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Why can I not open a new tab in the new Firefox? (via the + sign or Ctrl T)

  • 23 replies
  • 12 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by bmail

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In the new interface on Firefox (which started for me today ... May 2 ...), I cannot open a new tab via the "+" sign along the top or by using Ctrl + T. If I want more than one thing open at the same time, I need to open a "New Window", which doesn't make much sense. I don't necessarily want a bunch of windows but may need a few tabs open at the same time.

In the new interface on Firefox (which started for me today ... May 2 ...), I cannot open a new tab via the "+" sign along the top or by using Ctrl + T. If I want more than one thing open at the same time, I need to open a "New Window", which doesn't make much sense. I don't necessarily want a bunch of windows but may need a few tabs open at the same time.

All Replies (20)

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hello, can you try to replicate this behaviour when you launch firefox in safe mode once? if not, maybe an addon is interfering here...

Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

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Philipp: I have this issue as well. In the previous versions of FF I could placed the "+" sign to the far right of the screen, rather than have a "+" sign attached to each tab. This new version apparently doesn't give you that option, so I placed the "New Tab" icon on the tool bar as a substitute. That would be fine accept this icon refuses to stay in the location that I want it to be in. I want the "New Tab" icon to be the last icon to the right so that I can easily find it, but each time I close and restart FF, this icon reverts back to the previous location. Give us the options that we had in the previous versions. If FF can't or will not, then at least fix these silly issues.

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hello bmail, in firefox cutomization mode i'm still able to drag the new tab button to a fixed place at the right of the tab strip.

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philipp: My tabs do not have the "+" sign on each tab. Where do I find the "+" sign, in FF customization mode, to drag to the right? I didn't find the "+" sign in customization.

Modified by bmail

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philipp: I reset FF and now the "+" sign is back next to each tab, but I still don't see the "+" sign when I open the Customize screen to drag it to the right like you showed in your example. Are you using the latest version (29.0.1)? Also, In previous versions I was able to put the icon that shows that a web page is loading next to the "+" sign on the right side of FF, rather than have it shown in each tab. For me it made it easier to be able to glance up to the right and see if the web page is loading rather than looking for the tab that is loading in the group of tabs that were open. Is that option also removed? If so I wish they would bring some of these features back.

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The new tab button should stay at the far right on the Tab bar if you move this button to the far right after the list all tabs button.

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Cor-el: I'm not sure I understand your helpful hint. When I open Customize and look in "Additional Tools and Features" there is no available "+" sign that I can then drag to the far right. Also when I open Customize, the "+" sign by each tab goes away and only re-appears when I exit out of Customize. Once I exit out of Customize "+" sign return next to each tab, but I can't drag one to the right. Very frustrating.

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Can you attach a screenshot of the tab bar in normal mode and in customize mode?

Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot.

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JPG #6 shows the tabs with the "+" sign in normal mode. JPF #15 shows the tabs have lost the "+" sign when I open Customize. As soon as I exit out of Customize, the "+" signs return to the tabs.

Modified by bmail

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bmail,

Do you have the Classic Theme Restorer extension installer? You have some items in the Customize palette that aren't part of Firefox 29; namely the Flexible Space, the Space, and the Separator items.

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Yes I have ver 1.1.8 installed

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the other extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

You can check for problems caused by a corrupted localstore.rdf file.

Try to reset the browser.uiCustomization.state pref on the about:config page to reset the toolbar customization.

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Before I begin to the steps I took...please note that the new Firefox Menu icon (the one with the 3 horizontal lines) does not do anything so I simply right click on the tool bar and click Customize. Strange.

First... I restarted in SafeMode (I had to use the Shift key while opening FF). Just as before the "+" sign disappears while in Customize.

Second... I went to Appearance but I only have one theme (the Default theme). So there was nothing to switch back too.

Third... I renamed the localstore.rdf and restarted FF. No difference other than my menu (File, Edit, View, History, etc etc) was not there till I restored the current localstore.rdf.

Fourth... I opened about:config and saved the contents of browser.uiCustomization.state and then deleted everything and saved and rebooted in to FF. No change there either. When I went back to browser.uiCustomization.state everything appears to have been rebuilt.

Kind of getting crazy...as you know I had already gotten to the point where I just reset FF so I can't see that doing it again would help.

Thanks for the efforts. Anything else to try???

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You need to remove the localstore.rdf and reset the browser.uiCustomization.state pref to make sure that both have the default.
You can right-click empty space on a toolbar or use the "Show/Hide Toolbars" button at the bottom of the Customize window (palette) to set which toolbars to show and have the Menu bar visible.

Modified by cor-el

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cor-el: Ok I did what you suggested above and now the FF icon (the 3 horizontal lines) is working again...thanks, and I've re-done the other Icons I like at the tool bar, but when I open Customize, there still is no "+" sign that I can drag to the upper right and as before, the "+" sign by each tab disappears while in Customize. Even if I restart in SafeMode, there still isn't a "+" sign in Customize to drag and like in normal mode the "+" sign disappears while in SafeMode. Well at least I got the FF icon working. Thanks for trying to help.

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Hi bmail, in your screen shot, do you see the dark gray + on the far right end of the tab bar? It's a little hard to see on the background graphic. That "+" represents the new tab button, and it should slide over next to the last tab after you exit Customize mode.

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^: a screenshot of that part.

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Yes I see it! It really is faint. I guess what through me is that in the previous versions of FF I could put the "+" sign above the tool bar all the way to the right. Just like you see it in the Customize view (only lighter in color). It now appears that I can only put this icon IN the tool bar where the icon changes to read "NEW TAB". Is that right? No way to put it above the tool bar? Only problem with this new approach is that it reduces the real estate in the tool bar and thus shrinks the search field and the url field just a little bit more. Wish FF hadn't made such dramatic changes that require adding another addon to get things like Reload, Stop, cut paste, etc back. What about one more past customization that allowed us to put the "loading" circle to the right. Were did that go? I liked it because it made it easier to quickly glance up to see if a web page or link is loading or still loading. To me, this was more convenient than looking up at all the tabs that are opened to see which one has the loading icon running.

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You can also place this button at the far left side of the Tab bar or to the far right side on the Tab bar (to the right of the list all tabs down arrow that also shows in the screenshot).

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Hi bmail, I am attaching an illustration of cor-el's suggestion showing what it does since I wasn't aware of that before.

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