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How can I disable animated tab effects in Firefox 19.0?

  • 11 replies
  • 17 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by dugeen1

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I updated Firefox a few days ago from 18.0.2 to 19.0 and now see that the tabs slide around when I drag to rearrange them or try to ppostion a tab over a bookmarks toolbar folder for bookmarking. The tab being dragged also gets transparent although I don't recall that happening previously unless it was moved over the browser window. Although I see reference to a similar animation problem for 17.0 I had no issues until the recent update.

I have Tab Mix Plus installed but see no settings that have to do with tab animation. Browser.Tab.Animate in about:config is already to set to "false".

This is annoying, useless and when I am trying to drag a tab across the tabs bar onto the bookmarks toolbar the tab will hang up in a "phantom" position at the point where it crosses the tab bar. How do I undo this or turn it off, short of adding yet another extension to deal with it (Tab Utilities)?

I updated Firefox a few days ago from 18.0.2 to 19.0 and now see that the tabs slide around when I drag to rearrange them or try to ppostion a tab over a bookmarks toolbar folder for bookmarking. The tab being dragged also gets transparent although I don't recall that happening previously unless it was moved over the browser window. Although I see reference to a similar animation problem for 17.0 I had no issues until the recent update. I have Tab Mix Plus installed but see no settings that have to do with tab animation. Browser.Tab.Animate in about:config is already to set to "false". This is annoying, useless and when I am trying to drag a tab across the tabs bar onto the bookmarks toolbar the tab will hang up in a "phantom" position at the point where it crosses the tab bar. How do I undo this or turn it off, short of adding yet another extension to deal with it (Tab Utilities)?

All Replies (11)

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Make use of Firefox Default theme

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I doubt the theme is the problem. I've used my theme since before v13 and it is only graphically oriented, changing colors and icons. It has no effect on tab actions. I will toggel the them eoff to see if it makes any difference, but I doubt it.

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Yes, it's still doing the same thing, just much uglier than the nicer rein theme, and the dragged tabbed doesn't show transparency.

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Please create a screenshot of the problem you're seeing by following the guide mentioned at How do I create a screenshot of my problem?.

Once you've done this, attach the saved screenshot file to your forum post by clicking the Browse... button below the Post your reply box. This will help us to visualize the problem.

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It's not possible to create a screenshot of the tabs moving.

This is the best I can do. In tab bar 01.png The transparent tab is sitting on top of the tabs to the left, just below where I am trying to move it into a folder. There is a cursor showing it's potential position on the bookmarks bar (it will actually end up in the folder), the transparent tab sitting on top of other tabs, and a little square overlay of the entire page on top of the tab. You can also see gaps in the line of tabs that the animation generates as the tabs move.

The square overlay did not exist vbefore the update, nor did the visual of the tab on top of tabs.

Once I am done putting the tab in the folder and pull the cursor away, sometimes an image of the tab inserts itself into the tab queue on the bar on that side and lags there for up to 30 seconds longer until it reverts to its original positio (wherever it was dragged from).

Other times I move tabs and big gaps open on the tab bar, trying to anticipate where I am going to place the tab, sliding to the side instead of staying in place and allowing clean insertion. Before there was just a little arrow to the left of the tab, not all these gaps being created and sliding around.

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The images are not posting. They are only 8Meg each. Any more compression and you will not be able to see the details.

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I am still having this issue. Does anyone have any input on this? It has nothing to do with my add-ons or themes since I have observed the same behavior in a clean profile that I have installed. The animation is too aggressive and distracting and I want to disable it.

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ya, what the hell is going on????

I don't know how it happened, since it's the same version of FF from before a resent OS re-install, but I TOO have this idiotic tab animation meant to please the sheeplike mindless masses. It's dumb. It's annoying. And it happened without my knowing about it.

I want this dumb animation gone, yet there is nothing I could find in "about:config" to get rid of it. There are general posts from recent and not-so-recent history informing people to disable tab animations with the:

"browser.tabs.animate" set to False.

Ya, I did that. But the idiotic animation is still there.

It's frakking lame that they make it SO DAMN HARD to remove the visually stupid features which exist for no reason other then to delight the simple kiddies who cannot exist without animations, drop shadows, and endless other visual enhancements meant to dazzle the lower primate part of the mind.

Anyone know how to rid FF of this particular animation? And any other ones too?

I have looked for any posts devoted to removing every last bit of memory/CPU/GPU thieving animations and enhancements. I haven't found any good posts yet. Please, if you know of any, post a link???

People who hate performance-robbing and childish animations UNITE!

Now, it's time for a colonic.

Thanks in advance for your help, peoples!

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Good, so I'm not crazy.

I'm still having the same problem and it slows down my browsing experience considerably since I do a lot of drag-and-drop bookmarking. The browser hangs frequently after dragging a tab to a toolbar folder, then you have to wait for the tab to "fly back" to its original position.

The same with rearranging tabs -- it has to be positioned _just so_ where it is being moved to or the move doesn't take and I have to do it again

As you confirmed, this has nothing to do with browser.tabs.animate as mine is currently set to "false" and had been all along, even before this maddening behavior (including tab transparency when tabs overlap) became visible.

I suspect there is a css edit or Greasemonkey script solution but have not have time to look anything up. I wasted enough time Googling this only to keep turning up the browser.tabs.animate "solution" over and over. It would be nice if there was at least some acknowledgement from other users or the usual problem solvers that this was not normal behavior before.

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the Tab animation has been a real problem - when you have a lot of tabs open they will sometimes freeze and get "stuck" - i have had up to 3 semi-transparent, inaccessible tabs "stuck" hanging off of the tab bar that stay that way until you restart Firefox. it also increases the time needed to close tabs considerably - again when you have a lot of tabs open, I can count up to 7 seconds it takes for the tab to close, blank spot on toolbar appears, other tabs slide over to fill blank spot.

I also hate the fact that you can no longer move or close background tabs without it taking the focus away from your current tab.

luckily, there is an option to disable the animation in the latest update to Tabmix plus :

http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17173

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I'm getting this problem too when dragging tabs to reorder them. browser.tabs.animate is still false, so either it doesn't affect this issue, or FF has started ignoring it.

I wish support.mozilla.org had a 'disable spam responses' option, I'm fed up posting issues on here and getting useless answers which have been posted by people who are just trying to up their post count by cut-and-pasting text from manpages which don't relate to the issue.