Good news! With the help of another developer, I found a way to tell the system that it should open files in the same window instead of creating a new one.

So this will be fixed in the next update.

I've debugged this issue on iPadOS 26.1: the system creates a new window (UIWindowScene) before telling Textastic to open the file.

I've tried various ways to prevent creation of a new window, but unfortunately I found no workaround.

So, this looks like a new system behavior on iPadOS 26.1 that cannot be changed by Textastic.

I also see the same issue when opening a file with other apps like iA Writer, Taio or Runestone.

Hopefully Apple changes this in a future update.

I can reproduce the issue on my iPad. I'll try to find out what's going on. This definitely behaved differently in earlier iPadOS versions.

As a workaround, please use the "Open…" command in Textastic to open files from the Files app in the current window. Or use "Add External Folder…" to add a folder from the Files app to Textastic's sidebar (if supported by the file provider).

Sounds like a bug - I'll investigate. Only the #Textastic folder in Local Files is used.

Thanks for letting me know!

The update is now released on the App Store.

The "Prefer Non-Blinking Cursor" accessibility setting will be supported in Textastic 10.8.5.

The problem was a workaround I had implemented for a problem on iOS 17 where the cursor didn't start blinking right after tapping the editor. So I forced the cursor to blink on iOS 17 and later. In my testing I found out that this is not necessary anymore on iOS 18 and 26 and that the workaround did interfere with the new accessibility settings introduced in iOS 18.

Thanks again for reporting this problem!

The update is currently in beta testing and is going to be released within a week.

I've spent the last hour trying to reproduce the issue:

• 13" M4 iPad Pro running iPadOS 26.1 
• Using Stage Manager
• Secure ShellFish connection added as external folder to Textastic
• Textastic window open with two files from the external folder

No matter what I did (changing stages, opening new windows, forcing memory pressure), the two files stayed open for me.

So if you have specific cases that trigger the problem, please let me know. For now I could not reproduce the issue, sorry.

Thanks for the screenshot. 

So it happens on an external monitor and when you switch from one stage back to the stage which contains Textastic's windows?

I'll try to reproduce it. If you can tell me specific steps that cause the problem, that would be helpful.

That said, I haven't changed anything regarding window restoration recently and Apple is currently changing a lot regarding multitasking, so this might just be a bug in iPadOS 26.

Without seeing what you are doing exactly, it's hard to tell what might be going on.

Are you sure you are not closing the window accidentally or opening a new, empty window?

For example, if you use the red X button, the window is closed and opened files are not restored when opening Textastic again. In this case, a new window is created when returning to Textastic.

What happens if you show the context menu of Textastic's app icon (right click or tap and hold) and select "Show All Windows"? (You can also use Window > Show All Windows in the iPadOS menu bar).

"Show All Windows" shows all windows that can be restored.

Does it maybe show the window with the files you are looking for?

If the window with the files is indeed gone and you can reproduce the issue, it would be great if you could send me a screen recording video.