Middle click, aka wheel click, does nothing
I just recently upgraded to Firefox 87.0 (64-bit) for Windows 7. Before the upgrade if I wheel clicked on a link it would open up in a new tab. Now it does absolutely nothing. I've even tried holding the wheel click for 10 seconds, still nothing.
I have verified the following settings in about:config; browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick=true middlemouse.contentLoadURL=false middlemouse.paste=false middlemouse.scrollbarPosition=false
When I was doing a search for related questions to this problem I found a user 3 years ago had a similar problem, and that they had an addition setting: middlemouse.openNewWindow=true. This setting no longer seems to be there. I have no idea if this setting was recently removed, and is the source of my problem, or if it was removed a while ago and my problem is the result of some other change. I have restarted Firefox twice, and even rebooted my laptop, in an effort to fix this problem. Nothing has worked. Depending on what I am doing I rely on using the wheel click HEAVILY, as it is much simpler to close a tab then to hit the back button 4, 10, or 20 times to return to where I started, or if I'm trying to keep track of what links I've followed from doing a search without having to re-do the search and hope I get the exact same results (with Google I never do).
At this time I am already heavily inclined to just return to the previous version of Firefox, despite how much of a pain that will be, however this is a recently released update, so I feel I should give the devs a chance to fix any new bugs from the update. That, and I won't have the time around work for several days, probably over a week, which makes it more practical to give the devs a chance to release a patch that fixes the problem.
Réiteach roghnaithe
The problem with those spares I have is that as an Over-The-Road Trucker I am very limited in space. In addition I am using a laptop, which makes using the spare monitor problematic.
I did have some time earlier to mess with the button assignments for my mouse, so I temporarily changed the assigned actions for my wheel button and right button to be swapped to test them. Apparently the problem is my mouse after all, as after swapping the assigned actions the wheel (now right) click still didn't work in Firefox, but the right (now wheel) did. I swapped them back for now and I've ordered a replacement mouse. I'll have to live with the current limitation for a while, as who knows when I'll be home after the new mouse arrives, but at this point I can close the question. The timing was just really, really strange though. I do know of a bump the mouse took while my laptop was dealing with the update for Firefox (restoring my previous session always seems to cause it to temporarily use an insane amount of memory), but I know of times it has taken harder knocks without problems so I hadn't thought anything of it at the time.
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It might be the mouse that is a problem. Try with a different one instead and see if it works.
Aside from the fact that I don't have $30 just lying around to buy a mouse for the fuck of it to test that is the fact that the problem started immediately after doing the update. As in the very first time I tried to do a wheel click after the update it didn't work, not a day or two later, and while the update was being downloaded I'd been doing things online where I did use the wheel click to open links in a new tab.
Admittedly I only use wheel clicking with Firefox, so I don't have many methods of testing if it works in other software or not, but the timing of the problem is highly suspicious.
Athraithe ag razmoudah1 ar
I still have version 86.0.1 and it has the setting you are missing, i.e. middlemouse.openNewWindow. I tried wheel clicking a link and it opened in a new window so other settings evidently matter in this context. I have long had a spare mouse, keyboard and monitor and have recently had reason to be glad of all three.
Réiteach Roghnaithe
The problem with those spares I have is that as an Over-The-Road Trucker I am very limited in space. In addition I am using a laptop, which makes using the spare monitor problematic.
I did have some time earlier to mess with the button assignments for my mouse, so I temporarily changed the assigned actions for my wheel button and right button to be swapped to test them. Apparently the problem is my mouse after all, as after swapping the assigned actions the wheel (now right) click still didn't work in Firefox, but the right (now wheel) did. I swapped them back for now and I've ordered a replacement mouse. I'll have to live with the current limitation for a while, as who knows when I'll be home after the new mouse arrives, but at this point I can close the question. The timing was just really, really strange though. I do know of a bump the mouse took while my laptop was dealing with the update for Firefox (restoring my previous session always seems to cause it to temporarily use an insane amount of memory), but I know of times it has taken harder knocks without problems so I hadn't thought anything of it at the time.