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

Cuireadh an snáithe seo sa chartlann. Cuir ceist nua má tá cabhair uait.

clicking external links switches to Firefox but won't open

more options

I use Thunderbird (31.1.2) on a Mac (OS X 10.9.4). I frequently need to proof e-mails that contain a number of links (for a digital marketing campaign). When I click a link in the e-mail, Firefox (32.0.3) opens or becomes active, and if I have NO other tabs, will open my link. But when I switch back to Thunderbird, and click a second link, Firefox will again become the active app but my link will NOT open.

Again, if I have NO open tabs, the first click always works, but no other clicked links will work beyond that.

If I switch to Safari as my default browser, everything works fine. So I'm forced to do that as a solution but I really don't like it.

Any thoughts to help?

I use Thunderbird (31.1.2) on a Mac (OS X 10.9.4). I frequently need to proof e-mails that contain a number of links (for a digital marketing campaign). When I click a link in the e-mail, Firefox (32.0.3) opens or becomes active, and if I have NO other tabs, will open my link. But when I switch back to Thunderbird, and click a second link, Firefox will again become the active app but my link will NOT open. Again, if I have NO open tabs, the first click always works, but no other clicked links will work beyond that. If I switch to Safari as my default browser, everything works fine. So I'm forced to do that as a solution but I really don't like it. Any thoughts to help?

All Replies (6)

more options

Hi there,

Sorry about your issue there. Is Firefox set as the default browser when you attempt to click links in Thunderbird? I'm wondering if there is an issue with that setting in Firefox.

Instructions can be found here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-make-web-links-open-firefox-default

Hope this helps!

- David

more options

I have the same problem. The problem is intermittent. Sometimes external links open immediately, sometimes they don't. Sometimes if I try several times in succession, the link will eventually open. If I manually copy and paste the link into a new tab, it always works.

Firefox is set as my default browser and set to check such at startup. When external links fail to open, Firefox DOES activate and become the frontmost application. It just fails to create a new tab from the external link.

I am using Firefox 32.0.3 on MacOS 10.9.5. I believe this problem started with the update before last (the same one that created the failure of CMD-L to open a new window which has since been fixed.)

more options

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply. YES, I have Firefox set to default browser when this problem happens. As I mentioned, when I click the external link, Firefox will become the active front app, but then no other action will take place (UNLESS there are no pages open in Firefox at the time).

Rick's response above corroborates the same issue I am experiencing.

Would be GREAT to have this problem resolved; it's very frustrating to have to use two browsers to get my work done.

Thanks!

marK

more options

Can anyone share if there has been more inquisition to this problem? I would love to know that it has at least been documented and will eventually be corrected. If not, I'm very close to abandoning Firefox altogether. Just not worth running two browsers. Thanks!

marK

more options

I just updated to 33.0 and still having the problem.

more options

This is a really long thread about this from last month. Some users only encounter this problem when Firefox is hidden in the dock, while others said it happens intermittently even when Firefox is not hidden. There is much more background if you want to read more, but I don't think there was a sure-fire cure for all Mac users.

See Firefox won't open email links after update to version 32.