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“It jumps and resizes my full screen apps every 20min.”

lol the same! when this appeared to me first time I thought I pressed some wrong keys but it constantly happens so I have to close mails whenever I watch fullscreen movies.

Thanks you for confirming that this is not me alone.

and btw mine haven’t appeared yet since the latest beta (beta 6 i guess?).
 
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“It jumps and resizes my full screen apps every 20min.”

lol the same! when this appeared to me first time I thought I pressed some wrong keys but it constantly happens so I have to close mails whenever I watch fullscreen movies.

Thanks you for confirming that this is not me alone.

and btw mine haven’t appeared yet since the latest beta (beta 6 i guess?).

✌️that is a great news! thx.
 
Nah, mail still steals focus in Catalina :/
Nothing has been fixed.
 
FWIW it seems to be "caused" by having any google accounts set up. Why and how that would cause this is beyond me (I mean, I guess I can come up with a hypothetical scenario where it actually starts the authentication dialog to check if it's still logged in, then doesn't show it, or something similar, but it's guessing), but disabling Google accounts (several, for me) stops this, enabling them makes this come back.
 
I've had this issue since Mojave and it's still present with the latest Catalina too. Super annoying! Anyone with advise on a fix? Maybe setting up the google accounts another way? Ive also noticed Mail on iOS takes forever to update with the google accounts as well. For instance when I delete or read a message from my inbox it takes several seconds to update the notification badge and usually requires me to manually refresh by dragging down.
 
Yes, its google accounts. But I've not found a fix yet.
I refuse to believe none of apple engineers use gmail :/
 
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Mac Mail in Catalina 10.15.2 is still stealing focus. And so disappointing as Apple seems to get further and further away from "it just works..." :(
 
Holy crap, i've been googling this for years and finally came across others with the problem. I was close to being declared insane. Thank you for posting about this. It's driving me up a wall.

I, too, have multiple screens, using mail in full screen with gmail accounts.
 
I think it is related to multiple screens. I only use Apple Mail but I had the same issue. I recently have switched to a single screen (not as a solution to this problem but for other reasons) and I no longer have the focus issue with mail.
 
I thought it's some issue with my settings so I even setup Apple Mail from the beggining. Luckily I found this tread and realized that problem is with Gmail. Actually when Apple Mail steals focus it's usually showing issue with Gmail for 1-2 sec.

I fixed this annoyance that bothers me over a year by removing all Gmail accounts. Then I had to enable access from less secure apps in Google accounts. After that I did in Apple Mail setup of Gmail as other unknown email service (don't chose Gmail) and enter parameters manually (username, password and evetually IMAP server details).

You will have to add Google Calendar in Apple Calendar app separately but Apple Mail is not stealing focus anymore for me.

Now when I close Apple Mail by pressing red trafic light it's running in background but window is not jumping in a front. Before this workaround I had to minimize window and keep it like that in dock otherwise it would steal focus every couple of minutes.
 
This issue drives me insane, and I couldn't figure out why it was intermittent. I connect/disconnect my external display all the time and had never correlated the external display to this issue. Apple, please fix!!
 
This happened to me today when I was playing Cities: Skylines and it's super annoying. I had to Cmd-Tab and CMD-Q to quit Mail. I wish they'd fix this. The same thing happens when not in full screen, Mail will just open it's own window without me initiating anything.
 
I think it is related to multiple screens. I only use Apple Mail but I had the same issue. I recently have switched to a single screen (not as a solution to this problem but for other reasons) and I no longer have the focus issue with mail.

I sometimes use other displays but I most commonly notice this just using my internal display. (15" Retina MacBook Pro display scaled all the way out.) Often I'm at work and suddenly Excel gets shoved out of the way so I can get a random Mail window either showing nothing or showing me some spam from Twitter.

At this point I just Command-Option-Escape, Return, Return, Escape in about half a second flat every time I see mail bully other apps around.

EDIT: To clarify, I don't think it's related to the number of displays in use.
 
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Created an account just to respond to this. This is absolutely the number one most unrecognized error among Mac desktops. It will work fine for weeks, and I swear the very second you screenshare with your boss it happens. Steals the entire screen untill the GMail (or whatever) error is logged and you can regain control (about 20 seconds). I sometimes have to exit out of it like 5 different times. It makes me want to literally want to give up on Apple machines. There should never EVER be an app that has permission to steal focus. Especially with screensharing applications. Apple has frankly disgusted me with their regard for my level of notification.
 
Still happening to me with 10.15.7, but less often. I'm on a MacBook Pro with no external display. I AM using a Google Mail account via Apple Mail. The account is displayed is configured with IMAP, but I believe it was auto-configured.
 
Looks like Bug Sur fixed this problem once and for all. I’ve had this issue for years and was driving me crazy! I’ve been on Big Sur since launch (months now) and mail hasn’t popped open once!
 
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