This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Since upgrading to 4.0 and now 5.0 tabs do not have tab close buttons and I must use CNTL-W to close open tabs, what's the problem?

  • 5 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

Since upgrading to Firefox 4.0 the close tab button, usually in the upper right corner of the tab has been missing. I have just recently upgraded automatically to 5.0 and the tab close 'X' button is still missing from all open tabs. The only way to close a tab is to click on it and use CNTL-W to close out the tab.

Since upgrading to Firefox 4.0 the close tab button, usually in the upper right corner of the tab has been missing. I have just recently upgraded automatically to 5.0 and the tab close 'X' button is still missing from all open tabs. The only way to close a tab is to click on it and use CNTL-W to close out the tab.

All Replies (5)

more options

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.

  • Use "Disable all add-ons" on the Safe mode start window to disable all extensions.
  • Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")

In Firefox 4 you can use one of these to start in Safe mode:

  • Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Hold down the Shift key while double clicking the Firefox desktop shortcut (Windows)

more options

Restarted in safe mode using Help>Restart with all addons disabled.

No Change.

Still no tab close buttons on the tabs. Only a CNTRL-W or a right click on the tab and selecting close tab will close the active tab.

more options

You can check if the close buttons are still enabled.


To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.
You can use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a pref more easily.

more options

Thank you very much for your help. That was it the tab close integer value was set to 33 for some unknown reason. I reset it to an integer value of '1' and that solved the problem.

Thank you again.

more options

You're welcome.

Maybe you may have tried to changed it once to 3 (only a close button at the far right end) and typed two '33' instead of one '3' ?