AE is stealing focus after rendering finishes

[PanBeep]

AE is stealing focus after rendering finishes. The AE window automatically pops in front although I'm using another application. Please fix this. This is highly annying!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tom Olsen]

Could you provide a few more details? For example, when you say "after rendering finishes", I assume you mean you're rendering through AME, and AE pops to the foreground when AME is done, correct?

[PanBeep]

Saying "after rendering finishes" I meant when rendering finishes inside AE not AME. After this AE pops to the foreground.

[Tom Olsen]

Thanks. I'll check on whether we have a bug tracking this issue. 

[PanBeep]

Hi, any progress with that?

[Travis__M]

Hi Tom. Im having the same issue. I commonly switch to work in some other app while AE renders away. When AE is done it now pops back up on top no matter what i am doing. 

Super annoying.

Using Windows 10 and AE version 17.7 if that is useful.

travis

[defaultfwucbpgs9wgg]

Yes, it starts to get annoying, you rename the file at this time, print the text, everything flies because After Effects decided to switch to himself. Please fix. I did not see it on Windows 7, but on Windows 10, it just infuriates.

[PanBeep]

Hello? Is anybody there? The issue is highly irritating, please fix that!

[PanBeep]

Hello? Is anybody there?

[PanBeep]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHONNcZbwDY

[ShiveringCactus]

I know you're finding this frustrating, but I don't think it's a bug.  AE's state is changing when the Render Queue finishes and just like any program, Windows then brings that up to the foreground.  The actual issue is your workflow of using Render Queue instead of Adobe Media Encoder.  Render Queue is the legacy method of exporting video.  Adobe moved all the latest compression methods to AME and continues to update them.  Render Queue also locks down After Effects, meaning you cannot continue to work in AE while it is rendering, whereas with AME, you can (although, it is worth noting that you send a copy of the comp to AME to render, so if you make changes, these won't be reflected until you send them again).

AME also doesn't have that alarming sheep bleep sound effect when a render fails.  The number of times I've jumped out my skin when that went off!

[Travis__M]

Thanks for the comments, Cactus. Not sure if a bug, but is is ceratinly new behaviour.

I guess im a creature of habit. I've been using the render queue for so long its like a reflex. That said, anything that gets rid of the sheep sound is good in my book. (seriously, who ever put that in there without an option to turn it off is plain malicious!)

🙂

[michalhrabovec]

well you may be right this is probably not considered a bug by developers despite thousands of complaints you find online when you google "adobe stealing focus" ... 

what is intersting is that mac version doesn't do it. maybe they are just using some crossplatform API for rendering UI that behaves differently on win and mac and they don't care enough to change  the behavier, it may go too deep,  or the api is not theirs ... hard to say, i am not a developer.

but the is the strongest reason for swiching to mac platform .. 

[PanBeep]

Come on. Stop blaming OS for this bahaviour. None of other apps I use eg. Cinema 4d, Blender, Lightroom, Octane does this when it finishes rendering or other programmed tasks. NONE, literary NONE, except AE. So can you really tell me this is not a bug or will you continue blaming others for badly written software?

[El Dudie]

This happens not only when the Render Queue on After Effects finishes, but it also happens when autosave is done when it finishes saving or opening a project in the background, sometimes inside After Effects for no reason it automatically jumps from the Render Queue window to the timeline.

[martynk27914441]

THIS!

Incredibly frustrating and honestly just feels like Adobe is being rude every time it happens. Feels like someone slapping you in the face when you're working hard on something. 

YES i know your app has just finished doing something, I expected it to do that whilst I carry on working on something else.

[Omar Mo]

I Know you guys must have been working so hard trying to fix and develop AE, but issue needs attention, AE Steals focus when it's done launching, done loading a project, done saving or autosaving, and done rendering, and It did just happen now while writing this reply 😄 and it can't be quickly evaded, I have to press alt+TAB couple of times, it feels like a bug more than a normal behavior.

Thanks!

[Travis Schmidt Art]

Yeah this is so annoying. Adobe, you aren't that important that you can interrupt my other tasks. Make this 'feature' a toggle in prefrences or disable the action. Calvary is coming for you lol do better

[PanBeep]

Looks like it is Microsft's fault
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/c22363e5-802c-4f43-b4e3-8a7259865648/windows-10-st...

I wonder if Adobe could block it somehow in their software.... or better... they should push MS to fix is ASAP.

[j.ssuarez]

Can't believe this post has so few upvotes and it hasn't received any updates. Not to mention many new versions of After Effects have come out and this behavior is still there.

I would also add that this also happens when you open AE. If you switch to the web browser for example, once AE opens it steals the focus and jumps right on top of everything. Insanely annoying behavior that contrary to what other people said in this thread does not happen with any other app. After Effects is the only one that steals focus like this, not even other Adobe apps do this...open Photoshop and you'll see.

So blaming Windows is not really fair or an excuse.

[PanBeep]

I really think those big companies like M$ or Adobe dont give a f*** what you say or ask. The issue reported on M$ website is from 2016. 7 years has passed and the issue still persiste. THIS IS F***** JOKE.

[Frank_B]

PanBeep, you hit the nail on the head. You as a single Adobe customer don't matter for this company because of how big they are.
There is an issue with our software? Let's wait and see if n number of users will report it because we're busy adding useless flashy features no one asked for. Otherwise: "Thank you for bringing it to our attention, we'll look into it." and ignore you and the issue like Tom Olsen did.

Offtopic: funny how ShiveringCactus tried to blame you for rendering directly in After Effects and calling your workflow an issue. Many of us work this way for various of reasons. And contrary to the "Community Expert" Cactus comment, Adobe brought back "mp4" to that "legacy" exporting method.

[PanBeep]

Please!!!

[Frank_B]

@PanBeepthey've fixed it in today's After Effects Beta 24.1.0 (Build 58).
Finally!
EDIT: Looks like I was wrong. The focus stealing issue is still here.

[Tom Olsen]

Hi, Frank and PanBeep. I'm sorry that it took so long for us to get to this issue. We literally receive thousands of bug reports from customers, and we have to balance a lot of different priorities (crashes, features, general bugs). We do listen. Again, sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for posting about these issues.