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New Modern Text Input

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Posted on by Piero-OX

In the most recent Power Apps update, Microsoft has forgotten to make the new text input control 'focusable'. As a result, you can no longer set focus to them - which is a problem.
Does anyone know of a workaround - or has anyone heard any rumours as to when it might be fixed?

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Haque 1,397 on at

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Hi @Piero-OX,

Right now, the new “Modern” Text Input control in Power Apps does not support SetFocus, which means you cannot programmatically move focus to it.

To me, the most realiable workaround would be either continue using the classic (with less modern look!). Secondly, if sequence is not matter, you can place the modern text input at the top of the tab order so it naturally receives focus when the screen loads.

I usually don't like, but if in essence you can tackle this trick:

Place a hidden classic text input behind or beside the modern one.

Use SetFocus() on the hidden classic input.

Then, use formulas to sync its Text property with the modern control.

This way, the focus event is triggered, but the user interacts with the modern UI.

I am sure some clues I tried to give. If these clues help to resolve the issue brought you by here, please don't forget to check the box Does this answer your question? At the same time, I am pretty sure you have liked the response!

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Valantis 2,535 on at

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Hi @Piero-OX,

Turns out SetFocus has some real limitations — it only works on controls that are on the same screen, aren't disabled, and aren't nested inside Containers, Forms, or Galleries. On top of that, iOS won't open the keyboard automatically unless the focus is triggered by something the user actually taps (like a button).

For now, here are a few ways to work around it:
- Move the Text input outside of any Containers and trigger SetFocus from a button. For desktop, Screen.OnVisible works too.
- If you really need focus to work reliably, consider swapping the field back to the classic Text input for the time being.
- If you're using Creator Kit components, you can trigger focus through the InputEvent pattern: UpdateContext({ ctxComponentEvent: "SetFocus" & Text(Rand()) })

As for a proper fix — there's nothing on the official docs yet.

I'd recommend keeping an eye on the Known Issues page and the Power Apps blog. If this is blocking you, let me know and we can open a Microsoft Support ticket with a minimal repro to get it escalated.

Best regards,

Valantis

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🏷️ For follow-ups @Valantis.

📝 https://valantisond365.com/

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TB-20032129-0 4 on at

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This is just ridiculous. Come on Microsoft!

I have found a workaround (I think) but you have to have an existing page that was already using the modern TextInput control before the update occurred. You'll know because there is a blue banner that says "A new version of this control is available."

You can copy the TextInput from a previous screen and are able to use SetFocus() on it. This is a horrible workaround since I now have to do this with 16 text boxes that I had already added and styled.

I hope there is a fix sooner rather than later.

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CU24032331-0 9 on at

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This affects all the updated modern controls!

Valantis I for one would really appreciate someone elevating to Microsoft.

Huge blocker for us as we have accessibility obligations (gov) and many of our apps/components rely on SetFocus().

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Piero-OX 19 on at

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@Valantis thank you for replying - I appreciate you trying to help me.

You say that you can't focus on text inputs inside containers, but I've been regularly using text input controls inside containers and happily setting focus to them.
The issue that the new modern text input control is not focusable at all, so your suggested workaround of taking it outside any containers wouldn't work either.

If it's helpful to others, the only thing that worked for me was to reverse any updated text input back to the way they were before. This is relatively easy to do: just copy the whole control, paste its YAML in a text editor and change the 'Control' property inside the YAML back to "TextInput@0.0.54" (instead of "ModernTextInput@1.0.0") taking care to also reverse back any of the other properties that may have been changed, like 'Appearance' etc.

PS: I appreciate your comment about iOS and tablet devices where focusing on a text input field wouldn't trigger the virtual keyboard to open - and in a 'mobile first' world, that does matter, but I suspect that just like my users, most people use Power Apps on their laptops etc (though, of course, it depends on the app).

Thank you again for trying to help. 🙏

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