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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PanBeep]

Thank you Tom, I'll try when possible and report back.

[rollingsheep230]

Also does this as soon as it auto saves on a mac. And because AFX is notorious for crashing, I have auto save set to every 5 mins, so you can imagine how annoying that is when I have AFX hidden but it keeps bullying anything else out of the way to shout "I JUST AUTO SAVED FOR YOU! AND I'M HERE, AND I'M MORE IMPORTANT THAT WHATEVER ELSE YOU'RE DOING!"
This doesn't seem like a bug, just something thats built in? Pls fix!

[Frank_B]

@Tom Olsenany update on this issue?
I understand your team is busy but this is one of the most frustrating aspect of working in After Effects.
Personally I don't care about all the 3d features constantly being added to Ae. I'd just like to see this software to be user friendly.
Thank you.

[Tom Olsen]

Hi, Frank. I've been trying to reproduce this issue on Windows repeatedly and, so far, have not had any success. After Effects hasn't stolen focus. Believe me, I would love to find out what's causing this problem for you. Are you using a Mac or Windows? And if Windows, which version specifically? When you move After Effects to the background (while rendering, etc), are you minimizing the app? 
Thanks,
Tom

[j.ssuarez]

Hey Tom,

I'm on Windows and can confirm this happens every time AE finishes rendering something and it also happens when you first open the program.

If I click on AE to start it and go to my web browser to answer some emails for example, when AE is finished loading it will go full screen on my monitor. This has been happening for over 6 years at this point not sure how you are not able to reproduce it but for me it's always happened regardless of windows/apple machines.

This has happened on every machine I have ever run After Effects on and from what you can see in the community it happens to everybody as well

[Tom Olsen]

I can confirm that I've seen focus stealing while the app is booting. But it doesn't seem to be stealing focus after rendering. What AE build are you using?

[j.ssuarez]

im on 24.3.0 but again, i've had this happen on every version for years

[Tom_edit]

@Tom Olsenhere I've used a simple autohotkey script to save after effects in the bg - as you can see, as soon as it is done saving it forces itself to become the focused window. This does NOT happen with premiere. The script I use to save both apps literally has a hacky method built in to turn ae transparent and force it to the bottom of the window stack specifically to avoid this issue.

This is v24.5 but it has been an issue for at minimum the past two years and likely even longer than that given a google search returns results from 2021 and earlier

[Frank_B]

Hi @Tom Olsen , Thank you for the reply. It's good to know it's not a desired behaviour and it doesn't work like that on other machines.
Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
OS build 19045.4412
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19056.1000.0

Aaaand now I need to thank you for the solution because I thought I minimize the window after hiting "Render". Turns out I've been using alt-tab to switch to other apps. This results in Ae stealing focus back at the end of the render.
But... This time after hitting "Render" in After Effects I minimized the window and then switched to other apps. This results in After Effects not stealing the focus at the end of the render. It's a game changer! (Tested on the recent Ae Beta and Ae 2024).
@rollingsheep230Would you please check if the auto-save stealing focus happens as well if you minimize After Effects window?

[j.ssuarez]

I would call this more a "workaround" than a "solution".

In any case I don't think there's a valid reason for this to happen. Somebody else mentioned it in the thread before but After Effects is the ONLY application where I've had this happen. Regardless if I just switch to another program instead of minimizing the window, it shouldn't do it at all.

And for what it's worth Tom also confirmed AE is stealing focus upon loading so minimizing in that scenario doesn't work.

[Tom Olsen]

@j.ssuarez @Frank_B I agree that stealing focus is the wrong behavior. Users understand which application they want focused, and ripping them out of that modality is a bad experience. I'm going to continue trying to reproduce this behavior. It would be helpful to know if it reproduces on the latest After Effects Beta (24.5). I am aware of a few situations on startup where After Effects steals focus (if the previous instance of After Effects crashed; if the Reset Preferences dialog is invoked; if you're starting in Safe Mode (or the last session was in Safe Mode). Half of users will say they want this behavior -- the other half don't.

Meanwhile, here's kind of a cool trick that you can use to open After Effects minimized on Windows:
1. Bring up the Start Menu | type "After Effects" | <right-click> it | Choose "More" | Choose "Open file location"

2. <Right-Click> the After Effects shortcut.

3. Choose "Properties"

4. Choose "Run:" | "Minimized" | Choose OK.

Now, when you open After Effects, it will automatically minimize.

[j.ssuarez]

Thanks for the tip Tom! 

This will definitely help when opening AE but I REALLY hope we see this behaviour updated properly in future versions of AE

[willeklof]

Any update on this? It's still a constant daily annoyance for me and hundreds of other users (lowball imo), and as @Tom Olsen points out, it's unintended behaviour that needs to be removed.

[Tom Olsen]

What version of AE are you running?

[El Dudie]

Hey Tom, 

I'm afraid this happens in any version of After Effects I've used on Windows, even in the just release v25 😞

[samuraijack5]

The other thing is when I run any adobe software it would switch to it when it it loaded.. I DON'T need to switch ! I usually press ALT+TAB 2 times minimum just to switch my attention to another program while adobe app is loading I DON'T want to stare every day on how it is loading ... 

There should a a choice on wethere I want Adobe to interrupt my work in other apps or not !! 

[Tom Olsen]

Understand and agree. I'm having difficulty reproducing this behavior here, though. What version of AE are you running?

[El Dudie]

If you are Windows based there's no way you have difficulty reproducing this behaviour Tom, thie happens when After Effects finishes any process, saving, autosaving, opening, finish rendering, even closing the program, is completely annoying and out of control

[Airweb_AE]

Try this:

prevent any app from stealing focus in windows