"When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately" won't deselect
Every time I reopen FF the "when I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately" box is automatically selected, despite the fact that I turned it off the last time I was in the program. I don't want to automatically go to new tabs, I promise I don't. If I do this every time I open FF it works, but as soon as I close the program it reverts to a ticked state which ticks me off. Every other option works fine - I can select or deselect them at my leisure - but this one (which I find the most annoying) doesn't.
I have tried reinstalling FF, I've hunted around the user.js file and couldn't find what I needed to edit, I've tried restarting with all add-ons disabled to see if it was one of them cause my woes. No good.
I know I could just go in every time and deselect it, but that's frustrating and surely this option should just work. Help me, Obi Wan Mozobi; you're my only hope!
Chosen solution
Do you have a user.js file in the Firefox profile folder?
Do you otherwise have problems with prefs?
If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:
There is software like Advanced SystemCare with its Surfing Protection feature that can protect files in the Firefox profile folder against changes. If you have such software then check the settings or uninstall this software.
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Chosen Solution
Do you have a user.js file in the Firefox profile folder?
Do you otherwise have problems with prefs?
If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:
There is software like Advanced SystemCare with its Surfing Protection feature that can protect files in the Firefox profile folder against changes. If you have such software then check the settings or uninstall this software.
That link was very useful - cheers! I ended up deleting the user.js as suggested in the zine and that seems to have solved my issue.
Thanks for your help! :D
You're welcome.
Do you know how this pref setting ended up in the user.js file?
What other content was in the user.js file?
I've not a clue how it ended up there.
Content was as follows:
user_pref("app.update.enabled", false); user_pref("browser.bookmarks.restore_default_bookmarks", false); user_pref("browser.cache.disk.enable", false); user_pref("browser.download.dir", "U:"); user_pref("browser.rights.3.shown", false); user_pref("browser.search.update", false); user_pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false); user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://www.google.com.au"); user_pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone", "ignore"); user_pref("browser.tabs.loadInBackground", false); user_pref("extensions.update.enabled", false); user_pref("extensions.update.notifyUser", false); user_pref("intl.accept_languages", "en-au"); user_pref("network.proxy.type", 4); user_pref("pref.advanced.javascript.disable_button.advanced", false); user_pref("security.default_personal_cert", "Select Automatically"); user_pref("security.disable_button.openCertManager", false); user_pref("security.warn_viewing_mixed", false); user_pref("signon.rememberSignons", false); user_pref("toolkit.telemetry.prompted", 2); user_pref("toolkit.telemetry.rejected", true);
I couldn't figure out what line was relevant to my problem. However, in this case, a hard line, 'delete all the things' approach worked a treat.
That would be this line:
user_pref("browser.tabs.loadInBackground", false);
There are a lot of lines in the file.
Did you ever create this file yourself or was it created by some software in the past because support for warn messages ("security.warn_viewing_mixed") was removed quite some time ago (Fx4+)?
Maybe it is a good idea to delete or rename prefs.js as well to cleanup from no longer used prefs or pref changes you forgot about.
Ahh! Thanks! I did wonder if that was the line I was looking for. No, I didn't create the file, but I'm on a really weird office network that has to play happily with the existing building network (a company within different company's building). It causes all manner of strife for anything that even looks like it might plug in, turn on, or connect to something else in some way, so it may be caused by that? Who knows - we all just try and lull it into a false sense of security before pouncing and trying to get some work done :p
Good point re the prefs.js - will do.