Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#41

Post by sys_64738 » Sat, May 30, 2020, 12:54 PM UTC

ornornor wrote: post #14

Apple Mail is riddled with bugs it’s unusable. Do yourself a favor and switch. Anything else is better than it, Thunderbird is a pretty good alternative imo. It feels like apple doesn’t put any care into regression bugs in their applications. It’s the same on the iPhone, Mail is so bad that I uninstalled it in favor of outlook (the irony...) —Mail was sucking so much battery that my phone wouldn’t last 8h. With outlo…

Some bugs like this are terrible as I’ve hit the screen split bug several times. But Apple Mail has features like all messages in a single window including replies that don’t exist elsewhere. It’s also fast and smooth mostly with conversations being just right. Thunderbird is mostly OK but is a clunker for these particular areas, imo.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#42

Post by galad87 » Sat, May 30, 2020, 12:58 PM UTC

kristofarkas wrote: post #37

How is it that there is still no known root cause for this issue? I suspect there is a way to check what the reason an app came to the foreground is, no?

The reason is that Mail thinks the mail server is unreachable, so it brings the window to front, but then magically it changes idea and the mail server is reachable again ️.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#43

Post by jtlowe » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:01 PM UTC

I experience this as well after upgrading to Catalina. I thought it was my fault at first, caused by some sort of key combo. It only happens for me when in full screen with another app.

I use Mail with a GSuite account as well.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#44

Post by elmcrest » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:05 PM UTC

hits me too and it‘s really annoying... I even got used to quit Mail.app but yeah... it‘s bad. My feeling though is that google is more and more saying goodbye to standards... just a feeling

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#45

Post by elmcrest » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:05 PM UTC

_qulr wrote: post #2

My workaround for this issue is to put Mail app in its own dedicated Space/Desktop. Then it only comes to the front in its own Space, not in the Space I'm normally using.

good to know as a workaround, thx

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#46

Post by pretzel_boss » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:05 PM UTC

I thought I was going insane

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#47

Post by dewey » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:08 PM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #4

Please make sure to log this at http://bugreporter.apple.com Your bug will at least then be triaged and acknowledged.

I usually file bug reports but this issue was already well documented in their support forum even by official Apple staff so I'd assume they would at least file the issues if they see something show up there?

Also checked on https://openradar.appspot.com if there's anything but there wasn't.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#48

Post by lowwave » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:08 PM UTC

st3fan wrote: post #19

ornornor wrote: post #14

Apple Mail is riddled with bugs it’s unusable. Do yourself a favor and switch. Anything else is better than it, Thunderbird is a pretty good alternative imo. It feels like apple doesn’t put any care into regression bugs in their applications. It’s the same on the iPhone, Mail is so bad that I uninstalled it in favor of outlook (the irony...) —Mail was sucking so much battery that my phone wouldn’t last 8h. With outlo…

> Apple Mail is riddled with bugs it’s unusable. Weird, I've been using it for a decade and I have zero issues. Maybe 'unusable' is a pretty subjective assessment?

The best thing about Apple Mail is their integration with contacts and everything "i" Phone, Pad, etc.

It is the whole ecosystem lock down deal again. Nothing has progressed in tech in this aspect, each company is still for themselves instead of consumers.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#49

Post by nextos » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:13 PM UTC

_qulr wrote: post #2

My workaround for this issue is to put Mail app in its own dedicated Space/Desktop. Then it only comes to the front in its own Space, not in the Space I'm normally using.

I've switched back to a new MacBook, temporarily due to COVID as it was easy to purchase from Apple and it was an emergency.

I used OS X fulltime 2006-11. I'm surprised how buggy Catalina is, including Mail.app. I have had serious firmware issues too, such as needing to reset my SMC very frequently because my USB C stops charging the machine every other day. Apple is clearly, sadly, neglecting mac OS.

Surprisingly, I haven't disliked butterfly keys as much as I thought I would do. I can type extremely fast. I do prefer their scissor keys, though, which are really good and low latency [1].

[1] https://danluu.com/keyboard-latency/

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#50

Post by DaiPlusPlus » Sat, May 30, 2020, 1:14 PM UTC

galad87 wrote: post #42

kristofarkas wrote: post #37

How is it that there is still no known root cause for this issue? I suspect there is a way to check what the reason an app came to the foreground is, no?

The reason is that Mail thinks the mail server is unreachable, so it brings the window to front, but then magically it changes idea and the mail server is reachable again ️.

Could be worse! Outlook on Windows just locks up entirely while it tries to connect. I don’t know why they’re still doing network IO in the UI thread - over 10 years after they admitted it was a major problem.