How to stop EditText from gaining focus when an activity starts in Android?

Asked 2023-09-20 20:20:13 View 810,779

I have an Activity in Android, with two elements:

  1. EditText
  2. ListView

When my Activity starts, the EditText immediately has the input focus (flashing cursor). I don't want any control to have input focus at startup. I tried:

EditText.setSelected(false);
EditText.setFocusable(false);

No luck. How can I convince the EditText to not select itself when the Activity starts?

Answers

Adding the tags android:focusableInTouchMode="true" and android:focusable="true" to the parent layout (e.g. LinearLayout or ConstraintLayout) like in the following example, will fix the problem.

<!-- Dummy item to prevent AutoCompleteTextView from receiving focus -->
<LinearLayout
    android:focusable="true" 
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
    android:layout_width="0px" 
    android:layout_height="0px"/>

<!-- :nextFocusUp and :nextFocusLeft have been set to the id of this component
to prevent the dummy from receiving focus again -->
<AutoCompleteTextView android:id="@+id/autotext"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:nextFocusUp="@id/autotext" 
    android:nextFocusLeft="@id/autotext"/>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • What about setting the parent layout to android:focusableInTouchMode="true"! - anyone
  • @MuhammadBabar android:focusableInTouchMode="true" create a zoom view in emulator - anyone
  • In my case adding to even a text view also works - anyone
  • if SO allow me to upvote questions multiple times then i will upvote this answer twice. Thank you brother - anyone

Is the actual problem that you just don't want it to have focus at all? Or you don't want it to show the virtual keyboard as a result of focusing on the EditText? I don't really see an issue with the EditText having a focus on the start, but it's definitely a problem to have the softInput window open when the user did not explicitly request to focus on the EditText (and open the keyboard as a result).

If it's the problem of the virtual keyboard, see the AndroidManifest.xml <activity> element documentation.

android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden" - always hide it when entering the activity.

or android:windowSoftInputMode="stateUnchanged" - don't change it (e.g. don't show it if it isn't already shown, but if it was open when entering the activity, leave it open).

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • yet still the cursor is in the first EditText in the layout - even though the keyboard is not shown - anyone
  • @Anderson: Nothing about the answer implied that it would prevent the EditText from obtaining focus. It actually clearly states that this is how you prevent the software keyboard IME from opening automatically on focus; because it is more likely that the bigger concern is the soft keyboard popping up unexpectedly, not the focus itself. If your issue is with the EditText actually having focus at all, then use someone else's answer. - anyone

A simpler solution exists. Set these attributes in your parent layout:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/mainLayout"
    android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true" >

And now, when the activity starts this main layout will get focused by default.

Also, we can remove focus from child views at runtime (e.g., after finishing child editing) by giving the focus to the main layout again, like this:

findViewById(R.id.mainLayout).requestFocus();

Good comment from Guillaume Perrot:

android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants" seems to be the default (integer value is 0). It works just by adding android:focusableInTouchMode="true".

Really, we can see that the beforeDescendants is set as default in the ViewGroup.initViewGroup() method (Android 2.2.2). But not equal to 0. ViewGroup.FOCUS_BEFORE_DESCENDANTS = 0x20000;

Thanks to Guillaume.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

The only solution I've found is:

  • Create a LinearLayout (I don't know if other kinds of Layout will work)
  • Set the attributes android:focusable="true" and android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

And the EditText won't get the focus after starting the activity

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • thanks, works on other layouts too. tested on constraint layout. - anyone
  • You can also set root layout as focusable - anyone

The problem seems to come from a property that I can only see in the XML form of the layout.

Make sure to remove this line at the end of the declaration within the EditText XML tags:

<requestFocus />

That should give something like that :

<EditText
   android:id="@+id/emailField"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:inputType="textEmailAddress">

   //<requestFocus /> /* <-- without this line */
</EditText>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

using the information provided by other posters, I used the following solution:

in the layout XML

<!-- Dummy item to prevent AutoCompleteTextView from receiving focus -->
<LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/linearLayout_focus"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
    android:layout_width="0px"
    android:layout_height="0px"/>

<!-- AUTOCOMPLETE -->
<AutoCompleteTextView
    android:id="@+id/autocomplete"
    android:layout_width="200dip"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginTop="20dip"
    android:inputType="textNoSuggestions|textVisiblePassword"/>

in onCreate()

private AutoCompleteTextView mAutoCompleteTextView;
private LinearLayout mLinearLayout;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.mylayout);

    //get references to UI components
    mAutoCompleteTextView = (AutoCompleteTextView) findViewById(R.id.autocomplete);
    mLinearLayout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.linearLayout_focus);
}

and finally, in onResume()

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();

    //do not give the editbox focus automatically when activity starts
    mAutoCompleteTextView.clearFocus();
    mLinearLayout.requestFocus();
}

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • This is actually the only answer that worked for me. Adding android:focusable="true" android:focusableInTouchMode="true" prevents the EditTexts from gaining focus on some devices, but on some devices it still doesn't work. I've been searching for a solution for a long time and this works perfectly. Thanks so much. - anyone
  • This works better than other techniques! E.g. having onResume() force the text field to defocus mostly works but it breaks the second and later uses of the adjustPan feature (pan the window contents to fit the text field with soft keyboard), at least on API 22-23. - anyone

Try clearFocus() instead of setSelected(false). Every view in Android has both focusability and selectability, and I think that you want to just clear the focus.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • That sounds promising, but at what point in the Activity lifecycle should it be called? If I call it in onCreate(), the EditText still has focus. Should it be called in onResume() or some other location? Thanks! - anyone
  • I combined the accepted answer with this answer. I called myEditText.clearFocus(); myDummyLinearLayout.requestFocus(); in the onResume of the Activity. This ensured the EditText didn't keep the focus when the phone was rotated. - anyone

The following will stop EditText from taking focus when created but grab it when you touch them.

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/et_bonus_custom"
    android:focusable="false" />

So you set focusable to false in the xml, but the key is in the java, which you add the following listener:

etBonus.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
        v.setFocusable(true);
        v.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
        return false;
    }
});

Because you are returning false, i.e. not consuming the event, the focusing behavior will proceed like normal.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • But this will never gain focus in future, how to just stop focus only for initial(activity start) ?? - anyone
  • The onTouchListener is called before other touch actions. So by enabling focusable on touch the standard focus happens on the first touch. The keyboard will come up and everything. - anyone
  • Nice! This one works (although it seems to take the field out of the focus handling TAB sequence). This can be done all in one place without a layout XML part: if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= 27) {et.setFocusable(false); et.setOnTouchListener(...);} - anyone

I had tried several answers individually but the focus is still at the EditText. I only managed to solve it by using two of the below solution together.

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:id="@+id/mainLayout"
  android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
  android:focusableInTouchMode="true" >

( Reference from Silver https://stackoverflow.com/a/8639921/15695 )

and remove

<requestFocus />

at EditText

( Reference from floydaddict https://stackoverflow.com/a/9681809 )

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • I had to add edittext.clearFocus() in addition to the above to get it working :) - anyone

Late but simplest answer, just add this in the parent layout of the XML.

android:focusable="true" 
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

Upvote if it helped you! Happy Coding :)

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • worked perfectly for me. one more thing to note is, dont add these lines to scroll view. It wont work in scroll view. But worked perfectly with linear layout. - anyone

None of these solutions worked for me. The way I fix the autofocus was:

<activity android:name=".android.InviteFriendsActivity"
 android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan">
    <intent-filter >
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan" on any activity in the Android Manifest - anyone

Simple solution: In AndroidManifest in Activity tag use

android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • Strictly speaking, this does not solve the issue. the OP said: "I don't want any control to have input focus at startup." Your solution only hides the keyboard, theres a sublte difference. - anyone
  • @katzenhut yep, thats my issue with this answer exactly. Focusing on my edittext opens up a PlaceAutoComplete activity, so this answer is incomplete - anyone
  • This answer would be complete if the question was: How do I always ensure my activity never shows a keyboard. Which is not. - anyone

You can just set "focusable" and "focusable in touch mode" to value true on the first TextView of the layout. In this way when the activity starts the TextView will be focused but, due to its nature, you will see nothing focused on the screen and, of course, there will be no keyboard displayed...

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

The following worked for me in Manifest. Write,

<activity
android:name=".MyActivity"
android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"/>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • This doesn't un-focus the text field: it merely hides the keyboard. You'll still get a hint that's pushed out of the field, and any color state selectors will display the "focused=true" state. - anyone

I needed to clearly focus on all fields programmatically. I just added the following two statements to my main layout definition.

myLayout.setDescendantFocusability(ViewGroup.FOCUS_BEFORE_DESCENDANTS);
myLayout.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);

That's it. Fixed my problem instantly. Thanks, Silver, for pointing me in the right direction.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

Add android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" in the activity tag of the Manifest.xml file.

Source

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • This doesn't un-focus the text field: it merely hides the keyboard. You'll still get a hint that's pushed out of the field, and any color state selectors will display the "focused=true" state. - anyone

If you have another view on your activity like a ListView, you can also do:

ListView.requestFocus(); 

in your onResume() to grab focus from the editText.

I know this question has been answered but just providing an alternative solution that worked for me :)

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

Try this before your first editable field:

<TextView  
        android:id="@+id/dummyfocus" 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:text="@string/foo"
        />

findViewById(R.id.dummyfocus).setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
findViewById(R.id.dummyfocus).requestFocus();

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

Add following in onCreate method:

this.getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_HIDDEN);

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • This doesn't un-focus the text field: it merely hides the keyboard. You'll still get a hint that's pushed out of the field, and any color state selectors will display the "focused=true" state. - anyone

Write this line in your Parent Layout...

 android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

Being that I don't like to pollute the XML with something that is related to functionality, I created this method that "transparently" steals the focus from the first focusable view and then makes sure to remove itself when necessary!

public static View preventInitialFocus(final Activity activity)
{
    final ViewGroup content = (ViewGroup)activity.findViewById(android.R.id.content);
    final View root = content.getChildAt(0);
    if (root == null) return null;
    final View focusDummy = new View(activity);
    final View.OnFocusChangeListener onFocusChangeListener = new View.OnFocusChangeListener()
    {
        @Override
        public void onFocusChange(View view, boolean b)
        {
            view.setOnFocusChangeListener(null);
            content.removeView(focusDummy);
        }
    };
    focusDummy.setFocusable(true);
    focusDummy.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
    content.addView(focusDummy, 0, new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(0, 0));
    if (root instanceof ViewGroup)
    {
        final ViewGroup _root = (ViewGroup)root;
        for (int i = 1, children = _root.getChildCount(); i < children; i++)
        {
            final View child = _root.getChildAt(i);
            if (child.isFocusable() || child.isFocusableInTouchMode())
            {
                child.setOnFocusChangeListener(onFocusChangeListener);
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    else if (root.isFocusable() || root.isFocusableInTouchMode())
        root.setOnFocusChangeListener(onFocusChangeListener);

    return focusDummy;
}

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

Late, but maybe helpful. Create a dummy EditText at the top of your layout then call myDummyEditText.requestFocus() in onCreate()

<EditText android:id="@+id/dummyEditTextFocus" 
android:layout_width="0px"
android:layout_height="0px" />

That seems to behave as I expect. No need to handle configuration changes, etc. I needed this for an Activity with a lengthy TextView (instructions).

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • Why not just do this with the root view itself? - anyone

Yeah, I did the same thing - create a 'dummy' linear layout which gets the initial focus. Furthermore, I set the 'next' focus IDs so the user can't focus it anymore after scrolling once:

<LinearLayout 'dummy'>
<EditText et>

dummy.setNextFocusDownId(et.getId());
 
dummy.setNextFocusUpId(et.getId());
 
et.setNextFocusUpId(et.getId());

a lot of work just to get rid of focus on a view.

Thanks

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

For me, what worked on all devices is this:

    <!-- fake first focusable view, to allow stealing the focus to itself when clearing the focus from others -->

    <View
    android:layout_width="0px"
    android:layout_height="0px"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true" />

Just put this as a view before the problematic focused view, and that's it.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView01"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:singleLine="true"
    android:ellipsize="marquee"
    android:marqueeRepeatLimit="marquee_forever"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
    style="@android:style/Widget.EditText"/>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

The simplest thing I did is to set focus on another view in onCreate:

myView.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
myView.requestFocus();

This stopped the soft keyboard from coming up and there was no cursor flashing in the EditText.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

This is the perfect and easiest solution. I always use this in my app.
getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_HIDDEN);

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • This doesn't un-focus the text field: it merely hides the keyboard. You'll still get a hint that's pushed out of the field, and any color state selectors will display the "focused=true" state. - anyone

Write this code inside the Manifest file in the Activity where you do not want to open the keyboard.

android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden"

Manifest file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.project"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="8"
        android:targetSdkVersion="24" />

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
         <activity
            android:name=".Splash"
            android:label="@string/app_name" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity
            android:name=".Login"
            **android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden"**
            android:label="@string/app_name" >
        </activity>
 
    </application>

</manifest>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • This doesn't un-focus the text field: it merely hides the keyboard. You'll still get a hint that's pushed out of the field, and any color state selectors will display the "focused=true" state. - anyone

The easiest way to hide the keyboard is using setSoftInputMode

getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_HIDDEN);

or you can use InputMethodManager and hide the keyboard like this.

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(myEditText.getWindowToken(), 0);

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13

  • question is not about the keyboard - anyone

At onCreate of your Activity, just add use clearFocus() on your EditText element. For example,

edittext = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.edittext);
edittext.clearFocus();

And if you want to divert the focus to another element, use requestFocus() on that. For example,

button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button);
button.requestFocus();

Answered   2023-09-20 20:20:13