Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Firefox 22 /Open link in new tab not working

  • 11 replies
  • 29 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by bretleduc

more options

Just loaded FF22. Sometimes I have a slow connection speed and I need FF to open links in a new tab, so pages do not have to reload. On the earlier version. Say I went to www.google.com and clicked on search link, It would open in a new tab (without right clicking link, and specifying to "Open link in new tab" It would do this on all links automaticly. Am I missing something here. Do I need to go into about.config to set this. Or go back to an earlier version of FF.

Just loaded FF22. Sometimes I have a slow connection speed and I need FF to open links in a new tab, so pages do not have to reload. On the earlier version. Say I went to www.google.com and clicked on search link, It would open in a new tab (without right clicking link, and specifying to "Open link in new tab" It would do this on all links automaticly. Am I missing something here. Do I need to go into about.config to set this. Or go back to an earlier version of FF.

All Replies (11)

more options

You can set this via the Google settings page (Where results open).

more options

Alternatively you can:

  • middle-click the link (e.g., mouse scroll wheel)
  • Ctrl+click the link (Mac: Command+Click)
  • Use the Open Link in New Tab add-on
more options

Middle click works the way the older version was acting.. Wondering why the earlier version worked with left click. Settings?

more options

I'm not aware of any changes to the settings. Some people have reported these kinds of changes being made by the ASK/foxit toolbar or by Tab Mix Plus add-on.

Do you have either of those installed?

more options

No neither of those.

more options

My Firefox's default behaviour has always been to open links in the same window/tab unless the html link specifies a new window/tab using the target="_blank" attribute.

If I want a new tab instead then I use middle click or right click > open new tab.

Is this different from your Firefox's previous default behaviour?

Might it be that you used to have something installed that was changing the behaviour, you then uninstalled it and Firefox has now returned to its defaults?

Sorry I can't be more helpful ... it sounds to me like your copy of Firefox is now acting like mine always has so I don't think there is a 'problem' as such. If you want to change that behaviour you can always use an add-on.

I hope that helps.

more options

Thanks for the help Can;t remember what I did to the 3.5 version. The middle click will suffice. The open in new tab add-on set at level 2 didn't help

more options

Did you check the settings in Google?

more options

checked my google settings. google/account/dashboard/settings/general. checked box :Open links in a new tab or browser window

more options

Working as I want now. Left click new tab. Not sure if it was the add-on or the google setting, because it did not take effect until I rebooted.

Thanks all for the help.

more options

Here's my solution to the problem of making links always open in a new tab. This only applies to Mac OSX tho.

Get Better Touch Tool. (This program creates keyboard and mouse/trackpad gesture shortcuts and it's free/donation BTW)

I set up several shortcuts in Better Touch Tool, but the relevant one here would be "Middleclick" which by default opens a link into a new tab. The gesture I set to do this happens to be three finger tap.

These are my configured gestures/shortcuts: four finger swipe down -> sleep display three finger tap -> middleclick three finger double tap -> command-h (minimizes all open windows in the current program) four finger double tap -> Application Switcher

I also enabled Windows Snapping (which mimics Windows windows snapping) and Windows Moving/Resizing (which the way I have configured it means, if I mouse over a window, then hold the Shift and fn buttons, the window will move around without having to hold the mouse/trackpad button, and if I hold just the fn key, the window will resize).