If you have ever tried to inspect an autocomplete dropdown, tooltip, popup, or similar dynamic elements in DevTools, you've probably hit this frustrating problem of them disappearing. This usually happens because the UI element is tied to focus, hover, or keyboard input listeners.
The moment you hit CTRL+SHIFT+C or even try any other way to click around and open the inspector tool, the element or widget disappears. Even pressing F8 in the sources panel to pause JavaScript execution can sometimes fail since the focus now moves away from the element.
Debugging such elements will always be a bit annoying, but with this timeout pattern to open the debugger after a small time delay, you'll be on your way to properly inspecting any dynamic element.
The most reliable way I have found to inspect such UI elements is to pause JavaScript execution via the browser debugger after a few seconds of delay with this code snippet.
setTimeout(() => {
debugger;
}, 3000);
Here's how to use it:
Happy coding and good luck!
Founder of SOFTKUBE, lead developer, and getting things done addict. Passionate about open source, user interface design, business development, and the tech world.
A small team of experts developing simple, usable, and high-quality web solutions. We blog about business, entrepreneurship, web development, and technology.
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