Blue Iris keeps maximizing and jumping to the foreground

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Not sure if it's something I recently did, but it just started happening in the last Two days and it's really annoying.


Hit me with the 'clue stick' please
 

fenderman

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Not sure if it's something I recently did, but it just started happening in the last Two days and it's really annoying.


Hit me with the 'clue stick' please
blue iris options - cameras, force to forground
camera properties, trigger, restore focus app window
 
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Fenderman. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

'blue iris options - cameras, force to forground' - Is NOT checked.

On each and every camera, 'camera properties, trigger, restore focus app window' - is NOT checked.
 

fenderman

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Fenderman. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

'blue iris options - cameras, force to forground' - Is NOT checked.

On each and every camera, 'camera properties, trigger, restore focus app window' - is NOT checked.
check the log file and see if anything is happening when it does that...
You should also be running BI on a clean dedicated system...
 

xdq

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Have you got BITools installed?

I had a similar issue and realised that it was happening when I connected/disconnected my fully routed VPN. It turns out that the web server watchdog was launching BI after not being able to connect.
I've disabled the web server monitor now as it's not essential for my setup.
 
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Amazingly, today it stopped doing it, just as suddenly as it started.

I haven't done any changes.

Yes, I have BItools installed.

I guess i will wait until it happens again. But I have had BItools installed for some months.
 

NWSSpotter

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I found this thread when I searched for "Blue Iris stealing focus" and later dug up the solution by my own troubleshooting so I'm posting for posterity here for anyone who has this same issue.

I had the same problem and it turned out to be Blue Iris Tools that was doing it. All the appropriate boxes were unchecked in Blue Iris and still BI was stealing focus. The first clue I had to what was happening was when BI foregrounded itself even with no cameras triggered. Digging a little deeper, I noticed that with the Blue Iris Tools web server watchdog enabled if for any reason the watchdog doesn't connect to the web server, it tries to trigger a BI launch. That's correct behavior, that's what it's supposed to do. When BI is already running this has the effect of bringing BI to the foreground, stealing focus and maximizing the BI window.

If you are seeing this kind of behavior out of the blue with no changes to the system, this is likely the cause. Something in the networking system either on the machine BI is installed in or on your network is preventing the watchdog from connecting via Winsock to the BI web server.

To verify this launch BI Tools (BIT) and check the web server watchdog. If it's cycling through "Max. Attempts" and says "Failed to connect to web server, (x) attempts remaining" you will notice that when it exhausts remaining attempts and tries to launch BI automatically that is the exact moment that your BI pops up and you lose focus on everything else as the BI window is foregrounded. This is proof positive that it's a BIT failure to connect to the web server that's causing this behavior.

Notice I am not saying this is a bug or a failure in BIT. BIT may very well be working perfectly and it is something else completely that's preventing it from connecting. I have no idea what the cause is, I'm just describing the results here. When this behavior is occurring I am able to connect to the BI web server on -
1. Another computer via browser on my LAN behind my router using the local IP and port.
2. Another computer outside my perimeter on the WAN using the WAN IP and port
3. The Android app for Blue Iris both with WiFi turned on (this gets a local IP) and off (this causes a connection through cellular data with my WAN IP) without any issues.
- so it's not that the BI web server is actually down, it appears to be up and fully operational. Whatever condition is occurring when this happens is only causing BIT to fail to connect the watchdog.

If this condition is sporadic and temporary then the problem with BI stealing focus will come and go accordingly. This is an explanation for why the OP saw it occur and then mysteriously stop occurring all on its own. Whatever was stopping the BIT web server watchdog to fail to connect reverted itself on its own. It could have been a Windows Update, a firewall transient, or any number of other things.

At the point where I discovered that it was the BIT web server watchdog I just turned that off and the problem ceased to be an issue so I did not do any further troubleshooting as I do not really need that watchdog running anyway. The only time I run BIT is when Blue Iris is having problems, either crashing or freezing and I only use BIT for the Program Monitor watchdog. Once I figure out what's causing the Blue Iris problems I turn BIT off until the next time I need it. The reason I'm explaining this is to make clear why I didn't check this out any further. I'm done with this problem because I've found a "good enough" solution for my purposes and just wanted to help out anyone else who is having the same issue.
 
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