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How to stop Firefox from stealing focus (coming to the foreground)

  • 8 replies
  • 15 have this problem
  • 31 views
  • Last reply by Rick_B

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I often have multiple Firefox instances running with multiple tabs. For some reason, and I cannot find a pattern, Firefox randomly comes to the foreground stealing focus.

I have Googled this issue but cannot find anything current that addresses my problem. I'm running Windows 10, with a clean install. I had this issue before I did a clean install when I was running several other browsers and this issue only happens with Firefox.

This is incredibly irritating behavior as I can be working on a document or in coding when Firefox pops to the foreground. Or I can be in Firefox reading, when another instance pops to the foreground. As much as I prefer Firefox, if I cannot stop this, I'll be uninstalling soon.

Any help would be appreciated.

I often have multiple Firefox instances running with multiple tabs. For some reason, and I cannot find a pattern, Firefox randomly comes to the foreground stealing focus. I have Googled this issue but cannot find anything current that addresses my problem. I'm running Windows 10, with a clean install. I had this issue before I did a clean install when I was running several other browsers and this issue only happens with Firefox. This is incredibly irritating behavior as I can be working on a document or in coding when Firefox pops to the foreground. Or I can be in Firefox reading, when another instance pops to the foreground. As much as I prefer Firefox, if I cannot stop this, I'll be uninstalling soon. Any help would be appreciated.

All Replies (8)

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I see I'm not alone with this problem, but no suggestions on how to stop it from happening? I thought Firefox wasn't supposed to do this?

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Too bad, I really hoped for a solution. There is one solution that I was hoping to avoid: uninstalling.

I just cannot handle Firefox popping up while I'm TYPING in another window. Just too annoying. Thanks for many great features, but bye.

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I think this is an issue with Windows. I have had other windows jump up also.

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I don't think this is a windows issue, for me it's only firefox and only second windows that popup to foreground, the primary windows stays in background. This happens in safe mode too.

I already had contact to a website that opens a second window, because i thought they've done this with a script. They told me believable that they don't use such scripts.

This is ultimately annoying, and a really good reason to leave firefox as Rick already did.

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After an hour, and four background changes, behavior has stopped using this tip: changing Firefox's browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground setting in about:config to true.

Source: First Google search result for "firefox steals focus": Gizmo's Freeware article titled "How To Stop Firefox From Stealing Window Focus", Sep 19, 2011!

Setup: Win 10, 64 Bit, latest Firefox release

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febbert said

After an hour, and four background changes, behavior has stopped using this tip: changing Firefox's browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground setting in about:config to true. Source: First Google search result for "firefox steals focus": Gizmo's Freeware article titled "How To Stop Firefox From Stealing Window Focus", Sep 19, 2011! Setup: Win 10, 64 Bit, latest Firefox release

Hi bebbert, thanks for the reply. I'll give your suggestion a try and see if it helps.

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Good morning Rick,

I hope this solution works out for you. After two days, I am skeptical this solution is working as I expected. I'll update when I know more.

Best to everyone

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Frank Ebbert said

Good morning Rick, I hope this solution works out for you.

It took a while, but I can confirm this did NOT solve my problem. But in all fairness to Mozilla, I'm not sure anymore if it is a Mozilla problem. Like @FredMcD, I've also had other windows jump to the foreground, most notiably Windows Explorer. (The problem may just seem like a Mozilla problem since I tend to have so many browsers open at any given time, followed by Window Explorer instances.)

Back to the drawing board.