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Why Can't Search Box Auto-Focus When Opening Sidebar? Chrome Side Panel Focus Limitation
Chrome browser security restrictions prevent extensions from auto-focusing the search box or typing text when the side panel opens. This is a browser design limitation requiring manual click.
This is a known bug.
The good news is that Chromium issue 486495151 is now marked as fixed.
We have verified it works correctly in the following builds (the side panel search input gets focus correctly when opened):
- •Chrome
148.0.7778.56(official build) Beta - •Chrome
149.0.7811.0(official build) Canary
Chrome Stable is also expected to get this fix very soon.
Before your current stable version includes this fix, you may still need to click the input box once manually.
Manage Tabs with VertiTab
VertiTab provides powerful tab search features:
- •Fuzzy search tab titles and URLs
- •Keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation
- •Tab group filtering