ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
Windows 10, Java 17, 21


A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The field newFocusOwner (private static Component) in KeyboardFocusManager does not get cleared and there is no way to clear it programmatically.

Depending on the referenced component, this keeps a whole tree of components and other related objects in memory.

This is not only a memory-consumption issue, but also a problem trying to keep the application in 'clean' state.


STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
Sorry - can't reliably describe a way to reproduce.
Often this happens when having a Ok/Cancel-JOptionPane and there selecting the Cancel-option.


EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
newFocuOwner to be cleared 'reliably'
ACTUAL -
newFocusOwner keeps a reference to an otherwise unreferenced component

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
Sorry, up to now I could not find a simple example to reproduce it.
---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
None from normal user point of view.

Maybe instead of having a direct static reference

  private static Component newFocusOwner

it can be solved by using a WeakReference:

  private static WeakReference<Component> newFocusOwner

in KeyboardFocusManager.


FREQUENCY : often