[Joystick / kb nav not working after exiting MAME through LaunchBox 12.7]

Thanks, @neil9000 - I'll continue investigating.

[Big Box isn't regaining Window Focus after game exit]

Another bump after a long hiatus, as I Just came across this post after identifying what might be the same in 12.7.  Am I to understand there's no solution out of the box (pun intended)?

Hoping to get this working in a headless environment (i.e. only interface is the joystick).

[Big Box: Gamepad stops working after sleep mode or turning it off and then on.]

I just posted about something which I think might be a similar (if not the same) issue: 

 

[Joystick / kb nav not working after exiting MAME through LaunchBox 12.7]

I've also just noticed that when switching from BigBox to desktop mode (i.e. LaunchBox), the LB app doesn't get the focus making it necessary to click on the window/one of the game tiles to allow for joystick/kb navigation.

Based on all this, it seems like a UX bug (or if not a bug, at least an opportunity for improvement).

[Joystick / kb nav not working after exiting MAME through LaunchBox 12.7]

Tried searching this up, but the material terms are obviously rather common.

My joystick (Mayflash F500) works fine within MAME games launched through the LB interface.  When exiting, though, using a joystick button combo programmed to MAME's ESC key, the joystick is unresponsive, as are the keyboard arrow keys.  It seems LB app doesn't have focus. i.e. if I select a game by clicking on it with the mouse, then the joystick and KB will work again.

Everything works as expected in BigBox, though.

Has anyone else run into something like this, and if so, how did you solve it?

OS is Windows 10.

thanks in advance!