Triggering Autofill causing Unlock Popup to exit chrome full screen

[janitha]

Steps To Reproduce

1. Chrome in Full Screen Mode (Chrome Mac 143.0.7499.170 (Official Build) (arm64))
2. Bitwarden extension is locked
3. Trigger Autofill (Cmd+Shift+L or via Right click context menu)

This will cause the bitwarden unlock pop up while simultaneously exiting chrome from full screen mode. Completing the authentication pop up does not restore chrome's full screen status.

See attached video

1. Triggering autofill using right click menu -> bitwarden -> autofill
2. Triggering autofill using prompted unlock drop down
3. Triggering autofill using Cmd+Shift+L

Bitwarden.AutoFill.unlock.popup.causing.Mac.Chrome.Fullscreen.to.exit.mov

Expected Result

Triggering autofill should popup a bitwarden unlock while preserving the fullscreen status of the chrome

Actual Result

Chrome exits outs of full screen mode

Screenshots or Videos

See attached video

1. Triggering autofill using right click menu -> bitwarden -> autofill
2. Triggering autofill using prompted unlock drop down
3. Triggering autofill using Cmd+Shift+L

Bitwarden.AutoFill.unlock.popup.causing.Mac.Chrome.Fullscreen.to.exit.mov

Additional Context

Some related issues that were closed...

• Triggring autofill force exits Chrome's fullscreen mode on macOS #18105
• Bitwarden Chrome extension opens new full-screen window on macOS when prompted for passkey #16797
• Bitwarden Chrome extension still opens new full-screen window on macOS when prompted for passkey on Apple Silicon macs #17428 (Related to passkeys, but maybe same underlying root-cause)
• Full Screen Firefox not full screen anymore after unlocking extension #18069

Operating System

macOS

Operating System Version

Tahoe 26.2 (25C56)

Web Browser

Chrome

Browser Version

143.0.7499.170 (Official Build) (arm64)

Environment Versions

Version: 2025.12.0
SDK: 'main (0107af7)'
Server version: 2025.12.1

Issue Tracking Info

• I understand that work is tracked outside of Github. A PR will be linked to this issue should one be opened to address it, but Bitwarden doesn't use fields like "assigned", "milestone", or "project" to track progress.

[bitwarden-bot]

Thank you for reporting this issue! We've added this to our internal tracking system.
ID: PM-30189
Link (for internal use): https://bitwarden.atlassian.net/browse/PM-30189

[janitha]

Couple of more threads talking about the same issue

• https://community.bitwarden.com/t/do-not-open-external-windows-but-include-everything-within-the-browser-extension-window/86986/8
• https://community.bitwarden.com/t/open-the-popup-window-as-a-modal-dialog-on-macos/83350
• https://community.bitwarden.com/t/new-login-via-extension-macos-fullscreen/72107
• https://community.bitwarden.com/t/issues-with-autofill-and-full-screen-on-mac/65699

[janitha]

I found this PR #16838 and I undid the changes there (again main branch) and tried it on chrome, and at least this reverts it back to previous behavior which was more pleasant than the current behavior (which is opening the auth/unlock window in a new fullscreen window, while NOT exiting the main chrome window)

[sodle]

Thanks for the quick investigation here. Can confirm it also manifests on Firefox on Mac, and is quite annoying :(

[RC-14]

Author of #18069 (falsely closed as a duplicate) here.

My solution (at least for now) is to have the unlock page bookmarked and open it in a new tab when needed.

Since I forgot how extension page URL's look in chrome I'll just post the steps for getting that URL here:

1. Enable the extension developer mode. (or whatever it's called)
2. Open the dev tools for the Bitwarden extension.
3. With Bitwarden locked, open the Unlock Popup without interacting with it.
4. In the dev tools, list all windows with their tabs using the following JS: await chrome.windows.getAll({ populate: true })
5. In the resulting list of windows look for the Bitwarden Unlock Popup and make a new bookmark with the URL of its only tab.

[sodle]

Thanks @RC-14 ... I wonder if there's a similar workaround possible for passkey prompts, since those also cause the window to exit fullscreen.

[RC-14]

Since that directly interacts with a page I doubt it, though I don't wanna discourage anyone from looking into that.