Android: Force EditText to remove focus?

I would like to be able to remove the focus from the EditText. For example if the Keyboard appears, and the user hides it with the back button, I would like the focus and the cursor to disappear. How can it be done?

You can make cursor and focus disappear by

edittext.clearFocus();

But detect when the key board hide is a hard work.

You can add this to onCreate and it will hide the keyboard every time the Activity starts.

You can also programmatically change the focus to another item.

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

Add LinearLayout before EditText in your XML.

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

Or you can do this same thing by adding these lines to view before your 'EditText'.

<Button
    android:id="@+id/btnSearch"
    android:layout_width="50dp"
    android:layout_height="50dp"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="Quick Search"
    android:textColor="#fff"
    android:textSize="13sp"
    android:textStyle="bold" />

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/edtSearch"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
    android:layout_centerVertical="true"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
    android:gravity="left"
    android:hint="Name"
    android:maxLines="1"
    android:singleLine="true"
    android:textColorHint="@color/blue"
    android:textSize="13sp"
    android:textStyle="bold" />

Remove focus but remain focusable:

editText.setFocusableInTouchMode(false);
editText.setFocusable(false);
editText.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
editText.setFocusable(true);

EditText will lose focus, but can gain it again on a new touch event.

Add these two properties to your parent layout (ex: Linear Layout, Relative Layout)

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

It will do the trick :)

remove autofocus edittext android

It's working for me

Edit In the link they suggest to use LinearLayout, but simple View will work

<View
    android:id="@+id/focus_thief"
    android:layout_width="1dp"
    android:layout_height="1dp"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true" />

Then if this "thief" is placed at the top of the layout (to be first focusable item) calls to clearFocus() will work.

You can also include android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" in your manifest action section.

This is equivalent to :

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

but in XML way.

FYI, you can also hide the keyboard with codes:

// hide virtual keyboard
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(mYourEditText.getWindowToken(), 0);

try to use this one on your view it worked for me:

<View
    android:id="@+id/fucused"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true"/>

To hide the keyboard when activity starts.. write the following code in onCreate()..

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)
getSystemService(Activity.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(getWindow().getDecorView().getWindowToken(), 0);

To clear focus and remove cursor from edittext.....

editText.clearFocus();

editText.setCursorVisible(false);

Add to your parent layout where did you put your EditText this android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

you have to remove <requestFocus/>

if you don't use it and still the same problem

user LinearLayout as a parent and set

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

Hope it's help you.

This is my very first answer on SO, so don't be too harsh on me if there are mistakes. :D

There are few answers floating around the SO, but I feel the urge to post my complete solution cause this drove me nuts. I've grabbed bits and pieces from all around so forgive me if I don't give respective credits to everyone... :)

(I'll simplify my result cause my view has too many elements and I don't wanna spam with that and will try to make it as generic as possible...)

For your layout you need a parent your EditText and parent view defined something like this:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
              android:orientation="vertical"
              android:layout_width="match_parent" 
              android:layout_height="match_parent"
              android:id="@+id/lytContainer"
              android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
              android:focusableInTouchMode="true">
<EditText android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
              android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
              android:id="@+id/etEditor"
              android:inputType="number"
              android:layout_gravity="center" 
              android:hint="@string/enter_your_text"
              android:textColor="@android:color/darker_gray" 
              android:textSize="12dp"
              android:textAlignment="center" 
              android:gravity="center" 
              android:clickable="true"/>
</LinearLayout>

So, I needed a few things here. I needed to have a Placeholder for my EditText - which is that -
> android:hint="hint"

Also,

android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

made it happen for EditText not to be focused on entering the Activity and later on in the Activity itself when setting it this setting helps so you can set onTouchListener on it to steal the focus away from EditText.

Now, in the Activity:

package com.at.keyboardhide;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.WindowManager;
import android.view.View.OnTouchListener;
import android.view.inputmethod.InputMethodManager;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.LinearLayout;

public class MainActivity extends Activity implements OnTouchListener{
private EditText getEditText;
private LinearLayout getLinearLayout;
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    this.getWindow().setSoftInputMode(
            WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_HIDDEN);
    
    setContentView(R.layout.keyboardmain);
    getEditText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.etEditor);
    getLinearLayout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.lytContainer);
    getLinearLayout.setOnTouchListener(this);

    getEditText.setOnEditorActionListener(new TextView.OnEditorActionListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onEditorAction(TextView v, int actionId, KeyEvent event) {
            if (actionId == EditorInfo.IME_ACTION_DONE) {
                Log.d("EDTA", "text was entered.");
                getEditText.clearFocus();
                imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(barcodeNo.getWindowToken(), 0);
                return true;
            }
            return false;
        }
    });
}
@Override
public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
    if(v==getLinearLayout){
        InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
        imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(getEditText.getWindowToken(), 0);
        getEditText.clearFocus();
        return true;
        }
    return false;
    }
}

Few of the answers for bits I found on this question page, and the part with the Activity solution I found on this blog. The rest I missed which I had to figure out myself was clearing focus on the EditText which I added to both inside the setOnEditorActionListener and onTouchLister for the parent view.

Hope this helps someone and saves their time. :)

Cheers, Z.

In the comments you asked if another view can be focused instead of the EditText. Yes it can. Use .requestFocus() method for the view you want to be focused at the beginning (in onCreate() method)

Also focusing other view will cut out some amount of code. (code for hiding the keyboard for example)

I had the same problem. It made me more than crazy.

I had an extended Dialog with a ScrollView that had a TableLayout with extended LinearLayout that contained a SeekBar and a EditText.

The first EditText had always autofocus after showing the Dialog and after finishing editing the text over the keyboard the EditText still had the focus and the keyboard was still visible.

I tried nearly all solutions of this thread and none worked for me.

So here my simple solution: (text = EditText)

text.setOnEditorActionListener( new OnEditorActionListener( ){
    public boolean onEditorAction( TextView v, int actionId, KeyEvent event ){
        if( (event != null && event.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER) ||
            (actionId == EditorInfo.IME_ACTION_DONE) ){
            text.clearFocus( );
            InputMethodManager iMgr = null;
            iMgr = (InputMethodManager)mContext.getSystemService( Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE );
            iMgr.hideSoftInputFromWindow( text.getWindowToken(), 0 );
        }
        return true;
    }
});

By the way I didn't used any of the following snippets to solve it:

//setFocusableInTouchMode( true )
//setFocusable( true )
//setDescendantFocusability( ViewGroup.FOCUS_BEFORE_DESCENDANTS )

AND I didn't used a spacer item like a View with width and height of 1dp.

Hopefully it helps someone :D

You can also include android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" in your manifest action section.

This is equivalent to:

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

editText.setFocusableInTouchMode(true)

The EditText will be able to get the focus when the user touch it. When the main layout (activity, dialog, etc.) becomes visible the EditText doesn't automatically get the focus even though it is the first view in the layout.

EditText.setOnKeyListener(new OnKeyListener() {
            public boolean onKey(View view, int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
                if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER) {
                    InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE); imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(URLText.getWindowToken(), 0); 
                    EditText.setFocusable(false);
                    EditText.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
                    return true;
                } else {
                    return false;
                }
            }
        });

You can avoid any focus on your elements by setting the attribute android:descendantFocusability of the parent element.

Here is an example:

<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/search__scroller"
android:descendantFocusability="blocksDescendants"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true" >
</ScrollView>

Here, the attribute android:descendantFocusability set to "blocksDescendants" is blocking the focus on the child elements.

You can find more info here.

check your xml file
 <EditText
            android:id="@+id/editText1"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textSize="14sp" >

            **<requestFocus />**
 </EditText>


//Remove  **<requestFocus />** from xml