[scrollarea] Scrollbars steal focus when clicked

[vladmoroz]

Bug report

Clicking scrollbars steals focus from the currently active element, native scrollbars don't.

Reproducible example

https://stackblitz.com/edit/xhcdfcyl-f2hw3dab?file=src%2FApp.tsx

Screen.Recording.2026-08-04.at.17.11.30.mov

Base UI version

For example v1.7.0

[vladmoroz]

Small find, onPointerDown={event => event.preventDefault()} on the scrollbar is helpful but it's not sufficient to prevent popovers from closing

[atomiks]

but it's not sufficient to prevent popovers from closing

Are you referring to scrollbars outside of a popover rather than inside like in the recording? You mean the popover closes with 'outside-press' or 'focus-out' reason in onOpenChange? Can you you detect the scrollbar was clicked in eventDetails.event.target?

[vladmoroz]

@atomiks yeah I did mean a situation where scrollbars are outside of the popover

Can you you detect the scrollbar was clicked in eventDetails.event.target?

yeah that works

[github-actions]

This fix will be available in the next npm release of Base UI.

In the meantime, use the canary build from PR #5430:

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@base-ui/react@408c5b7

This installs a complete package for @base-ui/react with the fix included. It is hosted by pkg.pr.new rather than npm, and the URL is available for up to six months.