I’ve been looking for a way to disable that tab tearing since day one!

It seems i’m not alone in wanting to open a new tab without the most viewed thumbnails showing (either home page or blank) I think there are some add-ons to do this, but it would nice to have this as an option.

Thank you, this is just what I was looking for.
The new tab button is a real eyesore.

I wish there were a way to disable tab tearing without a plugin. I tried it but it seems a little hairy.

Thanks for these tips, especially 1, 2 and 5.

I’ve seen a couple of methods for allowing tab switching via ctrl+arrow keys but even after adding the relevant code in ChromEdit Plus (.tabbrowser-tab[selected="true"] { -moz-user-focus: normal !important; }) it doesn’t seem to be working. Any ideas?

Oh, and one other thing. When I edit UserChrome to move the tab bar to the bottom I end up with a sliver of border between the tab bar and the status bar. Can this be removed?

“.tabs-newtab-button {display: none;}”

Unfortunately for me, with FF 3.5 (mac) this causes the tabs in the tab bar to shake/vibrate violently back and forth once there are enough tabs open to begin scrolling.

Guess I’ll have to find another way to remove that annoying little button.

I would like to return to my previously opened tabs and windows when I open Firefox. I have that option enabled under preferences. However, in OS X if I click on the red circle to close Firefox, it doesn’t work. It does work if I close out of Firefox by the quit command. That doesn’t make sense to me–if I click on the red circle and it views it as closing Firefox, then my tabs should be remembered. If it doesn’t consider it closing then my tabs should reopen when I click on Firefox in the dock. Any way to fix this? I know I could close my session by minimizing it with the yellow circle, but that just isn’t the way I treat other programs in OS X. Thanks!

Thanks, I was looking for a way to close last tab.

with 3.5, i have lost the close tab button on every tab capability (WHY do they do that?), and of course the all the add-ons for tabs are incompatible…

anyone know of a fix for that?

OK, there is a way to “Hide the new tab button in the tab bar”. What if you don’t want to hide it, but wish to have it on the far left? Instead of right next to the “close” button on the tab it sits next to. I keep hitting the “new tab” button instead of the close button for the tab.

I need to have the close button on the last tab, but going in and altering or adding to a code files seems a bit over the top for a know-nothing like me. Can’t this option be placed in a checkbox or something?

To disable Tab browsing in the new Firefox 3.5 …. type about:config and set the browser.tabs.tabMinWidth key equal to 0. Hope it helps.

regarding the plugins, most 3.0 plugins will still work with 3.5 even if they technically haven’t been updated to be compatible yet. just override compatibility testing and see if they work — most will.

Ben, et. al….. I cannot find an option to “override compatibility testing ” — is this an about.config thing maybe?

@jeb

There are a couple of options here http://blog.brothersoft.com/2009/01/21/how-to-make-mozilla-firefox-add-ons-compatible-with-all-versions/ but be very careful. Turning off this option also opens you up to security flaws etc. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

Regarding the Hide the new tab button in the tab bar
the code of .tabs-newtab-button {display: none;} when added to userChrome.css does not clear the “big grey +” on tab bar at least for me

Already tried closing & re-launching prog
windows version of firefox v3.5

So happy to get that close icon back on the last/first tab. It’s easier than keeping a link to blank page around.

As an average user, I’m quite comfortable with using the hot key.
For moving to tabs, I use Ctrl++TAB (shift for going from right to left)
For new tab: Ctrl+T
For close the current Tab: Ctrl+F4
For go to the address bar: Ctrl+L

With the said hot key, I can move around in firefox comfortably. Hope they will serve you well as they did to me.

Regards,

Google “nightly tester tools”, and install. Be aware though that some add-ons are broken for good reason and can muck up FF. If that happens, go to the start menu and open FF in “safe mode” and remove said add-on.

Good luck :)

Did you change the userChrome in your profile, or the Programs Folder entry?? Make sure it is the version in your profile.. should work just fine :)

Started with programme files
then realised about the “other” profile directory, now it works

Hey, just wanted to add that Tab Mix Plus is still the best system for not only tab layout and options, but recovering crashed windows and saving “sessions”. It has been critical for all the work I do, where I can save multiple windows each with a bunch of tabs open as a “session” that records the exact browser state and then open everything up just like I had it with one click the next time I need it. That way, I can setup specific Firefox windows with web design / programming utilities. Or when I am researching something, I can have multipkle windows open with two dozen tabs that I need to save. And bookmarking everything is far more of a hassle than just saving a session.

The new version of Tab Mix Plus is not on Firefox’s addon site and the old one will NOT WORK with Firefox 3.5. Apparently the developer is very finicky and wants to have it perfect before he will pull the trigger on the official add-on site.

Until then, you can download a FF3.5 compatible version at his web forum, here:
http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9864

Note that it is a beta/developer version, but it has worked just fine and I have had no problems with it’s behavior and I have two dozen addons installed.

@SAM

“Hey, just wanted to add that Tab Mix Plus is still the best system for not only tab layout and options, but recovering crashed windows and saving “sessions”. It has been critical for all the work I do, where I can save multiple windows each with a bunch of tabs open as a “session” that records the exact browser state and then open everything up just like I had it with one click the next time I need it. That way, I can setup specific Firefox windows with web design / programming utilities. Or when I am researching something, I can have multipkle windows open with two dozen tabs that I need to save. And bookmarking everything is far more of a hassle than just saving a session.”

Right-click on tab-bar to BM ALL open tabs in Window. As to session saver, 3.5 has far more extensive recovery built in, and the task-manager method has allowed multiple instance recovery since 3.0 Still don’t see the point of a bulky add-in which is known to slow down FF at the best of times

Either “.tabs-newtab-button {display: none;}” does not work, or your instructions are not clear enough. Every permutation I’ve tried has failed to work, bro. And it seems like others are having the exact same problem. Some clarification would be great. Thanks!

what retard invented tab tearing? ANOYING. Glad to have that gone.

Actually I make good USE of the Tab-Tearing function, so speak for yourself

@Greg – which userChrome (or userChrome – example) are you trying to modify?? There are two, one in the Programs directory (not sure the purpose of that one), and another in the profiles directory (you need to make sure Hidden & System files/folders are visible to get to this one)…. that is the one which need to be modified (and renamed to “userChrome.css”).

You should be able to copy/paste the code directly in, save as userChrome.css, and will modify FF on re-start of browser. Here is the ENTIRE contents of my copy to guide you

.tabs-newtab-button {display: none;}
}
.tabbrowser-tabs[closebuttons="alltabs"] > .tabbrowser-tab > .tab-close-button {
display: -moz-box !important;
}
.tabbrowser-tabs:not([closebuttons="noclose"]):not([closebuttons="closeatend"]) > .tabbrowser-tab[selected="true"] > .tab-close-button {
display: -moz-box !important;
}

In Firefox, I used to be able to drag a tab onto another instance of Firefox, and the other instance would load that page. Firefox 3.5 no longer allows that. In Firefox 3.5, when I drag a tab onto another instance of Firefox, it just loads the page in a brand-new instance rather than the one I dropped the tab onto. Is there any way to get the old drag-and-drop behavior (between instances) back? That bug489729 add-on didn’t help me there. And why did Mozilla change that anyway?

Um, drag-drop on open instance works fine here. You don’t have any extensions which have disabled the behaviour have you?

No, I don’t have any extensions that would disable that behavior. I’m using all the same extensions I used to use.

It used to be that I could click on one of the tabs to give the tab box, itself, the focus (it’d even get the little dotted line around the title to let you know that it had focus), then I could press home or end to jump to the first tab or the last tab, respectively. (I could also use the arrow keys to move between neighboring tabs, but since other hotkey combinations, such as CTRL+Page Up/Down, still work, that’s less of a concern to me.)

Since I often have more tabs open than will fit into the tab bar, the ability to jump to the beginning or end of the list with a single key press was a huge help to me, but now it seems that no matter how many times I click on the tab, all I can get Home and End to do is take me to the top or bottom of whatever page I’m currently viewing.

Does anyone know of a way to restore this functionality?

More importantly, can anyone posit a reason why it was ever removed, in the first place? It seems like the sort of thing a lot of people would’ve made use of.

I cannot seem to find any fix for this so maybe you know: What do I have to do to make it so that I never see the Add Bookmark dialog again? I am perfectly content with everything going to unsorted and doing it manually whenever I feel like it. Thankfully it doesn’t do it when I bookmark via the awesome bar but I “bookmark this link” a lot and whatever else. It isn’t even that it’s that big of a deal but now I want what I want and must have it. Thanks!

The drop-down menu from that little button on the end of the tab-bar (little downward-facing arrow) gives you a list of ALL tabs open in the window.

No, I don’t have any extensions which have disabled that behavior.

I noticed that I can drag tabs to other Firefox instances by dragging the tab into the tab bar of the other Firefox instance. What I used to be able to do is to drag a tab into the page view area of the new Firefox instance, and the page would open there. When I do that with version 3.5, though, the page opens in a brand-new instance of Firefox. And the tab disappears from the instance I dragged it from, which is also different from version 3.0.

I can’t even use FF3.5 at all due at work to its horrendously-slow performance compared to 3.0.x. My colleague at work has the same problem. Both of us are using WinXP. I run FF 3.5 at home on my Vista system and it runs very slowly there as well. Scrolling using the mouse wheel in particular seems glacial. I’ve Googled all this and find few others complaining about 3.5′s performance so I have to assume that the problem isn’t widespread. It must be me. Any ideas as to what extensions might be causing FF 3.5 to slow down? I noticed that one person mentioned that TabMix Plus might slow things down and I definitely use it. Any others known to be performance-zappers?

I don’t use TabMix, and I haven’t experienced slowness with FF 3.5 (in fact, I’ve noticed its rendering engine is noticeably a bit faster).

Having more plug-ins, in general, does seem to slow down Firefox. I used to use Weather Channel’s 1-Click Weather plug-in, but I noticed that slowed down Firefox noticeably, so I stopped using it.

How about how to get rid of the “You’ve opened a new tab” page with the “Don’t show this page again” checkbox that doesn’t do anything?

Are there any fixes, or options i can’t find, to help me with the folowing:

1) when you close a window containing more than one open tab, you used to be able to choose to “save and exit” or “exit without saving” your session. i liked this, because although often i want to save my tabs, i also often don’t, and don’t want to have to close each tab individually before i exit (especially difficult for the last tab when you don’t have the fix above)

2) i used to use “clear history when firefox closes” (did it used to be called “clear private data”?).. but now, if i have this on, and i close a window containing any number of open tabs, it doesn’t save the tabs and restore them next time, and i can’t find any way of making this possible.

3) i have tried the “private browsing” function, and while it is quite simple and useful, what does annoy me is that it when you view websites on which you have saved preferences, or other things (not quite sure how to describe these, but examples are: a) your email address on the login page for Windows Live (Hotmail); b) your layout for the BBC homepage – you can edit which boxes appear for you, and which types of story within those boxes) – when you look at the page with “private browsing” it doesn’t take any of these preferences into account – it just looks at them as if a brand new user. Is this a cookie thing or something like that? (This may be exactly how they intended it, but couldn’t there be an option for people who want normal access to things, but just no additional private data retained?)

if anyone could help me with any of these points i’d appreciate it!

Hello Ben,

here’s the solution to your problem of multiple tab closing.
Open about:config and search for “browser.tabs.warnOnClose”… In your case i think that it must have been set to false.. just double click to make it true and it should do the work..

hope this helps!

I also want to get rid of the tab plus sign. What’s a userChrome.css file? I’m using a mac and searched userChrome.css and Chrome.css in spotlight but did not find anything. Sometimes spotlight doesn’t find things due to a lag in indexing so where might it be?

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, I was already well aware of the drop down list (in fact, I meant to say acknowledge it, originally, but somewhere along the way, it slipped my mind). I’ll admit it’s a nice feature and a worthy addition over the previous versions that didn’t have it, if only for the ability to jump, instantly, to any tab, regardless of where it is on the tab bar, but the thing is, for me at least, it’s hardly a fitting substitute for the first/last tab hot keys. Yes, I can scroll down the list, but it’s still more of a hassle than a few general clicks on the tab bar and a quick key press, especially for someone like me, who tends to surf almost as much by keyboard as he does by mouse.

In one common scenario, for example, I’ll be reading a page and find a link or to that contains further information, so I’ll open those in new tabs. The browser doesn’t automatically jump to the new tabs, because there might be more information I want to finish reading, or I might wish to a couple other links before I start. (I often start with at least 3 different sites, whenever I use Google for anything, for example, to save myself the trouble of going back if the first one doesn’t have what I need.) The problem comes when I finally want to go to the new tabs, now at the end of the tab bar. I could scroll down the list, but that takes longer to click that tiny button and scroll down the whole list (especially when I have an unusually large number of tabs to scroll through) than to click a few times in the general tab bar area (at this point it doesn’t really matter which tab gets the focus so long as one of them does) and hit the End key. Yes, it’ll only save a second or two, but over the course of 3 or 4 hours of research, it can add up. (If nothing else, I simply *feel* more inefficient.)

Besides, call me stubborn if you want (you probably aren’t exactly wrong), but when you get used to doing things one way you don’t want to have to change without a good reason, and I just can’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to do things the same way I used to.

Hi Sapan,

Thanks for the suggestion, but i think that’s the same as the “warn me when closing multiple tabs” option in the options/tabs menu. It was set to “true” already, and it does do this – it does warn me if i close a second window, which contains multiple tabs, that i will be closing them, i guess because closing only this window is not exiting firefox completely. but then if i close the only remaining window, it closes instantly even if there are multiple tabs. i’m almost completely sure it didn’t work like that before…?

To be honestt, am getting rather sick of all the whining. Seems that most of the complaints regarding FF 3.5 come from two quarters:

Those that don’t like change of any kind… to those, you may as well climb in the corner and [b]die[/b], as life is change, and if you can’t adapt, too bl@@dy bad!

And those that lack the basic IQ to even operate a computer properly, let alone use an app with as many options/features such as Firefox. To them, if you lack the brain-capacity to use FF, go back to IE and shut up!

Yes yes, elric.. we can all be oversimplistic when we feel like it just to make a point sound stronger. very clever. but while life IS change, technology is NOT life. and clearly, nobody wants technology to change so fupping frequently that all they’re doing is trying to keep up with it. and yeah, maybe some people don’t get things as quickly as others. but that also IS life. if you can’t adapt to the people around you, then why don’t you stay within your own head and shut up. i really don’t see the point in trying to provoke people just for asking for help! you’ve been helpful so far on this thread, why don’t you continue to be so, spreading a little good into the world rather than pointless aggravation…?

To be honest, am getting rather sick of all the whining. Seems that most of the complaints regarding FF 3.5 come from two quarters:

Those that don’t like change of any kind… to those, you may as well climb in the corner and [b]die[/b], as life is change, and if you can’t adapt, too bl@@dy bad!

And those that lack the basic IQ to even operate a computer properly, let alone use an app with as many options/features such as Firefox. To them, if you lack the brain-capacity to use FF, go back to IE and shut up!

Elric, You appear to be the only one whining. Got an issue, get a tissue.

Another thing I’ve seen with Firefox that bugs me (not just 3.5; I believe in earlier versions too) is that on certain sites, using the ‘find’ feature (using Ctrl-F and the find bar at the bottom), the search is occasionally VERY slow, pausing for 1-2 seconds for every character I type as it searches the page with every character I type.

Sorry if someone has already asked this:
Im using firefox 3.5 on my mac. When I click a link to open in a new tab I dont want to switch to it immediately. I have un-ticked the “When I open a new tab, switch to it immediately” option but this still doesnt help.
This worked fine in firefox 3.0.
Any suggestions why this could be? Its really bugging me!

Fixed it, I went into about:config. Then browser.tabs.loadInBackground (it was on the default, true) so I changed it to false and then back to true. This has now sorted it out. Weird. Oh well.

in FF 3.0, if you clicked on your current tab, or double-clicked on any tab, it would highlight it, which would then give you the ability to scroll left and right through your tabs using the arrow keys. This feature seemed to go bye-bye in FF 3.5.
Halp plz?

Help! I’m with 3.5.2 and have encountered these problems:
1. I open a website, then another (sometimes in another tab, sometimes in a new window). When I return to the first site, it’s blank and I have to press “reload” to see it
2. There are sites I open (e.g. in the Washington Post site), the page begins to load, but then the page goes blank, without me having done anything except gaze at the screen.
What to do?

Is there any way to have only the first window or instance of Firefox open up multiple homepage tabs and subsequent instances (that I initiate at later times) load a single, different page? I have 4 tabs set up as my homepage, but it is annoying to me to open new tabs within the homepage window for additional browsing (I like to keep different web surfing activities and subjects segregated by windows), and equally annoying to open a new window and have to close all of the duplicate homepage tabs. Maybe a little OCD, I know, but if anyone has an solution, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.

6. Show the close button in the last tab

Now when I have this, when I click close, the whole Firefox will close >=( It used to be that clicking close will just land you on a blank tab window.

Guys, I found the solution.

Number 6′s directions are incomplete. After you’ve added the script to your userChrome.css, do the follow:

type about:config into the address bar and find the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab entry in the list. Using the filter makes it easy. Once you’ve found that key, double-click on it to change the value from true to false, and Firefox should no longer close when you close the last tab.

I have the same problem, and it’s annoying as hell. I even downgraded back to 3.0.13 to get it back… and now it seems it won’t work there anymore, either. Running FF 3.0.13 on Mac OS X V10.4.11, and NOTHING I do to the close tab options in about:config works. It’s a close-button on the far right, and one on the active tab. I want my close buttons on every tab back, damnit.

Help I am having the same problem, any solution?

I’ve looked around and haven’t found, and no one in this forum has volunteered any advice. The only progress I’ve made is instead of clicking the reload button, I press ctrl + r…If you find any solution, please post it here.

For those who want to highlight tabs and navigate them using arrow keys and Home/End, this feature is still in Firefox 3.5, but it looks like some GUI elements might have been removed.

What you can do is place the mouse cursor in the Address Bar. Hit the Tab key twice and the Tab should be highlighted and from there you can navigate as usual. I too found it to be helpful when doing research or when I have an insane amount of tabs open, as the more tabs that are open, the slower the pop-down menu on the upper right corner is if you want to move to different tabs.

Enjoy!

I just upgraded to FF 3.5, and I am no longer able to drag a tab to a new location on the tab bar. When I try to do this, I find that I’m dragging some faint text that I can’t read, but the tab itself doesn’t move. I have read all the posts here, but I didn’t recognize this problem as being discussed. However, I didn’t understand some of the discussion about tab tearing, so maybe it’s there.

I have found that tabs can still be dragged on the tab bar, although I believe more careful cursor movement is necessary when dragging to the bottom row of the tab bar. Also, the faint (almost invisible) text still appears when dragging a tab.

Thanks a bunch! It seems odd, but having that little x on the only tab is something I got used to and had considered downgrading back to 3.0 to get it back.
Thanks again!

Dubious statement Elric. People who don’t like change of any kind won’t be upgrading firefox so they won’t be complaining about the changes. As far as the IQ comment, I could very well say people who unquestioningly believe every change to a program improves it lack the critical reasoning skills necessary to score well on an IQ test.

Hi. Recently I upgraded from firefox 3.0.15 to firefox 3.5 (win), after making sure all my add-ons are compatible. Since I installed 3.5, firefox doesn’t save my tabs on close, even after I played a bit with the options. I really couldn’t find a solution to this annoying problem, but I discovered one thing: If I close firefox with the “close windows” button (The upper-right X button) my tabs are not saved, but if I close with “Exit” in “File” menu, my tabs are saved on the next start. Strange. If you can find a solution to this problem, I will be grateful.

Thanks for the tips but here’s the one thing that NEVER is addressed (unless I’ve missed it): what if you DO NOT WANT tabbed browsing? People seem to find this inconceivable but I know I’m not alone in this. You can disable tabbed browsing in Opera (which invented it, I think). And I think you can with Internet Explorer, too. It’s easily done with K-Meleon – which I would use for that reason, and for its simplicity, if only it allowed mouseless browsing. It’s the Mouseless Browsing extension that makes it hard to do without Firefox. But here we go with new, improved, upgraded versions which spoil everything and leave one pining for the old ‘retro’ versions. I like the old Internet Explorer much better than the flashy new IE7 and I remember Firefox as a beautifully simple thing. Now I find the tabs to be invasive and interfering, and the bookmark management has been ruined. It used to be so easy. Can one get earlier versions of Firefox and block any upgrade attempts? Thanks.

OK, for me the problem is that despite checking the ‘Always show tab bar’, the bar wont show even when One tabbed window is open! Any solutions?

thanks for the tab tearing tip. I hate it when new “features” are added and you’re wondering what the heck you just did. On my desktop it’s not an issue, but on my laptop I constantly found myself tearing tabs because my mouse movements are more sloppy on a touchpad.

I really liked being able to select a tab in the tab bar. I could get into the tab bar and move tabs left, right, ‘home’ or ‘end’ and I can’t any more!

The other thing they took out / changed was what counts as an actionable item, at least for the OS 10.6 version. I can no longer tab through a form and select dropdown menus or buttons, only text boxes.

I agree with Valdimarian. I used to reorder my tabs, frequently sending to the top or bottom, I miss it.
Thanks for the tips, I didn´t know that now I could drag the favicon for creating a shortcut instead of dragging the tab.

Maybe You already knew, but, if I understood well, so my first language is not English, your need of focusing the first and last tab could be resolved pressing Ctrl+1 to 9, 1 will focus the first, 2 the second, and so on, and the 9 always the last.

Thanks …A LOT!
I really missed being able to select tabs with a simple click, now I realize, and I’m surprised cause I use to do it in other programs but didn’t remembered, that is possible toggling from other menus.
In order to avoid the lack, now I do the following:

[Ctrl+L]
[Tab]
[Tab]
[Ctrl+Home]

…or [End], depending where I need the focused tab, at the top or bottom.

I have the same problem using Firefox 3.6.3 in a Fedora 9 (it’s a OLPC XO-1, that’s why it’s such an old Fedora release).
How did you fix the problem?

Actually, the tabs shake because the small left and right arrows of the tabs bar, which show up when there are many tabs, constantly appear and desappear. If there’s a way to hide these arrows, it wuold be a good workarround.

how ’bout how to turn the tabs completely off.
Completely. forever.
please find a way!

how about to delete cookies after a tab is closed (only cookies form that tab would be deleted)
Thank you

When I right click to “open in new tab” it automatically takes me to that new tab. I have unchecked that option in the tools’ options (it wasn’t checked before, yet it was still doing it). How can I get it to stop going to the new tab? I like opening multiple links and viewing them later (especially when using social media sites), but this “glitch” I’m experiencing is making the experience quite annoying…

Thanks -

Thanks for the “2. Hide the new tab button in the tab bar” tip. I have a tough one which I can’t the answer. I have a slow connection but it’s all need. I am still using FF3.5.2. I have a problem when I am in the “Organize Bookmarks” window (CTRL-SHIFT-B), the FF window which says “Library” (for some reason). Whenever I click JUST ONCE on most bookmarks, FF accesses the ‘Net. I am not attempting to actually open the web page and FF does NOT open the page. I’m pretty sure FF is accessing the site where the bookmark is pointing to, so it’s nothing nefarious. This never happened with the old FF v2.x or at least I never noticed it. I would prefer FF3.5.2 not do this because it slows down my already slow connection even more. Is there any way to stop FF from doing this? If this problem has been fixed with a later FF version, please let me know.

“2. Hide the new tab button in the tab bar” tweak above no longer works for FF 3.6.8. I modified the userChrome.css file and placed it in my profile’s chrome folder and then the FF program Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\chrome folder and it didn’t work. I restarted FF each time.

Never mind. The “2. Hide the new tab button in the tab bar” tweak does work for FF 3.6.8. I don’t use the default FF profile location and FF 3.5 (which I first installed last year) didn’t create a chrome folder in the correct location. I did have other chrome folders but those weren’t in the correct place. After I copied the correct default profile chrome folder into my profile and copied the userChrome.css into it, FF 3.6.8 works correctly with no tab button.

You can delete my “Cypherdude said on August 11, 2010, 1:42 am:” post above.