Edge randomly stops registering clicks after using dev tools

[cadamsdev]

Hello,
I recently switched to Microsoft Edge for web dev however I'm running into an issue where clicks stop registering after using dev tools for a few minutes. I can't click in dev tools, and I can't click on the web page. However, if I double click then 1 click registers. Seems like this issue happens randomly as I'm not able to reproduce the issue consistently. I tried disabling all extensions and still experience this issue.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open dev tools
2. Look at elements on a page in the elements tab
3. Add inline styles using the styles tab

element.style {
 /* placing styles here */
}

4. Issue doesn't happen right away but I do get the issue every time after a few minutes of usage.

AB#48627321

[captainbrosset]

Thanks for filing. I'm trying to reproduce this locally. So far no luck, but I'll keep trying.
In the meantime, can you please say which operating system you use, and which Edge version you tested on?
Also, does mouseover still work? For example, when you hover over elements in the DOM tree of the Elements tool, do you see them get highlighted in the page?

[captainbrosset]

Oh, also, does the problem go away if you close DevTools?

[cadamsdev]

Thanks for filing. I'm trying to reproduce this locally. So far no luck, but I'll keep trying. In the meantime, can you please say which operating system you use, and which Edge version you tested on?

OS: Mac OS: 14.2.1 (23C71)
Browser version: Version 120.0.2210.144 (Official build) (arm64)

Also, does mouseover still work? For example, when you hover over elements in the DOM tree of the Elements tool, do you see them get highlighted in the page?

Mouseover does not work either.

Oh, also, does the problem go away if you close DevTools?

Issue still happens if I close DevTools

Additional context I'm also using SvelteKit (2.4.1)

[captainbrosset]

Thank you for the question responses. Let me add this to our team's radar for investigation.

[captainbrosset]

I've tried to reproduce on a mac just now, but couldn't. Not sure what causes it, here is what I did: open Edge on macOS, used the New Tab Page, added a few inline styles, waited for 5 to 10 minutes, randomly selecting other elements and adding more inline styles.
This is going to be a hard one to reproduce ...

@cadamsdev one more question: does the issue also blocks clicks on the browser UI, or are you able to use the Edge main menu, URL bar, and other buttons?

[cadamsdev]

@cadamsdev one more question: does the issue also blocks clicks on the browser UI, or are you able to use the Edge main menu, URL bar, and other buttons?

Does not block clicks on the main browser UI (main menu, url bar, toolbar buttons). Seems to be blocking only the dev tools window and the web page).

I just had the issue again. This time it happened after using the toggling "Device emulation mode" and manually resizing the screens.

What's interesting is that when I try to record the issue using Gifox using Command + Shift + 7) the issue goes away.

However, if I try to record the issue using the built-in mac screen recorder the issue still persists... I'm assuming this is something to do with the edge browser as I have never seen this issue using Firefox or Chrome.

[captainbrosset]

The only other thing that remotely ressembles this bug is this: https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftEdge/comments/19dvqc6/how_in_the_world_did_i_manage_to_do_this_and_how/
the person opened the device mode, and it somehow broke the browser UI. The device mode frame was added next to the rendered webpage, isntead of replacing it. I'm wondering if something sort of similar happened to you. Maybe the device mode frame failed to initialize properly, didn't appear in the right place, or at all, but still overlayed the rest of the browser UI, making it impossible to click on anymore. Just suppositions at this stage of course.
But it would be good to check if the browser still responds to keyboard shortcuts.

For example, try cmd+shift+M to close device mode and see if thigns go back to normal. Or cmd+shift+I to close DevTools and see if things go back to normal too.

This is just to try and help narrow down the issue and therefore fix it. The bug is tracked on our backlog.