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The "x" button that closes app will not close app. It is closing tabs one at a time.

  • 10 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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whenever I press the "x" upper right corner that is supposed to close the app, it will just close the last tab. So, now I cannot close the app and keep my previous session. ugh!

whenever I press the "x" upper right corner that is supposed to close the app, it will just close the last tab. So, now I cannot close the app and keep my previous session. ugh!

All Replies (10)

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You can hit the Alt key, then open File on the Menu bat when it appears, and then use the Exit command. That is the "proper way" to Exit Firefox and most other programs running in Windows.

Or from the keyboard alone, use Alt, F, X to Exit Firefox.

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well, it did close the app, but that is NOT a great work around. The "x" SHOULD work to close the app. Having to do multiple tasks to get out of my app is annoying and I risk accidentally clicking the "x" and losing the tab.

Need a way to fix this "x" problem. It used to work fine

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Are you clicking the close X to close the window or are you clicking a close X on the tab or Tab bar in case you use an extension that uses one fixed close button to close a tab?

Can you attach a screenshot?


Note that safest is always to close Firefox via the file menu or via the (red) power button in the "3-bar" Firefox menu button drop-down list.

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The "X" button at the upper right corner of a window should close the current window (you may get a warning that there are multiple tabs in the window). Whether that also closes the app completely depends on whether the app has multiple windows open.

Either way, the "X" button shouldn't normally close only one tab in the current window; that's not something I've heard of before.

For future reference, when you restore your previous session, the History menu will usually list your most recently closed windows, and the most recently closed tabs in the current window. Just in case you need those back.

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I am using the gray "x" in upper right, as I always have in past. The red "x" is an add on, which closes all the tabs at once. I am not using that one. See screenshot

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What is the purpose of the red X add-on? Could it be changing what the normal button does?

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the red x add on allows me to close all the tabs at once without closing the app. It is useful. But, the other gray x has always been used to shut down the app, itself.....it is supposed to, but it's now shutting down the open tab only

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Unless it's a transient glitch that can be resolved by restarting Windows, I suspect one of your add-ons is changing how the "close window" button works.

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Well I haven't added any add-ones in a long time. And this is a relatively new problem. But thanks for trying

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Maybe that extension that adds this close button is malfunctioning.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window