Click a weblink in Thunderbird Mail. It automatically opens the page in Brave (default browser), AND puts the ‘focus’ to Brave. So if i hit a key command/shortcut like I do (I use a keyboard combo to switch between Brave profiles/windows) then it works straight away. So I click the link, page opens in Brave and any keyboard combos done then ACT ON BRAVE.
That has changed in the past month or so. Assuming it’s an OS ‘thing’?
Now if I do the same thing, the ‘focus’ is still stuck on Thunderbird. So now what happens is…
i click a link in TB, brave page opens, if i hit ctrl-w to close the browser tab, it closes Thunderbird! Seems very minor, but it’s actually a real pain in the youknowwhat
I keep quitting Thunderbird without meaning to, finger memory/habit, which can be a real pain if i have a search pane open in TB which took me ages to work properly to find the list of emails I wanted open!
Sorry for the terrible description but hopefully it works
I know what feature you’re referencing here, just curious why that would randomly change last month. Did you upgraded to Fedora’s new major version last month? Or maybe you changed browsers last month?
No i don’t think so, but this doens’t appear to be a setting, it’s quite illogical, if you click a link which moves to or opens an app, the focus should (and always did) switch to that app you invoked by clicking. Hence why I suspected it was some kind of bug.
I’m not really sure why that would stop working for you. Can you go to the Settings →Apps →look for Brave → click “Files and Links“ → scroll down and click “Reset“?
If this doesn’t work, then as a workaround you can install Just Perfection Just Perfection - GNOME Shell Extensions and enable focus stealing in all cases. Good luck.
Thanks. I opened Settings, then Apps, then clicked Brave Browser from list. The next screen gives me two options only: Open, and ‘App Details’ buttons.
I clicked the App Details and nothing happens. It did give a prompt to say ‘Software is ready’ like it sometimes says about random apps when it doesn’t seem able to invoke the window open/switch (which does this still happen randomly in Fedora?!) but nothing showing in Software if I go there. weird. But definitely can’t find ‘Files and Links’ anywhere.
I looked at Just Perfection link. the only mention of focus on that page says “- Window Demands Attention Focus” - Is that what you mean? I havent installed yet
The “App is ready” notification is a security measure - so random app won’t be able to steal focus. Sadly it doesn’t work as intended in certain cases (like in your case)
OK thanks, not sure I want the complexity of another app just to solve this issue, Will see if I can learn to live with it. I just wish I knew why it suddenly changed
I did a goggle search for ‘gnome focus’ or similar, and found a command line to change focus to ‘smart’ on reddit I think … it was a bit outdated but have a search, you might find the answer you need …
Firstly it messed up my dash panel along bottom (conflicting with Dash to Panel extension I assume). But more importantly, it didn’t work. I turned on that focus option and tested, same behaviour. If i click a link in an email in Thunderbird, it opens the link in Brave but then if I use my keyboard combo to switch Brave window i can see it trying to switch Thunderbird windows. So no change unfortunately.
Smart is the default option. But ig it’s worth a try?
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-new-windows 'smart'
Just Perfection have a lot of settings, You may need to tweak them a bit. I know it sucks and I would love to be able to help more, but I’m out of ideas here. I’ll try asking around on GNOME’s matrix room.
Not at all, you’ve been helpful and generous already thanks.
I’ll try that command in terminal, but before I do, being a dumber I always ask before entering terminal commands (lacking the understanding behind it)… if it doesn’t work, what’s the command to ‘undo’ it please?!
No, don’t worry! It’s a smart question. It shouldn’t do anything bad. By default, that key is already set to ‘smart’. However, the command to undo the change is:
