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Active window randomly becoming inactive

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izzy0242mr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 24, 2009
637
426
My active window will randomly become inactive (as if I clicked my desktop), even if I'm not touching the computer.

So, say I'm using Google Chrome, or Safari, or Pages, and I'll be working when randomly the focus will shift. Now, note that the menubar still says I'm in my current app, but the app will just grey out and I'll have to click somewhere in my open window to regain focus. This'll also happen even if I'm not touching the computer (I've checked to see if it's a keyboard/trackpad issue and it's not).

Ideas anyone?
 
D

Dammac

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2011
1
0
Same problem

I'm having the same problem.
Yesterday I updated to Lion, after the installation this problem occurred. I went to the Apple store this morning and they re-installed Lion.

After the re-install everything did look fine. But I just got home and wanted to start working on my macbook pro but it's having the same problem all over again.

Please, somebody, how to fix this very annoying problem :S????
 
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rowenarrow

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2011
4
0
After installing Lion the same thing happened to me. I am just going to restore to SL when I go home. I will keep on searching for a fix on this issue before I consider going back to Lion on my mac mini. It sucks because it works fine on my MBP :(
 
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izzy0242mr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 24, 2009
637
426
I figured it out! It apparently seemed to be whenever Time Machine made a backup, it would shift focus. It's no longer an issue in 10.7.1.
 
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rowenarrow

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2011
4
0
I will have to check this out when I get home if not then I am blasting the OS and starting from scratch.
 
Last edited:
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macrookie1

macrumors newbie
Jul 16, 2012
2
0
Same with me

I'm having the same issue, but closing Time Machine didn't work. Maybe I should uninstall it???
 
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PepeArizona

macrumors newbie
Jun 14, 2011
5
0
Safari extensions are the reason active windows become inactive

I had this issue when I upgraded to Mavericks from Mountain Lion and recently when I upgraded to 10.9.5. I called Apple and they asked me to repair permissions and clean all caches, but that didn't help.
Finally I found the reason: my Safari extensions had been disabled by the update. When I went back to Safari preferences and enabled the extensions, all windows, even those that have nothing to do with Safari, began working fine.
 
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TSboyer.com

macrumors newbie
Mar 11, 2015
1
0
Just spent my entire day w/ the same problem, but I have it fixed now. I just want to "Pay it Forward". Finding a fix for this is like a needle in a haystack,, but through my 7 hrs of research,, only ONE thread out of Very Many gave me an idea of what to check.

-Turns out, there was an application in the background that kept Crashing every 10-15 sec. Every time it either crashed or tried to start again, it took the computers attention away from my current window and on to IT. The Post I read said that in their case, it was an Auto Backup program of some type.

In my case, it turned out to be the same thing. An Auto Backup program from Cox communications. To find what's troubling your computer,

1. close all your Apps

2. Open Activity Monitor

3. Sort columns by CPU

4.Keep a watchful eye for what keeps starting & Crashing

5. Double click on it or try to open it any way you can (Immediately while it is trying to open) and work on getting it DELETED or Uninstalled

a. Before you delete it, you can also try "ForceQuit" first to see if that helps. In my case, It kept re-opening even after Force Quit, but Uninstall worked

perfect. With this info, you can at least walk in to any Genius Bar @ Apple store and give them a huge head start on the problem, IF you are unable to complete the task.

I hope this helps! There's hardly any information to find on this problem, so SHARING this info in another thread or elsewhere would be a thoughtful thing to do.
 
JoshOohAh

JoshOohAh

macrumors member
Mar 19, 2009
30
0
TSboyer.com said:
Just spent my entire day w/ the same problem, but I have it fixed now. I just want to "Pay it Forward". Finding a fix for this is like a needle in a haystack,, but through my 7 hrs of research,, only ONE thread out of Very Many gave me an idea of what to check.

-Turns out, there was an application in the background that kept Crashing every 10-15 sec. Every time it either crashed or tried to start again, it took the computers attention away from my current window and on to IT. The Post I read said that in their case, it was an Auto Backup program of some type.

In my case, it turned out to be the same thing. An Auto Backup program from Cox communications. To find what's troubling your computer,

1. close all your Apps

2. Open Activity Monitor

3. Sort columns by CPU

4.Keep a watchful eye for what keeps starting & Crashing

5. Double click on it or try to open it any way you can (Immediately while it is trying to open) and work on getting it DELETED or Uninstalled

a. Before you delete it, you can also try "ForceQuit" first to see if that helps. In my case, It kept re-opening even after Force Quit, but Uninstall worked

perfect. With this info, you can at least walk in to any Genius Bar @ Apple store and give them a huge head start on the problem, IF you are unable to complete the task.

I hope this helps! There's hardly any information to find on this problem, so SHARING this info in another thread or elsewhere would be a thoughtful thing to do.
Click to expand...


I must have made this forum account a long time ago. I went to recover my password just so I could post and thank you for posting this solution. I suffered 8 hours at work today with my computer like this and stayed late to try and fix it. I'm grateful I stumbled on this.

FYI Razer Synapse was my culprit.
 
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Xiaopangzi

macrumors newbie
Mar 4, 2005
5
0
In my case, the culprit was CleanMyMac Menu. After days of frustration, unable to select anything for more than a fraction of a second or to type text into any field, I discovered through Activity Monitor that this applet was trying to dominate Finder and every other application, making my MacBook Pro essentially unusable. I’m running macOS Monterey 12.0.1 Public Beta.
 
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