Hide Applications bug (still there)

J

jursamaj

Registered
I have this bug. It is extremely intermittent, and apparently most people never notice it.

User "moot" mentioned it 2 1/2 years ago: http://macosx.com/forums/mac-os-x-system-mac-software/50145-hide-applications-bug.html

Basically, I tried to Hide (cmd-m) an app, and at doesn't hide. But when I click on the app to go back to it, then it hides. After that, I can't get it to unhide. It usually requires a force-quit, with loss of unsaved files.

Has anybdy seen this behavior? Any clue about cause, or cure?

The only commonality I see with moot's system, is that we both use DragThing 5...
 
The keystrokes to hide an app are (cmd+H),
try that instead of cmd+M and see what happens.

jb.
 
I only get it when all the other applications are already hidden. If I'm in the Finder and option click on an application, the Finder is hidden. Hiding all other apps doesn't let you hide the current app. Is this similar to what you are doing? It doesn't sound exactly like what I just described but personally I haven't noticed what you are saying before.

So what happens if you uninstall DragThing? Does it work properly?
 
Captain Code said:
I only get it when all the other applications are already hidden. If I'm in the Finder and option click on an application, the Finder is hidden. Hiding all other apps doesn't let you hide the current app. Is this similar to what you are doing? It doesn't sound exactly like what I just described but personally I haven't noticed what you are saying before.

So what happens if you uninstall DragThing? Does it work properly?
Click to expand...

Well, I never use option click or Hide Others, so I don't if there's any issue with those. At the least, DragThing is never hidden, so it is always available to be the active app after my current one is hidden. Which somewhat implies that DT may in fact be the issue. :)

There are 2 problems with shutting off DT to try it out. For one, I would HAVE to replace it with something similar, as I use it for too much to be without. The other is that it is such a rare bug that I'd have to go months without it occuring to feel sure that DT was the culprit. It's a verry uncommon occurence, but extremely annoying when it interferes with what I'm doing.

I guess I could sit down sometime for an intensive session of hiding/unhiding apps, to try to reproduce the bug more reliably... :D
 
jursamaj said:
I have this bug. It is extremely intermittent, and apparently most people never notice it.

User "moot" mentioned it 2 1/2 years ago: http://macosx.com/forums/mac-os-x-system-mac-software/50145-hide-applications-bug.html

Basically, I tried to Hide (cmd-m) an app, and at doesn't hide. But when I click on the app to go back to it, then it hides. After that, I can't get it to unhide. It usually requires a force-quit, with loss of unsaved files.

Has anybdy seen this behavior? Any clue about cause, or cure?

The only commonality I see with moot's system, is that we both use DragThing 5...
Click to expand...

i guess it's timing…

i have a similar thread going on forums.macosxhints.com.

i've been having this same problem for some years now. it happens with different apps and also intermittently. i don't use DragThing. but as i made note of in the other thread this happens on 'vanilla' systems and different computers. also, i've asked around quite a bit and no one else i know has had this problem.

i get it two ways. i hide the app with cmd-h or opt-click on the desktop and it doesn't come back. the other way is what you described. i hide the app and it doesn't disappear. i either click on the app window or select it in the application switcher (cmd-tab) and it disappears and stays hidden. i have to force-quit the app if i can't normally quit it with the app switcher or dock. this is usually when i have an open document and exiting the app brings a dialog box up asking me to save. as i can't select Cancel or OK i am forced to lose any open document.

i have some things i'm going to try for a workaround but they still don't solve the issue. i have a command-line script to show/hide apps and i'm writing an applescript to hit save on a selected app. i'll see how those go.

but as i said, this doesn't solve the problem, which sucks. it's really annoying and i can't replicate the problem. it just happens sometimes. from what i can tell, the system gets a very delayed 'hide' command or the 'hide' command gets held up and when i select the app the system recieves the 'hide' command but it is also recieving a 'show' command so the system thinks the app is showing so no 'show' command from the UI works.

i think. that's why i'm trying some command line workarounds.
 
Well, I've noticed that it seems to happen almost exclusively (possibly only) when I have several apps open. Usually 10+ showing on DragThing, plus DragThing itself and Dashboard.
 
So I just updated to 10.5.3 and now the problem is even worse. I haven't had any other applications go missing except Adobe products now. Before the only Adobe app that would hide was InDesign, now every Adobe app has the issue at least once a day. Fortunately no other app has done this. I wish Adobe would fix this crap. I am forced to quit these apps and lose work. I suppose I should stop hiding my applications but after more than a decade it'll be hard to break the habit.
 
Maybe you could use "Spaces" as a work around? I know this is possibly a sub-optimal approach and doesn't help you understand what's going on and certainly doesn't solve what is indeed a "sucky" problem ...
 
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