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

I have an Activity in Android, with two elements:

1. EditText
2. ListView

When my Activity starts, the EditText immediately has 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?

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"/>

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).

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 focus 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 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.

The only solution I've found is:

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

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

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>

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();
}

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.

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.

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 )

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

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

Upvote if it helped you ! Happy Coding :)

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

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

Simple solution: In AndroidManifest in Activity tag use

android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"

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...

The following worked for me in Manifest. Write ,

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

I needed to clear focus from 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.

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

Source

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 :)

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();

Add following in onCreate method:

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

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;
}

Write this line in your Parent Layout...

 android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

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).

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

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.

<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"/>

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

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

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

This is the perfect and most easiest solution.I always use this in my app.

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

Write this code inside 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.projectt"
    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>

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();

Easiest way to hide keyboard is using setSoftInputMode

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

or you can use InputMethodManager and hide keyboard like this.

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

I use the following code to stop an EditText from stealing the focus when my button is pressed.

addButton.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
    public void onClick(View v) {
        View focused = internalWrapper.getFocusedChild();
        focused.setVisibility(GONE);
        v.requestFocus();
        addPanel();
        focused.setVisibility(VISIBLE);
    }
});

Basicly, hide the edit text and then show it again. This works for me as the EditText is not in view so it doesn't matter whether it is showing.

You could try hiding and showing it in succession to see if that helps it lose focus.

You can achieve this by creating a dummy EditText with layout width and height set to 0dp, and request focus to that view. Add the following code snippet in your xml layout:

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/editText0"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:hint="@string/dummy"
    android:ems="10" 
    >
     <requestFocus />
    </EditText>

Make sure to remove the line "<requestFocus />" from the EditText tag in xml.

<EditText
   android:id="@+id/input"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content">

   <requestFocus /> <!-- remove this line --> 
</EditText>

View current = getCurrentFocus();

if (current != null) 
    current.clearFocus();

When your activity is opened, keyboard gets visible automatically which causes focusing of EditText. You can disable keyboard by writing the following line in your activity tag in manifest.xml file.

 android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden|adjustPan"

try

edit.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);

edit.setEnabled(false);

/** 
 * set focus to top level window
 * disposes descendant focus 
 * disposes softInput 
 * */
public static void topLevelFocus(Context context){
    if(Activity.class.isAssignableFrom(context.getClass())){
        ViewGroup tlView = (ViewGroup) ((Activity) context).getWindow().getDecorView();
        if(tlView!=null){
            tlView.setFocusable(true);
            tlView.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
            tlView.setDescendantFocusability(ViewGroup.FOCUS_BEFORE_DESCENDANTS);
        }
    }
}

You have edit text and list. In OnStart/On Create, you should set focus on list view: Listview.requestfocus()

It can be achieved by inheriting EditText and overriding onTouchEvent.

class NonFocusableEditText: EditText {

    constructor(context: Context): super(context)
    constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet?): super(context, attrs)
    constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet?, defStyleAttr: Int): super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr)

    override fun onTouchEvent(event: MotionEvent?): Boolean {
        return if (isFocusable) super.onTouchEvent(event) else false
    }
}

Then you can use it in the layouts like normal EditText:

<com.yourpackage.NonFocusableEditText
        android:id="@+id/editText"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"    
        android:hint="@string/your_hint"
        android:imeOptions="actionDone"
        android:inputType="textNoSuggestions" />

Simply add android:focusableInTouchMode="true" in parent layout of EditText and you will get rid of this awkward behavior.

EditText within a ListView does not work properly. It's better to use TableLayout with automatically generated rows when you are using EditText.

You can specify focus to some other widget by using request focus and use the keyboard hiding code as well.

> Disable it in onCreate()

final KeyListener edtTxtMessageKeyListener = edtTxtMessage.getKeyListener();
edtTxtMessage.setCursorVisible(false);
edtTxtMessage.setKeyListener(null);

> And finally enable it in onClick() of EditText

edtTxtMessage.setCursorVisible(true);
edtTxtMessage.setKeyListener(edtTxtMessageKeyListener);

But the problem is with we have to click twise to bring OnScreenKeyboard for very first time.

@Workaround

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT, 0);

Try this also in onClick() :)

I had an issue like this and it was due to my selector. The first state was focus even thogh my view was disabled it took the focus state since it was the first one that matched and used it. you can set the first state to disabled like this:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">


<item android:drawable="@drawable/text_field_disabled" android:state_enabled="false"/>
<item android:drawable="@drawable/text_field_focused" android:state_focused="true"/>
<item android:drawable="@drawable/text_field_normal"/>

<EditText
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="100dp"
    android:id="@+id/etComments"
    android:hint="Comments.."
    android:textSize="14dp"

    android:focusable="false"

    android:textStyle="italic"/>

The easiest way is to add android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" in the activity tag of the Manifest.xml file

remove<requestFocus /> from your edit text in xml file

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

   //`<requestFocus />` /* <-- remove this tags */
</EditText>`

Do this and get your job done!

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

If you want to hide the keyboard at the start of the activity. Then mention

android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden"

To that activity in the manifest file. Problem gets solved.

Cheers.

I clear all focus with submit button

XML file:

<LinearLayout
...
android:id="@+id/linear_layout"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"> // 1. make this focusableInTouchMode...
</LinearLayout>

JAVA file:

private LinearLayout mLinearLayout; // 2. parent layout element
private Button mButton;

mLinearLayout = findViewById(R.id.linear_layout);
mButton = findViewById(R.id.button);

mButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                mLinearLayout.requestFocus(); // 3. request focus
              
            }
        });

I hope this helps you :)

Simple and reliable solution , just override this method :

@Override
public boolean dispatchTouchEvent(MotionEvent ev) {
    View v = getCurrentFocus();

    if (v != null &&
            (ev.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP || ev.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE) &&
            v instanceof EditText &&
            !v.getClass().getName().startsWith("android.webkit.")) {
        int scrcoords[] = new int[2];
        v.getLocationOnScreen(scrcoords);
        float x = ev.getRawX() + v.getLeft() - scrcoords[0];
        float y = ev.getRawY() + v.getTop() - scrcoords[1];

        if (x < v.getLeft() || x > v.getRight() || y < v.getTop() || y > v.getBottom())
            hideKeyboard(this);
    }
    return super.dispatchTouchEvent(ev);
}

public static void hideKeyboard(Activity activity) {
    if (activity != null && activity.getWindow() != null && activity.getWindow().getDecorView() != null) {
        InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) activity.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
        imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(activity.getWindow().getDecorView().getWindowToken(), 0);
    }
}

Lots of working answers already provided but I think we can do a little better by using the below simple method

//set focus to input field
private fun focusHere() {
    findViewById<TextView>(R.id.input).requestFocus()
}

in place of input in R.id.input use any other view id to set focus to that view.

You can set your Editext to have the focus attribute disabled, now this can apply in two ways:

• You can disable focusable as a general attribute

• Or you can disable FocusableInTouchMode as an attribute specific to that view in touch mode (touchscreen)

The focusable attribute is true by default is if that Editext is at the top of the view stack in that activity, for example a header, it would be focusable upon activity launch.

To Disable Focusable, you can simply set its boolean value to false.

So that would be:

android:focusable="false"

To Disable it FocusableInTouchMode, you can simply set its boolean value to false.

So that would be:

android:focusable="false"

You just locate the Textview you want to apply changes to and add the respective pieces of code to their xml specifications in the XML file.

Alternatively, You can click to the Textview inside the layout editor and locate the sidebar displaying all xml attributes for that Textview, then simply scroll down to where "Focusable" and "FocusableInTouchMode" are declared and check them to either true or false.

add below line in Manifest file where you have mentioned your activity

android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"