Mobile Safari: Javascript focus() method on inputfield only works with click?

I have a simple input field like this.

<div class="search">
   <input type="text" value="y u no work"/>
</div>​

And I'm trying to focus() it inside a function. So inside of a random function (doesn't matter what function it is) I have this line …

$('.search').find('input').focus();

This works just fine on every Desktop whatsoever.

However it doesn't work on my iPhone. The field is not getting focused and the keyboard is not shown on my iPhone.

For testing purposes and to show you guys the problem I did a quick sample:

$('#some-test-element').click(function() {
  $('.search').find('input').focus(); // works well on my iPhone - Keyboard slides in
});

setTimeout(function() {
  //alert('test'); //works
  $('.search').find('input').focus(); // doesn't work on my iPhone - works on Desktop
}, 5000);​

Any idea why the focus() wouldn't work with the timeout function on my iPhone.

To see the live example, test this fiddle on your iPhone. http://jsfiddle.net/Hc4sT/

Update:

I created the exact same case as I'm currently facing in my current project.

I have a select-box that should — when "changed" — set the focus to the input field and slide-in the kexboard on the iphone or other mobile devices. I found out that the focus() is set correctly but the keyboard doesn't show up. I need the keyboard to show up.

Actually, guys, there is a way. I struggled mightily to figure this out for [LINK REMOVED] (try it on an iPhone or iPad).

Basically, Safari on touchscreen devices is stingy when it comes to focus()ing textboxes. Even some desktop browsers do better if you do click().focus(). But the designers of Safari on touchscreen devices realized it's annoying to users when the keyboard keeps coming up, so they made the focus appear only on the following conditions:

1) The user clicked somewhere and focus() was called while executing the click event. If you are doing an AJAX call, then you must do it synchronously, such as with the deprecated (but still available) $.ajax({async:false}) option in jQuery.

2) Furthermore -- and this one kept me busy for a while -- focus() still doesn't seem to work if some other textbox is focused at the time. I had a "Go" button which did the AJAX, so I tried blurring the textbox on the touchstart event of the Go button, but that just made the keyboard disappear and moved the viewport before I had a chance to complete the click on the Go button. Finally I tried blurring the textbox on the touchend event of the Go button, and this worked like a charm!

When you put #1 and #2 together, you get a magical result that will set your login forms apart from all the crappy web login forms, by placing the focus in your password fields, and make them feel more native. Enjoy! :)

A native javascript implementation of WunderBart's answer.

function onClick() {

  // create invisible dummy input to receive the focus first
  const fakeInput = document.createElement('input')
  fakeInput.setAttribute('type', 'text')
  fakeInput.style.position = 'absolute'
  fakeInput.style.opacity = 0
  fakeInput.style.height = 0
  fakeInput.style.fontSize = '16px' // disable auto zoom

  // you may need to append to another element depending on the browser's auto 
  // zoom/scroll behavior
  document.body.prepend(fakeInput)

  // focus so that subsequent async focus will work
  fakeInput.focus()

  setTimeout(() => {

    // now we can focus on the target input
    targetInput.focus()

    // cleanup
    fakeInput.remove()
    
  }, 1000)

}

Other References: Disable Auto Zoom in Input "Text" tag - Safari on iPhone

I faced the same issue recently. I found a solution that apparently works for all devices. You can't do async focus programmatically but you can switch focus to your target input when some other input is already focused. So what you need to do is create, hide, append to DOM & focus a fake input on trigger event and, when the async action completes, just call focus again on the target input. Here's an example snippet - run it on your mobile.

edit:

Here's a fiddle with the same code. Apparently you can't run attached snippets on mobiles (or I'm doing something wrong).

var $triggerCheckbox = $("#trigger-checkbox");
var $targetInput = $("#target-input");

// Create fake & invisible input
var $fakeInput = $("<input type='text' />")
  .css({
    position: "absolute",
    width: $targetInput.outerWidth(), // zoom properly (iOS)
    height: 0, // hide cursor (font-size: 0 will zoom to quarks level) (iOS)
    opacity: 0, // make input transparent :]
  });

var delay = 2000; // That's crazy long, but good as an example

$triggerCheckbox.on("change", function(event) {
  // Disable input when unchecking trigger checkbox (presentational purpose)
  if (!event.target.checked) {
    return $targetInput
      .attr("disabled", true)
      .attr("placeholder", "I'm disabled");
  }

  // Prepend to target input container and focus fake input
  $fakeInput.prependTo("#container").focus();

  // Update placeholder (presentational purpose)
  $targetInput.attr("placeholder", "Wait for it...");

  // setTimeout, fetch or any async action will work
  setTimeout(function() {

    // Shift focus to target input
    $targetInput
      .attr("disabled", false)
      .attr("placeholder", "I'm alive!")
      .focus();

    // Remove fake input - no need to keep it in DOM
    $fakeInput.remove();
  }, delay);
});

label {
  display: block;
  margin-top: 20px;
}

input {
  box-sizing: border-box;
  font-size: inherit;
}

#container {
  position: relative;
}

#target-input {
  width: 250px;
  padding: 10px;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="container">
  <input type="text" id="target-input" placeholder="I'm disabled" />

  <label>
    <input type="checkbox" id="trigger-checkbox" />
    focus with setTimetout
   </label>
</div>

I managed to make it work with the following code:

event.preventDefault();
timeout(function () {
    $inputToFocus.focus();
}, 500);

I'm using AngularJS so I have created a directive which solved my problem:

Directive:

angular.module('directivesModule').directive('focusOnClear', [
    '$timeout',
    function (timeout) {
        return {
            restrict: 'A',
            link: function (scope, element, attrs) {
                var id = attrs.focusOnClear;
                var $inputSearchElement = $(element).parent().find('#' + id);
                element.on('click', function (event) {
                    event.preventDefault();
                    timeout(function () {
                        $inputSearchElement.focus();
                    }, 500);
                });
            }
        };
    }
]);

How to use the directive:

<div>
    <input type="search" id="search">
    <i class="icon-clear" ng-click="clearSearchTerm()" focus-on-clear="search"></i>
</div>

It looks like you are using jQuery, so I don't know if the directive is any help.

I have a search form with an icon that clears the text when clicked. However, the problem (on mobile & tablets) was that the keyboard would collapse/hide, as the click event removed focus was removed from the input.

Goal: after clearing the search form (clicking/tapping on x-icon) keep the keyboard visible!

To accomplish this, apply stopPropagation() on the event like so:

function clear ($event) {
    $event.preventDefault();
    $event.stopPropagation();
    self.query = '';
    $timeout(function () {
        document.getElementById('sidebar-search').focus();
    }, 1);
}

And the HTML form:

<form ng-controller="SearchController as search"
    ng-submit="search.submit($event)">
        <input type="search" id="sidebar-search" 
            ng-model="search.query">
                <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-remove-circle"
                    ng-click="search.clear($event)">
                </span>
</form>