FSDreamTeam forum
Products Support => GSX Support MSFS => Topic started by: shryu on June 26, 2025, 01:38:52 pm
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I'm experiencing an issue where MSFS consistently loses focus, and through monitoring tools, I've identified couatl64_MSFS.exe as the cause.
This happens almost every time—shortly after takeoff when departing from the airport, and again when approaching the destination airport.
It causes severe frame rate drops and significantly disrupts the simulation experience.
Please provide a fix or a workaround to prevent Couatl from stealing focus from MSFS.
I’m using the latest version of GSX
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Couatl doesn't steal the focus from MSFS.
A restart of it might, during the restart, but a restart is not a normal issue and should happen only if it crashed so, we should understand why it's crashing first.
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Could you advise me on what steps I should take to resolve this issue or identify the root cause of the conflict?
It is really true that Couatl is stealing focus from MSFS.
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It is really true that Couatl is stealing focus from MSFS.
I said it doesn't *normally* steal focus but, it might happen during a restart, which should normally happen unless there's a crash. Check the %APPDATA%\Virtuali\Couatl64_boot.log file and see if it restarted many times.
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Unfortunately, contrary to your expectations, I couldn't find any trace of a restart in the logs. What approach can I take to resolve this issue?
6/26/2025 10:33:46 PM: Working folder set to C:\Program Files (x86)\Addon Manager\couatl64 according to FSDT registry root key
6/26/2025 10:33:46 PM: Thread "couatl64_MSFS.exe" added to monitoring
6/26/2025 10:33:46 PM: Starting couatl64_MSFS.exe
6/26/2025 10:33:46 PM: Process couatl64_MSFS started successfully with ID 27976
6/26/2025 10:33:47 PM: Connected to Couatl64 shared memory
6/26/2025 10:39:00 PM: MSFS has exited
6/26/2025 10:39:00 PM: Task was cancelled.
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Unfortunately, contrary to your expectations, I couldn't find any trace of a restart in the logs. What approach can I take to resolve this issue?
That without a restart, Couatl will not steal the focus from the sim. It surely doesn't here and nobody ever reported this in a very long time. I checked it again now (not because I'm not sure, but because I always check before writing something), and I cannot replicate it.
However, your log from the restarter shows it started normally, then after less than 6 minutes you exited the sim so it also exited normally. You said the focus is lost after approaching an airport, so unless you made a flight shorter than 6 minutes, the log is not very telling about a restart on approaching the landing airport. However, if a momentarily loss of focus might happen during the restart, it will be restored back to MSFS when the restart completes.
Other than during a restart (and after that the focus will be brought back to MSFS anyway), the only time where GSX takes away the focus from the sim, is when you open one of its settings page, like the main Settings, or the airplane or airport customization page. In this case, it's normal the focus would go to the window itself.
However I verified even this case, and after the window is closed, the focus goes back to MSFS, as it should be.
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Curiously, after installing version 3.5.6 that you previously shared in another topic, the issue with focus being stolen has completely stopped.
Do you have any insights as to why that might be?
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Curiously, after installing version 3.5.6 that you previously shared in another topic, the issue with focus being stolen has completely stopped.
Do you have any insights as to why that might be?
Hey, I am experiencing exactly the same lost focus bug since I updated to 3.5.6 via the live update.
MSFS loses focus (and therefore sound) shortly after takeoff. I believe this occurs when couatl restarts after takeoff (a feature that was added in live update 3.5.6).
Can you please tell me where I can download the 'other' 3.5.6 version which you mentioned fixed it for you?
This bug has been driving me NUTS!
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I found a post titled 'Touch Down Shutters 1–2 sec pause', and when you open it, it's around page 2.
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Hey Virtuali, as you can see, I’m not the only one experiencing this bug — others are affected as well.
Please provide a clear and proactive solution to address this issue.
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Hey Virtuali, as you can see, I’m not the only one experiencing this bug — others are affected as well.Please provide a clear and proactive solution to address this issue.
I can't provide a solution, because I cannot reproduce it. And the latest version we have online now, doesn't restart automatically on takeoff anymore. According to some affected users, it doesn't fix the pause on touch down, but maybe it might fix the loss of focus, which I also cannot reproduce, not even during a restart.