Amethyst: Focusing a window focuses the entire application

[ianyh]

This causes annoying problems like focusing a window causing a window on a different screen to come to the forefront.

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[asm89]

@ianyh I get hit by this a lot. Any pointers on how to fix it? I might give it a shot with some help.

[corelon]

I have the same issue. I mainly get it with Google Chrome, as I tend to have multiple windows open as well as multiple profiles (work, personal). Please fix that.

[ianyh]

I think the solution is to track which window was last focused on that screen.

[jacksonfylle]

When you focus screen 1, amethyst "Focus the main window on the first screen". So if the foreground windows (full screen mode) is not the main window it won't work. What you can do is : "swap-main" the foreground window and "focus-screen-1".

[max-sixty]

Are there any workarounds for this? I have just installed Amethyst and it's awesome, but this is frustrating behavior.

For example, if I have:

• Screen 1: Firefox window beneath an IDE window
• Screen 2: A number of Firefox windows

...then switching to any of the firefox windows on Screen 2 will cause the Firefox window on Screen 1 to come to the foreground

I'm using Contexts for switching, which avoids this behavior when Cmd-Tabbing

Thank you!

[yahooguntu]

I'm also running into this, but with different behavior. With this arrangement:

• Screen 1: App1 (primary), Firefox, App2
• Screen 2: App3 (primary), Firefox
• Screen 3: Firefox (primary), App4

If a Firefox window was the last window focused on each screen, OR the last window focused on each screen was not a Firefox window, "Focus Screen X" works as expected. Otherwise, "Focus Screen X" will typically focus a Firefox window on the wrong screen, depending on what screen you're trying to jump to.

If you press the "Focus Screen X" shortcut a second time, you'll end up on the correct screen, but only if that screen has a Firefox window.

[max-sixty]

I'm a year into using Amethyst and it's really brilliant, thank you @ianyh and all contributors. If you add a GitHub sponsor I'd be happy to sign up. I've recommended it to many others.

This is the one issue that keeps on biting me. It mostly means I can't have more than one screen with a browser window; otherwise when switching to any browser window, all browser windows come to the foreground.

If there's any workaround, please let me know!

[circld]

Thanks for an amazing application, @ianyh. I have been using Amethyst for years and it has been a real game-changer for me.

On the subject of this bug, I had no idea that UX annoyances @max-sixty and @yahooguntu reported above were related to the same (this) bug. Both of these are really unfortunate as they can have a big impact on productivity. Having multiple instances of the same application open is, at least in my experience, an extremely common use case.

@yahooguntu's issue has led me to accidentally closing the browser window on the wrong screen, and developing a habit of hitting the focus-sceen-* shortcuts twice just to be sure I end up where I want to be.

@max-sixty's issue is especially problematic since the primary benefit of having multiple screens is to be able compare the content across them; currently, this can be achieved, but only by forcing the user to change their desired usage pattern (e.g., change layouts, concentrate application-specific windows on the same screen, etc).

I recognize that this comment does not add much to the conversation, but my aim was simply to highlight that this bug is actually rather painful as a user. I'd also like to know where might I see the triaged bug list as I'm curious to see where this one is in the queue given the length of time it has been open...