Firefox Support Forum

My firefox installed a new update, 89, and now my tabs are missing, except that the active tab is floating down at the center bottom of the screen. i can still navigate with keyboard shortcuts, but i don't know how many i have open, what they are, and personally DO NOT like navigating with shortcuts if i don't have to.

why is it necessary to keep messing with tabs? weren't they just fine below the address bar back in the day? How is ruining the user experience worth whatever was even trying to be done here?

image is how my firefox looks right now

Please help me get rid of the stupid and ugly Tab bar space on newest Firefox. I hate Tabs and now there is a big space above the address bar for Tabs. I have looked everywhere for a way to turn it off like it has been since Tabs came out. I only want new windows if I want a new window.

If I can't turn that huge space gap off is there any way to go back to what I had before the last update without messing everything up? Why did someone decide to make the browser window smaller and waste that space by making the browser bigger....

Sorry if I sound cranky but, I started using Netscape Navigator 1.0 and every version since and this is the worse thing that has ever been done to a browser... Thank you for any help you can give me!

Hello, it is enough to search "version 89 visuals" in the help forum to find dozens of topic complaining how awful it looks, and the reduced functionality, content on screen and efficiency.

Luckily in one of the threads I found solution, and links to articles to fix most of the biggest issues:

As a temporary tactic to buy time, you can use a preference to revert the tab bar to its older appearance. This is just for Firefox 89, so you have a month to keep an eye out for the next workaround. To set that up: (1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk. (2) In the search box in the page, type or paste proton (or full browser.proton.enabled) (3) Double-click the preference to switch between true (new Proton style) and false (old Photon style) Since this was kept in just for testing, there might be some occasional glitches.

Here the options I changed - set false to all.

   browser.proton.contextmenus.enabled
   browser.proton.doorhangers.enabled
   browser.proton.enabled
   browser.proton.modals.enabled
   browser.proton.places-tooltip.enabled

+ even further reduction of the spaces -> browser.uidensity -> 1

I expect the new Proton view is inspired by touch screens - and is more optimized for tablets, giving more space around individual options, with extra space around them - to make sure you hit the right option with your finger. The downside is we get less visible options on the screen, as now each option takes more space - and it is absolutely awful and less visible for people using desktop mode, and using the more precise mouse and/or keyboard.

And here a list of the problems and annoyances in V89, and why they are a problem (and these are only the ones I noticed so far - attached is a screenshot collage of the issues.

1. Tabs which play audio no longer show that they play audio, unless I hover on top of them - which is a big problem if you have 20 tabs, and are searching which one auto-played some audio. In the previous version each tab playing audio had the audio icon on top of it. 2. My bookmarks take much more space on my screen, and while previously I organized them to fit perfectly to it, now are going outside of it, and I have to (unnecessarily) scroll to find more. 3. On YouTube There was a "delete video" button next to each video in my "watch later" list, and I was able to quickly delete the watched ones. Now I have to click on the 3 dots, and then on the trash bin button to delete. Much slower an annoying. Return to the old vision (sadly I cannot find a way to fix this yet)

This totally failed visualization must IMMEDIATELY be reversed, and you must add option in the VIEW menu - which switches between the old DESKTOP view (version 88 style), and new TABLET view (V89 style).

And it must not be allowed that you disable the browser.proton.enabled option in the next update, as this will force us to use only the new awful view, and give us 3 options:

1. Revert to 88. I have already backed up my profile, and downloaded it, in case V90 ruins the view permanently. This also opens us to security risks - so I can allow this for no more than 2-3 months, in hope you fix this fail. 2. Switch browser. Move to Vivaldi (which I use at work) or Brave, if you refuse to fix the fail. 3. Accept the awful view - not going to happen to me. I am using Mozilla since Netscape, but this fail is infuriating enough to make me switch if made permanent / even worse.

My tabs toolbar does not extend across the entire laptop screen. Looks like it stops halfway, regardless of how many tabs are open. As tab number increases individual tab space narrows. How can I increase width to occupy full screen?

Firefox open tweeter's tabs only in private window, can i so something to fix this and be able to open it even in standard window please ?

im on mac os X 10,9,5 with firefox 78,15,0esr

I use the Feedbro-Addon, which creates an own tab. Its url is: moz-extension://285d678c-ecb3-4003-923d-835fc9d8e0bc/reader.html

If I use it as a normal tab (instead of a pinned tab) ... it survives a Firefox restart. But if I use it as a pinned tab (which I want) ... it disappears after a Firefox restart.

I suppose it has to do with it being an addon-page instead of a "normal" page.

Is there a way to make it stay permanently pinned?

it's extremely annoying to have to stop what i'm doing and play "lets find the active tab" when i have tons of youtube videos qued in open tabs. in opera, the logic is there out of the box, but in firefox, it doesn't exist. why such logic wouldn't exist is beyond me, but i see this as an annoying problem that needs fixed. i want to simply glance up at the tabs and see which one is playing without having to spend time digging through the open tabs to find the one that's playing or having to freakin memorize which one it was i don't have time for that.

i followed the guide in this thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1291998 i did exactly everything as instructed but it did absolutely nothing, no change at all.

Hello at Mozilla Support,

I'm having this issue where sometimes, when I double-click to download a link or open a downloads item, it opens the same bookmark page instead. This is the page, and not sure if it's alphabetical, since this pages starts with an 'a' "https://authorspublish.com/#optin" Wondering how I can get this to stop changing the page I am on and opening the bookmark.

Thanks, Sonya

I have open half a dozen or so tabs related to one subject. I would like to put them all into one "super tab", such that only the super tab shows as an open tab. Then, by clicking on that tab, it would show the tabs within it, any one or more of which could be selected. Is this possible, and if so how is it done? Perhaps there's an add-on or extension that would do this.

I have already created a multi-tab bookmark that sorta, maybe accomplishes the same thing. But it's not as convenient as what I envision as described above.

Thanks for any advice or words of wisdom.

6/7/21 Firefox just did an update on my computer. Before, the tool bar at the top was dark gray and the tabs were easily distinguishable. Now the entire area above the URL is light gray. I would prefer more contrast between the tool bar and the tabs. What happened? Thank you.

Dear Mozilla Support,

After some update (I think from 89.0.0 version of Mozilla Firefox - this version with new looks of tabs) I notice flickering on the tab when I loading website or refresh website. This looks very strange. Like I said I dindn't notice any issue with flickering on previous Mozilla Firefox versions. Only with these new versions with new look of the tabs. I didn't remember if it was 89.0.0 version or 90.0.0 version. I don't know if it is problem with the machine but I didn't notice this issue on another computer with 90.0.2 Firefox version but with Windows 10 OS. I also noticed this issue with Firefox 90.0.0.2 with Windows 7 OS on another computer so I don't know if this is problem with two computers or Firefox itself. Can you help me?

Yours faithfully, Piotr

G'Day,

I earlier posted with respect to getting tabs to appear below the address and search bars on the browser. I managed to solve that issue; however, the solution has produced a curious side effect.

When the browser has entered Full-Screen, the tabs-bar does not disappear and appears as it would in a normal browser window while both the address and search bars have been hidden. Is there some way to fix this?

As well, on a Windows 8.1 lap-top, using the CSS below, the very top of the browser has been cut off. It is not possible to see the browser control icons nor is the menu-bar visible.

A screen capture is attached as well as the CSS which was suggested in my earlier post about getting the tabs below the address bar.

Thanks,

Jim

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");

/* TABS: bottom - Firefox 65 and later - updated for 89+ */ /* https://searchfox.org/mozilla-release/source/browser/themes/shared/tabs.inc.css */ /* https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Browser_Toolbox */

/* ROOT - VARS */ /* you can adjust the CSS variables until it looks correct */ /* you can use the Browser Toolbox to get the toolbar heights */

• |*:root {

 --tab-toolbar-navbar-overlap: 0px !important;

 --tab-min-height: 40px !important;
 --tab-min-width:  50px !important;

 --tab-caption: -5px; /* caption buttons on tab bar */
 --tab-adjust:   3px; /* adjust tab bar */

 --menubar-height: 40px; /*40px|41px=11px; caption buttons on menubar*/
 --navbar-height:  40px; /*31px*/
 --bookmarkbar-height: 26px;

 --tabbar-top: calc(var(--menubar-height) + var(--navbar-height) + var(--bookmarkbar-height) + var(--tab-adjust)); /*89+*/

}

/* in case you enable extra toolbars in full screen mode */

• |*:root[inFullscreen] {

 --tab-adjust: 3px;
 --menubar-height: 45px; /*30px*/
 --navbar-height:  45px; /*31px*/
 --bookmarkbar-height: 0px; /*26px*/
 --tabbar-top: calc(var(--menubar-height) + var(--navbar-height) + var(--bookmarkbar-height) + var(--tab-adjust)); /*89+*/

}

/* TAB BAR - below nav-bar */

1. navigator-toolbox toolbar:not(#nav-bar):not(#toolbar-menubar) {-moz-box-ordinal-group:10}
2. TabsToolbar {-moz-box-ordinal-group:1000}

1. TabsToolbar {

 display: block !important;
 position: absolute !important;

/* bottom: 0 !important; /* 68-88: BOTTOM */

 top: var(--tabbar-top);  /* 89+: TOP */
 width: 100vw !important;

}

1. tabbrowser-tabs {

 width: 100vw !important;

}

/* navigator-toolbox - PADDING */

• |*:root:not([chromehidden*="toolbar"]) #navigator-toolbox {

 padding-bottom: calc(var(--tab-min-height) + 1px) !important; /*ADJUST*/
 background-color: var(--toolbar-bgcolor) !important;

}

/* TabsToolbar with menubar and titlebar hidden - rules for Firefox 65-73 */

• |*:root[tabsintitlebar]:not([inFullscreen="true"]):not([sizemode="maximized"])

#toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"] ~ #TabsToolbar{

}

/* TABS: height */

1. tabbrowser-tabs,
2. tabbrowser-tabs > .tabbrowser-arrowscrollbox,

.tabbrowser-tabs[positionpinnedtabs] > .tabbrowser-tab[pinned] {

 min-height: var(--tab-min-height) !important;
 max-height: var(--tab-min-height) !important;

}

1. TabsToolbar {

 height: var(--tab-min-height) !important;
 margin-bottom: 1px !important;
 box-shadow: ThreeDShadow 0 -1px inset, -moz-dialog 0 1px !important; /*OPTIONAL*/
 background-color: var(--toolbar-bgcolor) !important;
 color:            var(--toolbar-color) !important;
 z-index: 1 !important;

}

/* indicators *//*

• |*:root[privatebrowsingmode=temporary] .private-browsing-indicator {

 position: absolute !important;
 display: block !important;
 right: 0px !important;
 bottom: 0px !important;
 width: 14px !important;
 pointer-events: none !important;

}

• /

.private-browsing-indicator {display: none !important;} .accessibility-indicator {display: none !important;}

/* Indicators - HIDE *//*

• |*:root:not([accessibilitymode]) .accessibility-indicator {display: none !important}
• |*:root:not([privatebrowsingmode=temporary]) .private-browsing-indicator {display: none !important}
• /

/* Drag Space */ .titlebar-spacer[type="pre-tabs"], .titlebar-spacer[type="post-tabs"] {

 width: 20px !important;

}

/* Override vertical shifts when moving a tab */

1. navigator-toolbox[movingtab] > #titlebar > #TabsToolbar {

 padding-bottom: unset !important;

}

1. navigator-toolbox[movingtab] #tabbrowser-tabs {

 padding-bottom: unset !important;
 margin-bottom: unset !important;

}

1. navigator-toolbox[movingtab] > #nav-bar {

 margin-top: unset !important;

}

/* Hide window-controls and caption buttons on Tab Bar */

1. TabsToolbar #window-controls {display: none !important;}
2. TabsToolbar .titlebar-buttonbox-container {display: none !important;}

A couple days ago, late, I accidentally closed my main Firefox window before a little window that I'd forgotten was there - and all my 76 tabs disappeared. 1st thing yesterday I tried - 3bar / history / recently closed tabs - but the only thing in there was the one tab from the small window. Urg! I tried that and - 3bar / history / manage - where I could see my tabs but could only restore 1 at a time - not good for 76 tabs. I read a bunch of different questions about this same issue, and tried the suggestions, including some app called scrounge, but none of these restored my tabs. Help!!!!

Since one of the last updates the behaviour for the tab re-sizing got messed up.

When there are only a few tabs with full size, those as well as the additional plus icon is shown. But when there are more tabs and they are re-sized, then the right side gets cut off. First the new tab icon dissapears and then also the last tab get's cut off.

I attached a screenshot with three firefox browser windows showing the problem, as well as a forth one with only 3 tabs open, which are shown in full size including the new tab icon.

This is a new problem as the tab resizinng and the new tab icon used to work perfectly fine no matter how many tabs were opened.

Since updating to the latest version my tabs are all just sitting out in the open without any lines delineating each one and they don't appear to be formatted correctly as per the "MUTED" text which has appeared and is not needed.

Please tell me this is not the new interface.

Please, PLEASE put back the space between the tabs in the Proton version of Firefox. As a web designer, I don't understand how any designer on your staff or any supervisor would okay what looks like a seamless tab bar. The UX is horrible.

I've temporarily changed the about:config to mimic Photon. But I understand you are going to get rid of that ability in the about:config file.

Why do you tweak a decent UI into an unusable one? This is becoming an epidemic. Similar things happen on Facebook and with Photoshop (where "upgrades" make parts of the application unusable—that is, they no longer work).

Hi! Years before I got accustomed to use the very useful function of "properties" of the tabs. Within its' windows I was able to annotate handy, personal informations, such as IDs, passwords and also some short summaries. Then, after recent updates - (my current version is 89.0.2 - 64 bits) - surprisingly this function is no more available! My question is : why was this funtion taken away ? And also : how is that possible to annotate tabs henceforth ? Thanks for your attention.

When video/audio starts playing on a browser, the tab title displays 'playing' text. This additional line resizes the window height and causes the tab content to resize too. For example youtube starts resizing video window height and width - and this is very annoying. How do I remove 'playing' text from tab FOREVER?