Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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

Natao arisiva ity resaka mitohy ity. Mametraha fanontaniana azafady raha mila fanampiana.

How to prevent a single tab from closing (not the last tab in a window)?

  • 5 valiny
  • 0 manana an'ity olana ity
  • 21 views
  • Valiny farany nomen'i cor-el

more options

Long ago, I would use Tab-Mix Plus but that functionality went away around FF57.

For most cases since then, Cntl-Shift-T works well.

But I found a use case where Cntl-Shift-T does not work. If one has an active form in progress in given tab, then opens another link on top of that, then closes the tab with Cntl-W or equivalent, then after the CS-T the form progress from the overlaid url is lost.

I use Cntl-W so freely that I can miss that I have accidentally closed tabs that I normally like to keep open. I sometimes don't notice till much later, too long for easy CS-T and I have to recreate from other resources. I have already removed the X-close buttons per tab.

Tab-Mix Plus would just prevent closing of protected tabs all-together and prevent both of these issues.

I have my own webapp framework, and my primary way to workaround this is use target=_blank liberally on local links. But that is an unnatural process in many ways with extra overhead of creating and destroying tabs rather that simply redirecting the current one.

Maybe there's another way around all of this?

Long ago, I would use Tab-Mix Plus but that functionality went away around FF57. For most cases since then, Cntl-Shift-T works well. But I found a use case where Cntl-Shift-T does not work. If one has an active form in progress in given tab, then opens another link on top of that, then closes the tab with Cntl-W or equivalent, then after the CS-T the form progress from the overlaid url is lost. I use Cntl-W so freely that I can miss that I have accidentally closed tabs that I normally like to keep open. I sometimes don't notice till much later, too long for easy CS-T and I have to recreate from other resources. I have already removed the X-close buttons per tab. Tab-Mix Plus would just prevent closing of protected tabs all-together and prevent both of these issues. I have my own webapp framework, and my primary way to workaround this is use target=_blank liberally on local links. But that is an unnatural process in many ways with extra overhead of creating and destroying tabs rather that simply redirecting the current one. Maybe there's another way around all of this?

All Replies (5)

more options

Not sure if this is useful for you, bit pinned tabs are not closed by Ctrl-W

more options

When I pin a tab, it gets hidden at the front of my tab list, I need to unpin it to work on it again. I want to protect it from accidental closure while I'm actively work on it. Am I missing something?

Thanks...

more options

Note that the Tab Manager button is enabled by default in 106+, so you can use this button to locate a pinned tab since with browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled = true pinned tabs are included in the list all tabs drop-down list.

Novain'i cor-el t@

more options

I don't believe this matches my needs since I want to prevent accidental closing while I am actively working on a tab, not while it's pinned. Again, am I missing something?

more options

Like written above by Balázs Meskó, the only way to prevent Ctrl+W from closing the tab is to pin this tab. If you normally aren't using pinned tabs then this will be the only pinned tab in case you want to give this a try.