Sometimes FF will not remember my tab groups correctly. In order to use the Ctrl + ` short cut to switch between them I have to close all my tabs
I use two sets of tab groups. One for my personal stuff and one for work. This allows me to quickly hit CTRL + ` when someone walks by and it looks like I'm doing actual work.
Sometimes this shortcut stops working. When I hit CTRL+` I expect it to switch to my other tab groups-it does not. It weirdly cycles through some of the current tabs and then adds tabs from the other group into the main group. Then if I click the tab groups icon in the upper right sometimes all of my tabs are in their own group and sometimes they are now in the main tab group.
Nothing works until I close all my tabs and Firefox and start over.
Modified by harry-grundelson
All Replies (5)
Sorry I am not an expert on the tabs groups, I only very rarely use them. It is rather difficult to know whether this is a fault or how you are using the feature. Does it help to look at the explanatory article
There is probably a much simpler method. Use the Operating Sytem (OS) to switch windows.
- open one Firefox window with one set of tabs in
- open a second firefox window, by any method, such as dragging a tab downwards so that it opens in a new window. Or opening a tabs group in a new window.
- now use the OS to switch between the two windows
- in Windows OS the keyboard shortcut that does that is Alt + Tab
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. The alt-tab method won't work. Alt-tab cycles through windows and I don't want that. I want it to be completely hidden.
As for Tab Groups. I am using it properly; this is a bug. I'll make a video the next time it happens.
Sorry I do not seem to understand what you are attempting to do.
You said
I use two sets of tab groups. One for my personal stuff and one for work. This allows me to quickly hit CTRL + ` when someone walks by and it looks like I'm doing actual work.
Using Ctrl + ` will only be expected to switch between tab groups
As it says in the linked article " The keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + ` allows you to go to the next Tab Group and Ctrl + Shift + ` to the previous Tab Group. "
So I am not sure that it satisfies your desire: "I want it to be completely hidden. "
As for making a video of what happens, that may help us to see what is happening but it will solve nothing. You would really need to do some troubleshooting steps first and try in safemode and a new profile, and preferably in one of the new Nightly builds of Firefox if you wished to prove it was a proper bug, rather than some other software interfering.
If you see continuing problems postback again and we will explain the troubleshooting steps.
Ctrl + ` will cycle back and forth between 2 Tab Groups if you only have 2.
Why I want this this to consistently work is irrelevant. My reasoning for it doesn't relate to the problem.
Do this:
- Open a new browser
- Open a bunch of tabs
- Click the Tab Groups icon in the upper right
- Double click in the transparent area to create a new Tab Group
- Open some new tabs in this Tab Group
- Press Ctrl + `
- Press Ctrl + ` again
See how it cycles between the two tab groups? This works great, until all of a sudden it stops. Usually after 8 hours or so of using Firefox.
When I say it "stops" I mean, the two separate Tab Groups start sharing tabs, the Ctrl + ` intermittently stops working and clicking the Tab Group icon in the upper right shows that some of my previous tabs have now started their own Tab Group. Essentially, everything is a mess.
Main point: It does all of this weirdness on its own. I did not make new Tab Groups, I did not move tabs from group to group. Firefox randomly starts doing this after using the browser for many hours.
The only way to fix it is to close every tab and every group and restart Firefox.
Is that more clear?
TLDR; It works for hours and hours and then goes bonkers.
Modified by harry-grundelson
May I suggest you try testing that in a clean profile, if you have found a problem you can file a bug for it, but it would be best to ensure you are using firefox without plugins and extensions in case they are interfering with ordinary operation of the tab groups.
- Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles_creating-a-profile
- heed the warnings about using an empty folder for the profile set-up
Note if you do wish to try testing this out and need to have a a browser open for ordinary use, and one for testing purposes that can be done. You could either
- install Firefox Portable as a temporary additional browser for day to day work.
- OR run your current browser for daily work; and do a Custom install preferably of Firefox Nightly.
Multiple browser use
It is not too difficult to run two (or more) firefox browsers and, if required, have them open at the same time (assuming the machine can cope with the increased CPU &memory demands of this). See
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Testing_pre-release_versions#Installing_multiple_versions
(Note use of -no-remote argument)
A simpler method would be to do daily browsing in IE, and use Firefox only for testing.