known issue related to Macs with the Image Processor stealing focus that is still under investigation. The workaround is to  "Open Documents As Tabs." 

    Preferences > Workspace > Open Documents As Tabs

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