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Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

annoying.technology

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Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#51

Post by techbubble »

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?

I have 16 GSuite accounts setup and have never had this issue in Mail. Even if my account login fails or the server is unreachable, the app does not automatically come to the foreground. I don't use full screen or spaces though (I prefer Moom) so maybe that's why I have never seen the issue.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#52

Post by mihaaly »

It is not a bug, it is a feature. Someone out there had to write the code that pushes the mail app to the front. It does not happen spontaneously, someone made it happen. And made it an exclusive behavior without user control. It must have been a conscious feature. A mindless and stupid one, but still a feature. No bug to fix here.

(after suffering and spending toooo much time of experimenting I decided to get rid of the Google account approach of the Mac but use it as an IMAP account, turning off 'safe' access in my Google account)

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#53

Post by jolux »

threeseed wrote: post #35
chrisseaton wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple definitely has a history of not acknowledging for a long time major problems that many people can clearly demonstrate. Bend gate, antenna gate, stage light gate, that thing with the coating on the screens...

Bend date, antenna gate were fixed in the next revision of their hardware. Screen coating was fixed I believe even quicker. There is a limit to how quickly Apple can fix hardware given they have to work with third parties on retooling and retraining.

The screen coating is still an issue. It crops up again every few years. I’ve gotten a few macs replaced for free because of it even when I didn’t mind.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#54

Post by mstade »

I don't have any issues with Apple Mail but I do have issues with zoom, randomly switching from full screen sharing to the desktop and back again, it's incredibly annoying. It doesn't happen when I share my screen, only when others do. It seems to have gotten better recently but still happens in occasion. Anyone else seeing this? Maybe it's related?

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#55

Post by vladharbuz »

I've had this issue for the past 2–3 years. It seems to happen because of improper error handling. If you look closely at the app in the instant it opens, your affected account will have a “disconnected” symbol next to it in the sidebar. However, it goes away before an error can be shown.

My theory is: there is a momentary connection issue with these G Suite accounts, and Mail.app starts to show an error by focusing itself, but the error is resolved so quickly it doesn't actually get to show the “connection problems” modal.

I hope this can be fixed soon, it's been a daily annoyance for me for a long time now.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#56

Post by dewey »

mihaaly wrote: post #52

It is not a bug, it is a feature. Someone out there had to write the code that pushes the mail app to the front. It does not happen spontaneously, someone made it happen. And made it an exclusive behavior without user control. It must have been a conscious feature. A mindless and stupid one, but still a feature. No bug to fix here. (after suffering and spending toooo much time of experimenting I decided to get rid of…

> Someone out there had to write the code that pushes the mail app to the front.

Sometimes the code you write doesn't do what you had in mind. Or worse: gets triggered by side effects of something unrelated.

I don't think it's intentional in this case but even if it would be intentional after seeing this many bug reports everywhere you'd have to reconsider and make connection errors less intrusive.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#57

Post by mihaaly »

jtlowe wrote: post #43

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.

I am still not on Catalina yet and it started for me ca. 6-9 months ago. Perhaps with some Mojave update. (unsure as no big changes occurred and it took some time to see being a systematic trouble)

I am more and more turning off system updates (not only Mac) as those bring more trouble than good. Being a very late adopter pays off. (update to Catalina is still not in the middle term plans)

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#58

Post by bambataa »

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 ️.

In general I find macOS handles alerting the user very poorly.

I don't know why but it infuriates me when icons bounce on the dock for attention. The animation is too insistent for whatever trivial thing the app wants to let me know.

Or an app will open some Important Dialog Box that I need to deal with, except it's hidden behind some other windows somewhere and the rest of the app refuses to respond to my clicks until I find the dialog box. It doesn't bother foregrounding the dialog box for me.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#59

Post by vladnyc »

mstade wrote: post #54

I don't have any issues with Apple Mail but I do have issues with zoom, randomly switching from full screen sharing to the desktop and back again, it's incredibly annoying. It doesn't happen when I share my screen, only when others do. It seems to have gotten better recently but still happens in occasion. Anyone else seeing this? Maybe it's related?

It’s a setting you can turn off

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#60

Post by mihaaly »

vladharbuz wrote: post #55

I've had this issue for the past 2–3 years. It seems to happen because of improper error handling. If you look closely at the app in the instant it opens, your affected account will have a “disconnected” symbol next to it in the sidebar. However, it goes away before an error can be shown. My theory is: there is a momentary connection issue with these G Suite accounts, and Mail.app starts to show an error by focusing…

I confirm your observations.

Yet, to force an app to the front when glitch in connection happens is more like a feature they deliriously thought is being useful, instead of choosing other means of notifications, which is plenty. An app is not forcing itself to the front without someone is specifically writing the code for it to do.

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