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!

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

With multiple tabs open pressing close button closes firefox without asking for confirmation

  • 13 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by prasannatsm

more options

I am using Firefox 57 on Linux. With multiple tabs open pressing the close button or Ctrl+Q closes Firefox. Confirmation dialog box does not appear at all. Its a huge regression.

I am using Firefox 57 on Linux. With multiple tabs open pressing the close button or Ctrl+Q closes Firefox. Confirmation dialog box does not appear at all. Its a huge regression.

All Replies (13)

more options

Go to Preferences and check the When Firefox starts option. What you got?

more options

TyDraniu said

Go to Preferences and check the When Firefox starts option. What you got?

I have set it to "Show your windows and tabs from last time". Why you are asking such an irrelevant question?

more options

prasannatsm said

I have set it to "Show your windows and tabs from last time". Why you are asking such an irrelevant question?

In this case there's no confirmation box. There's no need to confirm exit, when your tabs are to be returned in the next session.

more options

TyDraniu said

prasannatsm said
I have set it to "Show your windows and tabs from last time". Why you are asking such an irrelevant question?

In this case there's no confirmation box. There's no need to confirm exit, when your tabs are to be returned in the next session.

How can that be assumed? It was asked in the previous versions and users were using it as a feature. Now it is removed. I consider it as a regression.

more options

No, this behaviour was introduced about 50 versions ago.

Perhaps your confirmation box was delivered by some extension, which is not compatible with recent version.

more options

There is a pref in about:config <--- type that in the Address Bar.

browser.tabs.warnOnClose --- double-click the pref to toggle it to true

true is the default setting, but when warning message that appears about closing multiple tabs and the user accidentally clicks don't show this message again that pref will get changed to false

more options

the-edmeister said

There is a pref in about:config <--- type that in the Address Bar. browser.tabs.warnOnClose --- double-click the pref to toggle it to true true is the default setting, but when warning message that appears about closing multiple tabs and the user accidentally clicks don't show this message again that pref will get changed to false

I already double checked browser.tabs.warnOnClose is set to true before asking here. Even now it is set to true. But on pressing close button with multiple tabs I am not seeing confirmation dialog.

more options

TyDraniu said

No, this behaviour was introduced about 50 versions ago. Perhaps your confirmation box was delivered by some extension, which is not compatible with recent version.

In previous versions pressing the close button would ask for the confirmation dialog but ctrl + Q did not. Being a long time Firefox user I am sure it is not due to some extension. May be older version had some bug.

But this version is definitely not behaving as expected.

more options

Two years ago I copied the following from the Firefox's sources:

// There are several cases where we won't show a dialog here: // 1. There is only 1 tab open in 1 window // 2. The session will be restored at startup, indicated by // browser.startup.page == 3 or browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once == true // 3. browser.warnOnQuit == false // 4. The browser is currently in Private Browsing mode // 5. The browser will be restarted. // // Otherwise these are the conditions and the associated dialogs that will be shown: // 1. aQuitType == "lastwindow" or "quit" and browser.showQuitWarning == true // - The quit dialog will be shown // 2. aQuitType == "lastwindow" && browser.tabs.warnOnClose == true // - The "closing multiple tabs" dialog will be shown // // aQuitType == "lastwindow" is overloaded. "lastwindow" is used to indicate // "the last window is closing but we're not quitting (a non-browser window is open)" // and also "we're quitting by closing the last window".

more options

TyDraniu said

Two years ago I copied the following from the Firefox's sources: // There are several cases where we won't show a dialog here: // 1. There is only 1 tab open in 1 window // 2. The session will be restored at startup, indicated by // browser.startup.page == 3 or browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once == true // 3. browser.warnOnQuit == false // 4. The browser is currently in Private Browsing mode // 5. The browser will be restarted. // // Otherwise these are the conditions and the associated dialogs that will be shown: // 1. aQuitType == "lastwindow" or "quit" and browser.showQuitWarning == true // - The quit dialog will be shown // 2. aQuitType == "lastwindow" && browser.tabs.warnOnClose == true // - The "closing multiple tabs" dialog will be shown // // aQuitType == "lastwindow" is overloaded. "lastwindow" is used to indicate // "the last window is closing but we're not quitting (a non-browser window is open)" // and also "we're quitting by closing the last window".

I think there could be some logic error or precedence error. But I am sure that the behavior has changed in this version and it is not what an user would expect. Appreciate if that is changed.

more options

prasannatsm said

I am using Firefox 57 on Linux. With multiple tabs open pressing the close button or Ctrl+Q closes Firefox. Confirmation dialog box does not appear at all. Its a huge regression.

Does your FF have this showing with the Red Arrow if so that would mean any "x" would close everything on the Browser without warning.

more options

You only see the tab close settings when the current setting isn't the default (these settings are normally hidden).

The Tab warn items in "Options/Preferences > General" are hidden when the related prefs have the default value and warnings are enabled. They only show when you set the related prefs on the about:config page to true. Note that this requires to close and restart Firefox to make changes apply fully.

  • "Warn me when closing multiple tabs" (browser.tabs.warnOnClose: true)
  • "Warn me when opening multiple tabs might slow down Firefox" (browser.tabs.warnOnOpen: true)

See also:

  • browser.showQuitWarning
  • browser.warnOnQuit
  • browser.tabs.warnOnCloseOtherTabs
more options

cor-el said

You only see the tab close settings when the current setting isn't the default (these settings are normally hidden). The Tab warn items in "Options/Preferences > General" are hidden when the related prefs have the default value and warnings are enabled. They only show when you set the related prefs on the about:config page to true. Note that this requires to close and restart Firefox to make changes apply fully.
  • "Warn me when closing multiple tabs" (browser.tabs.warnOnClose: true)
  • "Warn me when opening multiple tabs might slow down Firefox" (browser.tabs.warnOnOpen: true)
See also:
  • browser.showQuitWarning
  • browser.warnOnQuit
  • browser.tabs.warnOnCloseOtherTabs

All set to true. Still I face the problem.