P: Stealing focus on launch

Report · Nov 22, 2016

When launching Lightroom 6.7 on Windows 7, it can take a little while to initiate and do it's thing (even loading from a fast SSD).

Normally that'd be fine as I just bring other programs to the foreground and continue with other tasks while it loads in the background. However, I count 3 times where Lightroom steals priority from whatever other program I have just to show me the next step in its loading process. Please make it stop or only do it at the very final step?

Report · Nov 23, 2016

Me too. VERY annoying. Same on Win 10 and also everything from SSD.
Since the last update same behaviour on Bridge CC.

Report · Nov 23, 2016

Yes. And Photoshop and Bridge too.

Report · Nov 24, 2016

Since LR 6.7 CC only takes 10 secs at most to be ready on my Win10 computer, I can't see myself doing much else in that 10 secs.

bob Frost

Report · Nov 24, 2016

It's more of a mindset thing. I'm doing something else, perhaps just wrapping up an email, and think 'I know, I'll do some photo editing next' and pre-emptively open Lightroom so it's ready to go. This is pretty much the scenario 4/5 times I open Lightroom. After the initial application load it takes a few moments to scan your library and load the last collection also, so I like this all to just be done when I'm ready to edit.

Out of principle though, should an application doing this? Once when it has loaded is fine.

Report · Nov 26, 2016

10 seconds is more than enough time to launch some auxiliary programs that I'm going to use, or resume typing that message while I expect LR to finish starting in the background. But noooo. None of that. I have to wait for LR to give back control.

Out of principle, as Jordan states so nicely, no, an application should not. If you push an app to the background, it should respect the user for doing that and stay there like a good boy.

Report · Sep 12, 2017

I came here to post his exact issue with Photoshop. It takes focus WAY too many times. I'm sorry, but I don't just sit there for the 10 seconds it takes to open up. I try to do other tasks during that time, but it's nearly impossible.

Report · Sep 13, 2017

I believe it's been fixed in a recent update... Have you installed the latest version?

Report · Sep 18, 2017

Not in my versions on Windows 10. All apps and W10 are up-to-date. LR stole focus twice and PS three times in a simple test right now. Very annoying and can lead one to click the wrong button as the focus changes just as one goes to click.

Report · Sep 22, 2017

This is such a disgusting bug. I wouldn't let staff go home until it was fixed. Just remove the lines of code that steal focus. It should be fixed the same day it was found. It's ridiculous that it's been going on for more than a week. Now been over a year.

Report · May 07, 2018

Annoying. Totally annoying. You might be able to get away with crap like this on a Mac... but this PC is our tool, respect our time and choice, PLEASE!

Report · Dec 05, 2018

W764, newest LR Classic: Same annoying Problem

Report · Jan 02, 2019

It drives my crazy. Really. Solve it!

Report · Jan 16, 2019

Ditto.

It's 2019 and this "bug" is still around.

Microsoft says it's bad practise to steal focus so why even do it?

Should it come to a boycott Adobe?

Report · Feb 07, 2019

It takes a little longer for me to start, so I go back to a browser or mail and start to type, focus gets stolen and all my keystrokes are sent to LR as shortcurts. That's probably about five keys or so, before I can stop. So now I sent commands, that I dont' know of and can only hope, that they get undone properly with Ctrl+Z.
That's just bad quality programming and a joke, as no other program does that

Report · Feb 23, 2019

Adobe seriously! It's about time! This makes me hate launching LR everyt time a bit more 😞

Report · May 20, 2019

Please stop focusing the app during startup, starting lightroom takes a while if there is a big catalog in the background. So most of the time I would like to prepare stuff while Lightroom is loading, but I cant because its constantly pushed as the foreground app.

This is completely useless since it can't do anything yet anyway, because its still loading.

Please stopp doing this, or at least only do it once, once its finished and actually ready to receive user input.

Report · May 21, 2019

It's very easy to use separate desktops in either Mac or Windows machines. Open LR in its own window and then sweep to the window you're working on that takes less than a second.

Report · May 21, 2019

So basically you're saying we are starting it wrong?

Report · May 21, 2019

No, it's not a question of doing it wrong. I'm suggesting quite an easy workaround for not being able to do something else while LR is starting. It's quite easy to have multiple desktops opened at the same time. I have one dedicated to LR, another for Photoshop, another for a web browser, another for email, etc. A swipe of the fingers on my mouse takes me from one window to another. While I've been typing this LR was opening. When I want to edit in Photoshop it automatically switches to the PS window. Going back is just as easy.

Using this system multiple apps are not stacked on one desktop; on the Mac they're side-by-side and switching is just a flick of the fingers.

When LR is opening it takes front and center on that desktop. With multiple desktops open you don't have to worry about that. Just go do something on a different desktop.

I'm just hoping that this idea might be useful to those who want to do something else while LR is starting.

Report · May 26, 2019

Don, many thanks for that workaround tip.

I haven't tried multiple desktops so I don't know how well they will play with my dual monitor setup with one desktop spread over both screens.

I'm not sure I like the idea of hiding one desktop behind another, having to keep track of what's where, I guess not such easy drag and drop from other apps, changing desktops to see if it has finished loading or completed other tasks and not being able to monitor the progress bar in the task bar when it is labouring over something like large imports or multi-image HDRs etc.

I'll certainly try multiple desktops, maybe I'll come to like them. But I still feel dismayed that Adobe can't fix so many minor "faults" and shortcomings they have known about for many years such as focus stealing and improved crop presets. Having to change our preferred way of working is not what Adobe promised.

Report · May 26, 2019

> But I still feel dismayed that Adobe can't fix so many minor "faults" and shortcomings they have known about for many years

Yes. And that's really a mystery for me. Most of these (not that) minor problems can be easily and quickly solved. So, the question is either "Are they able to fix these problems ? " OR "Do they actually care ?". Or both ?

I think that many code pieces are written by offshore developers and that there are now not much people that are really in control of this program. That's a first reason. Also, the use of LUA for many parts of the program probably makes tracking bugs rather difficult. I always wondered why they made such a questionable design decision. And finally, the subscription model encourages laziness.

Anyway, as I have already stated multiple times, code quality at Adobe is declining while competitors are making progress in this area. I'm not sure that Adobe are aware of this.

Report · Jun 14, 2019

Every time they update the software it seems to take longer to load. I was trying to edit photos while it opened just now and five times it jumped to the Lightroom window.

Report · Jul 23, 2019

Lightroom Classic on Windows 10 still steals focus several times on launch. Really bad form.
I just checked and Photoshop does not steal focus, so at least Adobe fixed that. (I just now read many old threads of complaint about that.)
Please fix Lightroom as well.

Report · Jul 24, 2019

One of the main differences between the PS and LR UIs is that they have not been written in the same programming language. The Lightroom UI is written in LUA which I have always considered a wrong choice. Anyway, LUA doesn't give as much control on the UI as C, C++ or whatever other more classical language. So, fixing the problem in PS doesn't t mean that this will be as easy in LR. This should be fixed anyway.

Report · Jul 29, 2019

When Lightroom Classic is starting up, during the process, the application focuses itself at least 3 times. What happens due to this?
- The user clicks the application shortcut
- During the lengthily startup, the user may want to continue using another open application, (for example Bridge, Explorer, etc.)
- Lightroom aggressively focuses and maximizes itself. Even if the user clicks an focuses another application, Lightroom takes the focus back.

Please remove the focusing/maximizing code snippets from Lightroom Classic. Please study another application: when starting up, those doesn't force the focus.

P: Stealing focus on launch

1 Correct answer