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Firefox focuses on new tabs unpredictably.

  • 1 reply
  • 10 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I have the option "When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately" unchecked. I want Firefox to stay on the current tab. My problem is Firefox seems to randomly decide which tab to focus on.

For an example: Say I have no extra tabs, only the one I'm current viewing, then I ctrl+click a link, new tab opens, Firefox does not switch. So far so good. Then I ctrl+click another link, making 3 tabs total, and Firefox switches to the second tab instead of not switching at all. Switching to the second newest tab, no matter how many I have open, seems to be the most common action, although sometimes it will just go ahead and switch to the newest tab or behave itself and not switch at all.


Thank you ahead of time for any replies.

I have the option "When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately" unchecked. I want Firefox to stay on the current tab. My problem is Firefox seems to randomly decide which tab to focus on. For an example: Say I have no extra tabs, only the one I'm current viewing, then I ctrl+click a link, new tab opens, Firefox does not switch. So far so good. Then I ctrl+click another link, making 3 tabs total, and Firefox switches to the ''second tab'' instead of not switching at all. Switching to the second newest tab, no matter how many I have open, seems to be the most common action, although sometimes it will just go ahead and switch to the newest tab or behave itself and not switch at all. Thank you ahead of time for any replies.

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

  • Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.

See: