How to completely disable Tab Groups?
I don't use Tab Groups and have no need for them. I didn't even know they existed until my tabs starting disappearing.
When I close all tabs I get to the Tabs Group screen. Pressing the Tab Group button doesn't work at all. There I find my missing tabs. When I try to open them they don't open. They start to expand to full screen, but never get there. They just return to the small Tab Group size. I have to close Firefox and start all over.
I have no idea what causes my tabs to go into a new Tab Group, but it happens a lot. When I hit the '+' ("Open a new tab" button) sometimes the new tab is now my only tab and all my other tabs are in a Tab Group that I cannot access. It also happens when I switch to a different tab. I click on the tab and suddenly its my only tab. All others have been grouped and lost since my tab groups will not open.
I would like to completely disable Tab Groups. It's a feature that only causes me frustration.
Modified by whatsgoingon
All Replies (10)
Try this, right click on one button in the navigation bar, customize, drag the "tab groups" buttons to the window that appears:
Modified by Diego Victor
That doesn't work. I don't have the Tab Groups button on a toolbar. After I figured out what was happening I added it to a toolbar because I thought it would let me easily navigate back and forth Tab Groups. It doesn't do anything though. It will not open Tab Groups. The only way I can open Tab Groups is to close all tabs. Once the last Tab is closed the Tab Groups view is displayed. Once in the Tab Group window there is no way to get out. I have to close Firefox and open a new one.
You should be able to toggle the tab group window with the icon in the top right corner and with the Ctrl+Shift+E shortcut.
To disable/reset Tab groups:
You can click the name field of each tab group in the Panorama window (Shift+Ctrl+E) and reset each name to an empty string.
Drag the Tab group icon of the Tab bar in the toolbar palette (View > Toolbar > Customize or Firefox > Options > Toolbar Layout).
Reset the browser.panorama.* prefs on the about:config page to remove the "Move to Group" entry in the right-click context menu of the Tab bar.
- browser.panorama.experienced_first_run
- browser.panorama.session_restore_enabled_once
I tried reseting each tab group name to an empty string, they're already empty though. They default empty. They still will not open.
Shfit+Ctrl+E does the same thing as trying to open one of the grouped tabs. It attempts to open full screen, but doesn't. Tab groups cannot be opened.
I went to about:config > browser.panorama and it has both of the browser.panorama Preference Names you listed. There is nothing about "Move to Group". Changing the options in both made no different to the right-click context menu of the tab bar.
I'm 100% sure I'm not right clicking tabs to groups.
I've also tried uninstalling firefox, deleting all firefox files, and reinstalling firefox. I copied my password files to the new install, but nothing else. I still have the problem.
I read somewhere that deleting 'sessionstore.js' may solve the problem. Since this is an intermittent problem I won't know right away if this fixes the problem.... it didn't work.
Modified by whatsgoingon
Anyone else with this problem running the "FindBar Tweak" extension? I uninstalled it and haven't had the Tab Group problem for over a week now.
Uninstalled "Findbar Tweak" extension Feb. 03, 2014. Haven't had the problem once since then. It must be related to "Findbar Tweak".
By following this procedure,the tabs can be disabled:-
Functions - Settings - Tabs -> Unchecked all check boxes
Tabs or Tab Groups can be disabled? Where is 'Functions' found?
What is meant is probably the settings in Firefox/Tools > Options > Tabs, but that wouldn't effect tab groups.
You can hide the first (one and only tab) with an extension.
Modified by cor-el
I am using Windows XP PRO 32 bit on a desktop.... I too had my problems with this feature. To stop EVERY website opening when I was keeping these tabs/sites, I interspersed them with new tabs....that way, if I wanted to delete one, the next one wouldn't open. This Group Tabs feature is a great idea, I need it, but not in this form, it's useless.... the execution of it is clumsy, & hard to use. I took about 3 hours over the week-end to try & set it up....which, along with the usual plug in crashes & slowing down I get with Firefox, was painfully slow to say the least. And, it was really useless....why didn't the creator of this feature just give us basic folders that stay in one position, not those silly tiny boxes that float around ( try sorting them into alphabetical order, after you have named each box....man....that's so frustrating....,)
I was only able to add about 6 sites to each box, before they all compressed into one 'heap', one little box on top of all the other little boxes, then I couldn't 'un-heap' them to find the one I wanted to open....very clunky & hard to use.
As I am using this feature to find what I was working on last time, sometimes I cannot find the time to actually bookmark them when it's time to close up....I am not happy that in this process, I lost about 15 websites that I now cannot remember the names of......my saved tabs were my 'memory' if you like....now I have invested so much time/energy creating Firefox to my liking, it's all slow & messed up, I cannot find things, ....I do appreciate that you are all volunteers, and thanks you for the basic bones of the thing, but someone needs to make it the awesome browser it once was and simplify it....please, for all of us that are going crazy dealing with the slowness & crashing plug ins etc....I don't much like Internet Explorer, but use it as my back up browser....looks like I might have to jump ship, like all the others....sad....Sorry to vent, I don't believe you can really help me.... Thanks Sylvia