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Can't close a tab or a separate window without closing Firefox, and only then I need taskmgr

  • 2 replies
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  • Last reply by cor-el

Dean
Dean
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My Firefox can only be shut down by TaskManager, or by clicking on the three horizontal bars and then dropping to exit.

So I can't close any single tab 'without closing them all', that's the real annoyance. I also can't close any individual windows I opened instead of a new tab, without closing all tabs and windows. Finally the classic windows ALT+F4 closure that's built into Windows doesn't close Firefox, and if it did I suspect ALT+F4 would close them all. Bottom line Firefox is seriously close-resistant.

What precipitated this was I allowed a previous Firefox update to download-install, and it tanked my performance, I figured your team would fix that issue, but in the meantime what I did was uninstall that version and reinstall the version I had been running before that update. Tilt! That action resulted in the close windows or tabs problem.

Summary: I am using the latest version now, but with it came this "can't close any individual tab without closing them all, and can only close even then except by Taskmanager or by clicking the 3 horizontal bars then dropping to Exit which also closes all Firefox tabs and Windows. This problem has surfaced before in this support, and none of the solutions worked, probably because I got to this place uniquely. I did read before submitting this.

'''My Firefox can only be shut down by TaskManager, or by clicking on the three horizontal bars and then dropping to exit.''' So I can't close any single tab ''''without closing them all'''', that's the real annoyance. I also can't close any individual windows I opened instead of a new tab, without closing all tabs ''and'' windows. Finally the classic windows ALT+F4 closure that's built into Windows doesn't close Firefox, and if it did I suspect ALT+F4 would close them all. '''Bottom line Firefox is seriously close-resistant.''' What precipitated this was I allowed a previous Firefox update to download-install, and it tanked my performance, I figured your team would fix that issue, but in the meantime what I did was uninstall that version and reinstall the version I had been running before that update. ''Tilt! That action resulted in the close windows or tabs problem.'' '''Summary: I am using the latest version now, but with it came this "can't close any individual tab without closing them all, and can only close even then except by Taskmanager or by clicking the 3 horizontal bars then dropping to Exit which also closes all Firefox tabs and Windows. ''' This problem has surfaced before in this support, and none of the solutions worked, probably because I got to this place uniquely. I did read before submitting this.

All Replies (2)

TyDraniu
TyDraniu
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Could you try to use mozregression to narrow the issue? Thanks.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Can't you close a tab via "Ctrl+W" ? You aren't using pinned tabs, since you can only close a pinned tab via a middle-click and via the right-click context menu?

Do a clean reinstall of the current Firefox release and delete the Firefox program folder before installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.

If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows Registry and settings in security software.

  • do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall the current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including personal data in profiles created by other Firefox versions

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

  • (64-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
  • (32-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
  • it is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling

Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you reinstall or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.

If you keep having problems, you can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.

Reinstall Firefox