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Help: Focus (by app) turns off if "active" app moves to background

K

kkclstuff

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2015
387
242
NYC
I set 'work' Focus to activate when im in FaceTime or Zoom on any of my devices, **but while in a meeting if I open Mail or Finder the Work focus turns off, once I bring Facetime to the 'foreground' again the focus turns back on.

How do I keep my Work focus active even when the app is in the background? (basically I want: if appX is running in either foreground or background activate Work focus - so it will only turn off if I quit the app.)
 
This is still happening in Sonoma....???

FOCUS "work setting" will 'disengage/turn off' if the active app (Zoom) isnt in the foreground. I don't understand how this is helpful? If Im reading a presentation while in zoom meeting the work focus/DND turns off. (I ve already had a person interrupt a meeting because of this lack of foresight by )

Hopefully im wrong and theres a solution/setting im missing. Please let me know if theres a solution.
 
I'm hitting this issue in Ventura and not finding a fix. Sad to hear Sonoma still hasn't addressed it. This feels like a feature designed for iOS that Apple bolted onto macOS without really thinking it through.
 
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[UNSOLVED] Sequoia 15.0.1 — Focus still turning off when 'Focused' app moves to background.
 
I have just come across this thread while searching for a solution to this exact same problem but on my iPhone iOS 18.5 (22F76).
It seems that, as of June 17 2025 this still hasn’t received any attention from Apple 😞

I have come up with, a rather inelegant, WORKAROUND, that so far is just about manageable.
I have set up two automations:
- one to enable my desired focus upon the opening of an app,
- a second one to close down the focus when the particular app is closed.

As things stand at the moment, putting the triggering app into background mode so triggers the focus to close down. This can be averted, however, by ensuring that “Run After Confirmation” is selected for the close automation, and then ignoring the prompts each time they appear. Until you do actually want to close things down, of course.


I must admit being somewhat surprised that Apple hasn’t addressed this over the past 2+ years. Shortcuts and Automations, used in conjunction with the Focus function, is a powerful bit of capability and something Apple has done really well in recent years. It’s a little strange that something as mundane as this issue hasn’t been fixed. It makes me wonder if there are unforeseen consequences that maintaining a Focus, while an app is in background mode, causes.

I am now going to enter a ticket on Apple’s official ‘feedback’ forum. Hopefully I’ll be able to log it against the entire Apple ecosystem, rather than it being limited to just the iOS section.
 
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Thank you for your confirmation and workaround! Unfortunately this (lack of proper) functionality (as of macOS15.5, iOS 18.5) is broken across all devices—Its really disappointing that these basic things fall through the cracks.
 
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