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Mac:- Open New Tab in the Background

  • 14 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by McCoy

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Similar to the question here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1239720 I'm finding that on a Mac I'm getting inconsistent results. If I hold CMD while clicking on a link in Gmail then I will be taken away from the tab I'm currently looking at and straight to the new tab.

If I'm on other web pages holding CMD and clicking on a link means that the new tab will open in the background and I will stay on the current tab. This is the expected behaviour and is consistent with Safari, Chrome, and other browsers.

How can I stop FF from taking me away from the tab I'm currently viewing?

Similar to the question here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1239720 I'm finding that on a Mac I'm getting inconsistent results. If I hold CMD while clicking on a link in Gmail then I will be taken away from the tab I'm currently looking at and straight to the new tab. If I'm on other web pages holding CMD and clicking on a link means that the new tab will open in the background and I will stay on the current tab. This is the expected behaviour and is consistent with Safari, Chrome, and other browsers. How can I stop FF from taking me away from the tab I'm currently viewing?

All Replies (14)

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Hello GregMB,

Would you do this please :

Preferences => General => under 'Tabs' uncheck :

'When you open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately'.

Now when you press the Cmd key and click a link, the link will be opened in a new tab, but you will still be on the same tab.

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Thanks McCoy. But that option was already unchecked and still is and the inconsistent behaviour still happens.

Any other suggestions?

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GregM8 said

Thanks McCoy. But that option was already unchecked and still is and the inconsistent behaviour still happens. Any other suggestions?

I just tried it and it works for me - do you press the Cmd key and then click a link  ?

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Yes, definitely holding down Cmd key and tried it multiple times. This only happens with links in Gmail. Outside of Gmail everything works as it should.

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GregM8 said

This only happens with links in Gmail. Outside of Gmail everything works as it should.

I should have paid better attention to your original post - my apologies ......

Would you try this please :

Type in the address bar about:config and press Enter (promise to be careful, if asked)

Type in the search bar browser.tabs.loadDiverted.

and look for the preference :

browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground

and set its value to true (default = false)

Then close and restart Firefox.

Does that work  ?

If this doesn't make a difference, then change the value back.

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Another thing to try is to go to :

www.google.com

Click on 'Settings' (bottom right) => Search settings

Scroll down to 'Where results open' and uncheck 'Open each selected result in a new browser window'

Then click the blue 'Save' button at the bottom.

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Thanks McCoy

Adjusting browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground to true works.

Cheers

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Although now that I look closer it now opens all new tabs in the background even if I'm not holding the Cmd key.

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"Scroll down to 'Where results open' and uncheck 'Open each selected result in a new browser window'"

Had a look here and it was already unchecked.

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GregM8 said

Although now that I look closer it now opens all new tabs in the background even if I'm not holding the Cmd key.

If that is not what you want : change the value of that preference back to "false" .....

'Must admit that I haven't checked to see how this works (checked the setting in Preferences only), as I don't want those tabs to open in the background all the time.

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Yeah, I've changed the setting back. But I still have the fault. Is this something that should be reported as a bug?

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GregM8 said

Yeah, I've changed the setting back. But I still have the fault. Is this something that should be reported as a bug?

I went to see if maybe there already was a bug report about this issue and on this page I found this bug report :

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=661801

Started 8 years ago, last updated 2 years ago, status : NEW, and apparantly not being worked on right now .....

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8 years huh? I guess it's not going to be addressed any time soon.

Thanks for all your help McCoy.

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GregM8 said

8 years huh? I guess it's not going to be addressed any time soon.

You could add a comment to that bug report and explain your problem (in a concise manner) and get the ball rolling again (hopefully .....)