Sonoma 14.0 - annoying focus bug - frontmost app keeps losing focus!

[luckman212]

Anyone else seeing an annoying bug in Sonoma where e.g. you're typing in Chrome and suddenly the frontmost window has lost focus and you have to click to activate it again?

I am seeing this 5-10 times per hour and it's really annoying.

I wrote a little app called frontapp to make it easier to track this. It prints a timestamp (millisecond accuracy), full Pathname, AppName, Bundle ID and PID to a small window, keeping a running log. Also displays a little menubar item with the name of the current frontmost app.

If you want to give it a try, grab it from my GitHub:
https://github.com/luckman212/frontapp

Similar (maybe identical?) to this older report:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-windows-focus-bug.2399922/

 

[gank41]

I've been seeing my curser just disappear completely and the window I'm in also losing focus. I'm having to swipe up to Mission Control and then can move the curser back over my Window and click on it again.

This is on a M1 MBP, not happening on a 2018 Intel Mac mini.

 

[cryohellinc]

Any updates on this, any solutions? This is VERY annoying bug.

 

[n-evo]

Hans’t happened on my end yet, using a MacBook Pro M1 Pro.

Does it still happen with a “fresh” user account? Could try that.

 

[gank41]

I haven’t had this issue since moving to macOS 14.1

 

[circatee]

I am having the same issue, but, I am on Ventura.
It only seemed to start earlier this week...

 

[Koloa]

This has been driving me nuts as well. It looks like it's:

2023-11-13 17:29:28.954 /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreServicesUIAgent.app (CoreServicesUIAgent/com.apple.coreservices.uiagent/1018)

But I've only been tracking with your (very helpful!) tool for a little while.

 

[luckman212]

The issue is definitely still present even with 14.1.1. It bit me again yesterday. Do any of you all use Bartender? I had a support thread going with someone who suggested that might be part of the culprit.

 

[gank41]

The issue is definitely still present even with 14.1.1. It bit me again yesterday. Do any of you all use Bartender? I had a support thread going with someone who suggested that might be part of the culprit.

I use Bartender and haven't had this issue on macOS 14.1 or now on macOS 14.1.1

 

[n-evo]

I use Bartender and haven't had this issue on macOS 14.1 or now on macOS 14.1.1

Same. No issues with Bartender 5 on macOS Sonoma.

 

[Koloa]

The issue is definitely still present even with 14.1.1. It bit me again yesterday. Do any of you all use Bartender? I had a support thread going with someone who suggested that might be part of the culprit.

No Bartender, but, it would be good to find the overlap.

Options from me:
StreamDeck
Keyboard Maestro
BetterTouchTool
Alfred
KeyCue

But it may not be any of these.

 

[luckman212]

@Koloa Out of your list, the only one I have in common is Alfred. Hmm.

 

[MacGizmo]

I have none of the apps mentioned and it happens all the time for me with Sonoma 14.1. The only time I really notice it is when I'm using Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.

 

[scanize]

Thank you for the tips. I also have the same problem on all Sonoma versions.

I also use Bartender and Alfred. I killed Alfred process IMMEDIATELY when the problem occurred and the focus jumping issue stopped immediately (usually runs about 30-60 seconds). As soon as I killed the process (after about 10s of occurrence), the problem was gone.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

[cryohellinc]

Don't use Alfred, but the issue is still there.

 

[gadget_guy]

Thank you for the tips. I also have the same problem on all Sonoma versions.

I also use Bartender and Alfred. I killed Alfred process IMMEDIATELY when the problem occurred and the focus jumping issue stopped immediately (usually runs about 30-60 seconds). As soon as I killed the process (after about 10s of occurrence), the problem was gone.

Can anyone confirm this?

I took your advice and killed alfred and the loss of focus which was occurring every 10 to 30 seconds stopped. Must be a bug in recent alfred update or some update in Mac OS that Alfred can no longer play nice with until it updates again. Boy was this bug driving me insane. Made the mac generally unusable. Couldn't type without losing focus of the window. I'll check Alfred website now to see if anyone reported this there.

I am on Sonoma 14.1.1

EDIT UPDATE: Ok so it wasn't 100% fixed. But I went from 2 to 4 focus losses per minute to one loss every few minutes. Still searching for problem to fully solve this.

 

[scanize]

Thanks @gadget_guy !

I have now also noticed that the error recurs even without the Alfred process. Now I have deactivated Bartender (which was always running), since then there is no more focus problem. Very strange...

 

[gadget_guy]

Thanks @gadget_guy !

I have now also noticed that the error recurs even without the Alfred process. Now I have deactivated Bartender (which was always running), since then there is no more focus problem. Very strange...

I found the cause on my Mac. It was HP Alert which is HP printer utility alert message. I used the python script to notify me what was stealing focus. As soon as I disabled that in the HP app problem gone since. I looked and HP had an app update earlier in the week which must have caused all this

 

[scanize]

Since I deactivated Bartender (version 5) 4 days ago, everything has been working perfectly. Otherwise it came up several times a day.

 

[rexbinary]

This has been driving me nuts. I can't figure out what it causing it. I don't have Alfred, Bartender, or printer software installed. Earlier today while just staring at my screen I watched my browser drop out of focus.

 

[cryohellinc]

The issue is still here.

 

[gank41]

View attachment 2322421

The issue is still here.

FWIW, I have all of the same apps installed listed in this thread except Alfred, on two machines (M1 MBP & Intel Mac mini) and am no longer having any of these issues. That might help rule some things out.

 

[kecinzer]

Same issue here. macOS 14.2.
I have:
Alfred
Bartender 5
StreamDeck

Still see CoreServicesUIAgent get focus.

I will try close some of apps and will see. Thank you for TIP.

 

[scanize]

Since I deactivated Bartender 5, it has not happened again.

After a restart I had the problem again immediately, as I still had Bartender 5 on autostart. I closed it again and it no longer appears.

I can't say why Bartender has an effect on me, but at least the error no longer appears as long as it is closed. Unfortunately - my menu bar is very full and I love Bartender

 

[kecinzer]

Since I deactivated Bartender 5, it has not happened again.

After a restart I had the problem again immediately, as I still had Bartender 5 on autostart. I closed it again and it no longer appears.

I can't say why Bartender has an effect on me, but at least the error no longer appears as long as it is closed. Unfortunately - my menu bar is very full and I love Bartender

Same here. After I closed Bartender 5, no longer CoreServicesUIAgent, until I openend Beeper, but then happened only 2 times.
So Bartender is problem here. May be we can report it.

The issue is still here, even not that often, but even with Bartender disabled...

Focus changed to: Arc
Focus changed to: iTerm2
Focus changed to: Arc
Focus changed to: iTerm2
Focus changed to: CoreServicesUIAgent
Focus changed to: Arc
Focus changed to: iTerm2
Focus changed to: Arc
Focus changed to: iTerm2
Focus changed to: Arc
Focus changed to: iTerm2
Focus changed to: Arc
Focus changed to: iTerm2
Focus changed to: Arc
Focus changed to: iTerm2