Fix player full screen causing the app to start in full screen

[absidue]

Fix player full screen causing the app to start in full screen

Pull Request Type

• Bugfix

Related issue

• closes [Bug]: App starts in fullscreen if you used fullscreen before quitting #4534
• closes Fix app starting in fullscreen if a fullscreen video is closed #4649
• closes [Bug]: FreeTube starts fullsrceen, and the "fullscreen" button cannot toggle between fullscreen modes #3220

Description

This is an alternative to #4649 that should hopefully work more consistently (the creator of that pull request is aware that I am making this one).

When the app is closed while in full screen regardless of whether only the player or the entire window was full-screened, we save the full screen state and restore it at start up. For people that full-screened the app that is great, but for people that full-screened the player it's less desirable to have the entire app start in full screen.

Testing

Full screen doesn't persist if player is full-screened

1. Open a video
2. Full screen the player, either through the button or the F hotkey
3. Close the app e.g. Ctrl+Q or Alt+F4
4. Open the app again and make sure it launches with normal window dimensions

Full screen persists if you full screen the window (regression test)

1. Full screen the window e.g. F11
2. Close the app e.g. Ctrl+Q or Alt+F4
3. Open the app again and make sure it launches in full screen.

Desktop

• OS: Windows
• OS Version: 11

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

Full screen doesn't persist if player is full-screened

1. Open a video
2. Full screen the player, either through the button or the F hotkey
3. Close the app e.g. Ctrl+Q or Alt+F4
4. Open the app again and make sure it launches with normal window dimensions

Works!

Full screen persists if you full screen the window (regression test)

1. Full screen the window e.g. F11
2. Close the app e.g. Ctrl+Q or Alt+F4
3. Open the app again and make sure it launches in full screen.

Works!

Full screen persists if you full screen the window and if player is fullscreened

1. Full screen the window e.g. F11
2. Full screen the player, either through the button or the F hotkey
3. Close the app e.g. Ctrl+Q or Alt+F4
4. Open the app again and make sure it launches in full screen.

App unfortunately doesn't launch in fullscreen, tested on win10

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

doesnt this also address #3220?

[PikachuEXE]

Seems working (test after merged with dev
Still WIP?

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

@PikachuEXE

Full screen persists if you full screen the window and if player is fullscreened

1. Full screen the window e.g. F11
2. Full screen the player, either through the button or the F hotkey
3. Close the app e.g. Ctrl+Q or Alt+F4
4. Open the app again and make sure it launches in full screen.

App unfortunately doesn't launch in fullscreen

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

maybe usefull chagpt prompt we

Thanks for sharing the screenshot and the test cases. From what you're describing and what I see in the code diff, here's what's happening and how to fix the case where both the window and the player are full-screened:

---

✅ Current Fix (What the patch does):

The patch avoids saving fullscreen state if it was triggered by the video player (htmlFullScreenWindowIds tracks this). That works well for:

• Only player fullscreen → doesn't persist ✔️
• Only window fullscreen → does persist ✔️

---

❌ Failing Case:

Both window and player are fullscreened → window fullscreen is ignored on next launch ❌

This happens because the htmlFullScreenWindowIds logic overrides the check and causes the app not to save the window.fullScreen state — even if it was actually fullscreen at the window level.

---

🛠️ Fix:

We need to detect whether both are true and ensure we still save the window.fullScreen state if the window is in fullscreen, even if the player also was.

✅ Fix Suggestion:

Replace this block:

fullScreen: newWindow.isFullScreen() && !htmlFullScreen,

With something smarter like:

const isWindowActuallyFullScreen = newWindow.isFullScreen();
const isHtmlFullScreen = htmlFullScreenWindowIds.has(newWindow.id);

// Save fullscreen only if it was true window fullscreen (not just player fullscreen)
fullScreen: isWindowActuallyFullScreen && !(isHtmlFullScreen && !newWindow.isMenuBarVisible()),

!newWindow.isMenuBarVisible() is an example heuristic — adjust based on Electron API or UI clues if applicable.

---

🔍 Why This Works:

You're distinguishing between true fullscreen (like from F11) and HTML fullscreen (like a video player). If both were active, this check preserves the window's fullscreen status.

---

✅ Regression-Safe?

Yes, as long as isFullScreen() remains reliable and htmlFullScreenWindowIds is properly maintained.

---

Let me know your platform or Electron version if you want help refining this logic further.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

@PikachuEXE PR is blocked due to #5138 (comment)

All issues relating to this are about people being confused why the app is in fullscreen and apparently dont know how to unfullscreen it

What do you think of the following proposal:

Merge PR as is which would mean that in the case of "Full screen persists if you full screen the window and if player is fullscreened" that people at least know how to get back into fullscreen

Which is at least better than having the current situation

[github-actions]

Conflicts have been resolved. A maintainer will review the pull request shortly.

[PikachuEXE]

On macOS I need to toggle window fullscreen via menu
No idea what's the hotkey (I don't use this usually