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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Is there a way to block tab-locking dialog boxes?

  • 2 replies
  • 22 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

LawrenceKing
LawrenceKing
more options

Certain pages on the web will not let you leave their page without pressing buttons on a dialog box.

When you attempt to close a tab that is displaying this page, the dialog box appears. It may say "Are you sure you want to close this page?", or it may say something more complex. If you click on CANCEL, you stay on the page; if you click on OK, it allows Firefox to close the tab.

The problem is that I do not want to click on _any_ button on a page I don't trust. But if I don't, I cannot close the tab. I can't even exit Firefox.

MY CURRENT WORK-AROUND: Use Task Manager to kill the Firefox process. Restart Firefox... which automatically re-opens all my previous tabs, including the one with the problem, so it locks again. Use Task Manager to kill Firefox again. Restart Firefox again ... this time, it allows me to de-select that specific page.

I was going to paste a .jpg of the dialog box but this forum doesn't seem to allow that.

Certain pages on the web will not let you leave their page without pressing buttons on a dialog box. When you attempt to close a tab that is displaying this page, the dialog box appears. It may say "Are you sure you want to close this page?", or it may say something more complex. If you click on CANCEL, you stay on the page; if you click on OK, it allows Firefox to close the tab. The problem is that I do not want to click on _any_ button on a page I don't trust. But if I don't, I cannot close the tab. I can't even exit Firefox. MY CURRENT WORK-AROUND: Use Task Manager to kill the Firefox process. Restart Firefox... which automatically re-opens all my previous tabs, including the one with the problem, so it locks again. Use Task Manager to kill Firefox again. Restart Firefox again ... this time, it allows me to de-select that specific page. I was going to paste a .jpg of the dialog box but this forum doesn't seem to allow that.

All Replies (2)

TonyE
TonyE
  • Moderator
more options

Those sites rely on JavaScript to display the dialog boxes. You can use the NoScript add-on which blocks JavaScript for all sites unless you specifically allow it.

When you first use NoScript it can take a little while to set it up to allow JavaScript on the sites you visit regularly and trust, but it does lead to a safer browser.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

You can set the pref browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first restart after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.

See: 

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Session_Restore#Preferences
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore#Firefox_keeps_crashing_after_restoring_a_session