Do I assume correctly that the 'x' doesn't work?

If you don't need tabs at the top, they can be switched off: Hamburger icon (top right)/Settings/Search for 'Tab' Scroll down to 'Open messages in' and choose something other than 'A New Tab' Personally, I don't use Tabs. I find them annoying.

Thanks. Yes x will cancel them but there are so many it is a pain. When I did as you suggested regarding tabs it made no difference.

When I did as you suggested regarding tabs it made no difference.

Changing the setting will make the way emails are opened different. It won't remove Tabs.

Does this mean I have to live with all these tabs and why did it suddenly happen

Does this mean I have to live with all these tabs and why did it suddenly happen

You never said that it had suddenly started happening. You just said you had blank tabs at the top of the program. And you've closed them by manually using the 'x'? And taken remedial action to prevent tabs from occurring again in the settings?

Not sure what extra needs to be done. Can you outline a bit more fully what the problem is?

Sorry about that I had written it in my original post, lost it when attaching screenshot and obviously forgot it in the re-write. Yes the problem has only appeared recently but I am not sure if it happened with the update. However I am no longer with my Windows 11 pc so will get back to you shortly.

If you right click on a tab, one of the options available is Close Other Tabs. Does that solve the problem?

Yes right clicking does solve it but I really wanted to know why it has happened and if it was preventable. I have really not worded my question correctly and wasted you helpful people’s time for which I apologise. I will just go on with the right clicking and maybe experiment with a few ideas. Thanks a lot to you both.

Yes right clicking does solve it but I really wanted to know why it has happened and if it was preventable. I have really not worded my question correctly and wasted you helpful people’s time for which I apologise. I will just go on with the right clicking and maybe experiment with a few ideas. Thanks a lot to you both.

When you switch off the Tab setting (as suggested above) does it remove this problem?

When you switch off the Tab setting (as suggested above) does it remove this problem?

He said it does, but just to be clear I didn't suggest to switch off any setting. What I suggested was a way to close all tabs but one with a single action, without changing any settings.

Frisée and David

David. Yes when I close the tabs with one single action that closes them all.

Frisée when I change the settings nothing happens.

I will just put up with the situation thank you as it isn’t a major problem just annoying. I was curious as to why it happened so suddenly but I can live with it, so thank you both for your input. P

frisée said

When you switch off the Tab setting (as suggested above) does it remove this problem?

He said it does, but just to be clear I didn't suggest to switch off any setting. What I suggested was a way to close all tabs but one with a single action, without changing any settings.

See above in the latest post. The setting change doesn't solve the problem... ...and... ...I suggested the change, not you.

...I suggested the change, not you.

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood what you meant because that didn't make much sense to me and thought you were referring to what I had suggested.

He had already said in a previous post (and you replied to it) that changing the setting made no difference. The problem, as I understood it, is two fold:

1. He wanted to get rid of all those tabs without having to close them one by one.
2. He would like to know why it happened in the first place.

Of course that setting must have been "A new tab" when it happened, and choosing something else would prevent it from happening again (although choosing "A new message window" would probably have caused multiple blank windows to open instead), but the real question, as I understand it, is why it happened with that setting, i.e. what other thing must have happened in addition to that setting being "A new tab", for all those blank tabs to appear. I would have a possible explanation if each tab was showing a message, but not if all tabs are blank, btw.

Actually, the assumption I made that the setting must have been "open new messages in a new tab" for that to happen isn't correct. I do believe that was the setting when it happened and that something caused Thunderbird to try to open multiple non-existent messages or something like that, but it cannot be assumed that was the setting. Thunderbird might have opened all those tabs for some other reason.