PDF Preview (Embed.aspx) 'stealing' focus

[chr-sad]

Target SharePoint environment

SharePoint Online

What SharePoint development model, framework, SDK or API is this about?

💥 SharePoint Framework

Developer environment

Windows

What browser(s) / client(s) have you tested

• 💥 Internet Explorer
• 💥 Microsoft Edge
• 💥 Google Chrome
• 💥 FireFox
• 💥 Safari
• mobile (iOS/iPadOS)
• mobile (Android)
• not applicable
• other (enter in the "Additional environment details" area below)

Additional environment details

No response

Describe the bug / error

The new PDF Preview (Embed.aspx) is 'stealing' the users focus automatically on load and preventing the keyboard navigation for both SharePoint Online standard out of the box document library views and any other usage in SPFx.

Steps to reproduce

Open any SharePoint document library, add some documents containing PDF files and others. Important: open the details sidebar so the preview is loading. Click on some file in the document library and use the keyboard to navigate up and down. See that it is working for office filetypes, txt files and so on, but once it reaches a PDF file rendering the preview in the embed.aspx the focus is now in the preview iframe and the sidebar.

Expected behavior

I can navigate the documents in the document library with the keyboard for all document types. The preview is never automatically stealing focus unless the user wants it to be focused.

[Ashlesha-MSFT]

Hello @chr-sad,
Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will look into it and get back to you shortly.

[Amey-MSFT]

Hello @chr-sad,
We were able to reproduce the issue, and we are investigating it. We have logged this as a bug, and our engineering team will look into it.
Thank you!

[Ashlesha-MSFT]

@chr-sad,
I want to add a bit of clarification. Although the engineering team has correctly tagged the internal bug as “notspfx,” the behavior is still a SharePoint Online platform-level issue, not something caused by the SharePoint Framework.

This problem occurs when the new PDF Preview (Embed.aspx) loads. The preview iframe automatically takes keyboard focus, which breaks keyboard navigation in:

• Standard SharePoint Online document library views
• The details pane
• Any SPFx solution that relies on or interacts with the preview panel

Since the issue happens even on pages without any SPFx components, it confirms the root cause is the SharePoint PDF preview implementation and not SPFx itself.

If you want to track or attach this as a platform-level issue, you can do so via the Microsoft 365 Support channel here:
https://admin.microsoft.com/
→ Support → New service request

Adding the ticket there helps ensure the platform team investigates and fixes the underlying behavior.

[chr-sad]

@Ashlesha-MSFT thank you for the analysis and feedback. I will submit a service request accordingly.