How do I find/search for a "container tab" name from hundreds open among multiple windows?
(Previously asked -- but not answered -- in a roundabout way: "Searching for open tabs among many windows needs improvement", https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1360159 )
I find myself, surprisingly, juggling between hundreds of open tabs on topics of interest -- and FF remains nice and stable!
Lately, I have been increasingly assigning/using "container tabs" (vs New Private Window) for shopping, banking, etc. -- very handy.
However, I noticed that I can no longer FIND any of those tabs by name using the search feature of the "List all tabs" button (or via the "%" method). Only traditional/normal tab names appear to be searchable from among those open among multiple windows.
This is rather crippling time-and-effort-wise. I find myself unnecessarily duplicating already-open tabs simply because I can't easily find the "old" ones anymore.
Someone previously suggested trying the extension "Tab Manager Plus"; but as I reported in my previous post, (for me) it caused hesitations and overall FF response became sluggish with my laptop's fan kicking in often -- unacceptable. (Also, apparently no updates since 2018, and I see recent user comments of losing windows full of tabs.)
Is there any good built-in solution I've missed?
All Replies (4)
I mentioned this thread on an open bug, but unfortunately it looks nowhere close to being fixed:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1479858
(Due to Bugzilla etiquette, I didn't elaborate or the comment would get hidden due to "advocacy" restrictions.)
Tab Manager Plus is very fancy. There must be a simpler and more performant way to list matching tabs.
I saw this one but it doesn't have URL searching, which I find necessary, so wouldn't help me personally. There is a pull request on the author's Github repo for that but seemingly nothing happening over there:
jscher2000 -- thanks! Yesterday (and 2-3 months ago when I posted my prior questions on this topic) I did not come across that bugzilla page you listed in my search for answers prior to that posting -- thanks!
However, per the many comments I see on that page...
WOW, over 4 years now and this "bug" of the inability of FF to optionally search for tabs either globally across all tabs (my preference for default), or restricted to within a container type (current default behavior, as I understand it) is still not resolved?
To me it's a "bug" -- or is it viewed as an intended "feature" among developers who apparently aren't interested to act on it anytime soon? If so, it should be documented and the reasons/justifications "why" listed in the FF "help" pages.
As I mentioned in my prior post, I tried out "Tab Manager Plus" which works, but found the performance hit to be severe (also see my post: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-manager-plus-for-firefox/reviews/1786479/ ). It's been 4 years since it was last updated, and FF has changed much since then in regards to extensions, which perhaps explains why it gets resource intensive and sluggish?
I also looked at "Find Your Tab" you mentioned -- 4 years since its last update as well. What is it with nothing new in open tab/URL locating since 2018? ;-)
At any rate, it seems to me that if developer resources can be directed to fixing/improving "appearance" related items (after security issues, of course, which deserve top priority, then performance issues), hopefully attention can once again be redirected towards this "user functionality experience" topic with results to come soon.
This also appears to be a related request by user "arpsga": https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/2299
"Feature request: Search through enviroments #2299 "Since I'm using a lot of containers, it would really help to get a search bar to find the needed container tab asap."
hmarx2014 said
WOW, over 4 years now and this "bug" of the inability of FF to optionally search for tabs either globally across all tabs (my preference for default), or restricted to within a container type (current default behavior, as I understand it) is still not resolved? To me it's a "bug" -- or is it viewed as an intended "feature" among developers who apparently aren't interested to act on it anytime soon? If so, it should be documented and the reasons/justifications "why" listed in the FF "help" pages.
The problem is that tab search is tied to the Switch to Tab feature, and the Switch to Tab feature was considered to be a problem for container users because it could confuse them into thinking they were using a page in the last container they were in, not realizing they switched containers. The bug discusses how to satisfy both those users and users triggering a tab search manually. Not sure they agreed on what to do.
If there is a help page that needs editing, you can find links on the right side to edit it.
I also looked at "Find Your Tab" you mentioned -- 4 years since its last update as well. What is it with nothing new in open tab/URL locating since 2018? ;-)
It works fine, but only searching in titles, so it's limited.