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Tab Bar Missing - replaced with vertical dropdown top right - Release 108

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I usually work with between four and twenty tabs open on a page in FireFox. Now what I see above the address bar where they used to be: Firefox Icon < button > button entire top under menu is empty where tabs used to be far right is a + for a new tab and a down button to give me a menu of tabs.

I want to see the tabs, even if they are squished or scrolled when I get a bunch of them.

The drop-down is not a bad addition but it should not replace the horizontal display!

I usually work with between four and twenty tabs open on a page in FireFox. Now what I see above the address bar where they used to be: Firefox Icon < button > button entire top under menu is empty where tabs used to be far right is a + for a new tab and a down button to give me a menu of tabs. I want to see the tabs, even if they are squished or scrolled when I get a bunch of them. The drop-down is not a bad addition but it should not replace the horizontal display!
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

There are almost 6000 lines in your userChrome.css, with that many lines only its creator would know how to fix this. You can possibly move out some code to a new userChrome.css with only features that are important.

In Firefox 93 and later releases support to reduce the bookmark menu spacing via "Density: Compact" on the Customize page has been added. Note that "Compact" is no longer present by default as a Density choice in Customize.

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All Replies (6)

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Are you using a userChrome.css file to style the user interface (Tab bar) that might be broken ?

Start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration or userChrome.css is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Troubleshoot Mode start window
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Using Troubleshooting mode does show the tabs. Extensions and plug-ins do not change it. The thing is, this is happening on separate computers, one Windows 10 and one Windows 11. The setup for FireFox has been independent except for import of bookmarks on the Windows 11 machine.

I will look at the userChrome.css file, which I use to decrease the spacing between items in my bookmarks toolbar's menus.

Here is the userChrome.css file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6mkpc4nlgtdfkyc/userChrome.css?dl=0

I cannot figure out what might be "broken," though. If I rename it, the tabs reappear.

Modified by Charles Kenyon

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It is the userChrome.css which has worked for quite a while on two computers, one Windows 10 and the other Windows 11. It now causes the loss of tabs on both computers.

If I rename the file, the tabs reappear. However, the reason for using this file was to reduce the spacing between bookmarks in the menus on my Bookmarks toolbar. The default spacing shows less than half the number of bookmarks that previous FireFox versions did.

Here is a link to that file. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6mkpc4nlgtdfkyc/userChrome.css?dl=0 I can't figure out what in it is causing this behavior with the tabs.

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Here are images from the same Bookmarks toolbar menu with and without the userChrome.css file. I don't want to have to choose between tabs and fitting more on my menus.

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Chosen Solution

There are almost 6000 lines in your userChrome.css, with that many lines only its creator would know how to fix this. You can possibly move out some code to a new userChrome.css with only features that are important.

In Firefox 93 and later releases support to reduce the bookmark menu spacing via "Density: Compact" on the Customize page has been added. Note that "Compact" is no longer present by default as a Density choice in Customize.

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Thank you! I used the workaround you linked. I now have both my tabs and the density I need.