Wow, please know that this board is staffed with volunteers who as far as we know haven't done anything bad to you.

It's hard to tell exactly what you mean about your tabs being gone. Did Firefox crash and not restore your previous session? Are you missing bookmarks or other settings? Stuck in full screen mode (try F11)?

A more detailed explanation would be helpful. And less dietary advice.

I have the same problem.

Symptoms:

1. Normally the tabs are along the left hand side 2. For unknown reasons, they appeared on the bottom instead of the left 3. I tried various things to get them back to the left 4. Eventually, they just disappeared all together, however they are still apparently "open" 4.1 For instance, If I type in the URL address bar, the drop-down menu appears, and I can "switch to tab" that is already open there.. 4.2 It goes there without trouble. 5. Playing with settings (always hide/show tabs) does not make them reappear. 6. Quiting/restarting does not either. 7. This started yesterday (27-Mar-2013) and is on the latest revision as of that time.

Hi bgix, you mean Firefox's tabs for individual pages, not the Windows task bar tabs? Having tabs on the left side or the bottom of the page isn't a built-in feature, but could be done by an add-on. Do you have the Tab Utilities extension discussed in this thread: My tabs are on the side... how to get them back to normal? You should able to access its options button using either of these:

• orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Extensions
• type or paste about:addons in the address bar and press Enter

That was it.... For some reason, I thought that this was no longer an add-on, but a standard feature. Thanks Bunches.

I'm w Akron here (except for the dietary advice.). where did the tabs go? current version 23.0.1 when i click "new tab" it opens a new window. none of the windows have tabs, tabbed browsing is a major feature. so, where did they go?

a previous reply: It's hard to tell exactly what you mean about your tabs being gone. Did Firefox crash and not restore your previous session? NO Are you missing bookmarks or other settings? NO Stuck in full screen mode (try F11)? NO

they're just gone. now i gotta use chrome.

Hi nicksharpe, starting in Firefox 23, you should ALWAYS see the tab bar, unless you installed an add-on to suppress it -- or your toolbar layout file has become corrupted.

You can rename the file and customize your toolbars from scratch. Here's how:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Switch back to Firefox and Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename localstore.rdf to something like localstore.old

Restart Firefox. Hopefully now your tab bar will be back to normal. Any luck?

If that doesn't help, to see whether it could be due to an add-on, could you try Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings). More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using

Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)

Any improvement?

did the localstore.old and no change. just as i was to reach for my revo uninstaller, i did the safe mode and restored the tabs.

this is recent clean install of FF due to malware infiltration in a previous version. I'm usually vigilant about what i download but a recent install of SEOquake looked dodgy. I've been using that tool bar for years, but this one had some weird code in the address bar.

I'm gonna revo uninstall FF (nuke the sucker) and re-install a fresh version. Then reconfigure all my extensions (ugh) The way these plugins and other assorted bits of code thread there way to deep dark corners, for a non-coder like me, gotta go for the nuclear option.

unless you have a better idea.

Hi nicksharpe, could you try just disabling all the nonessential extension? By nonessential, I mean, you can live without them for 24 hours.

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Extensions category

If a link appears above a disabled extension to restart Firefox, you can do that as the last step after completing your work on that list.