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Browser not switching to new tab when one is created

  • 12 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by Darkbreeze

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So, power user. Tom's hardware moderator. Total fail on solving this issue. Since the 46.0 update Firefox has stopped switching to new tabs automatically when I create one by clicking the + for a new tab. If I open a link that is supposed to open in a new tab, it does, and it does switch to it, but it does not when I create a new tab myself.

Option setting for switch to new tab when they are created is enabled. I've tried the reboot to safe mode, open firefox and open a new tab, and that didn't work either. No new addons or plugins have been installed between the time this was working and now. Ideas or actual solutions, in the even anybody has encountered this, would be immensely appreciated. Just an annoyance really, but I dislike having to click the + and then remember to click again before typing my search string or navigating to a link in bookmarks. It worked before, it ought to work now. Thanks in advance for any help.

So, power user. Tom's hardware moderator. Total fail on solving this issue. Since the 46.0 update Firefox has stopped switching to new tabs automatically when I create one by clicking the + for a new tab. If I open a link that is supposed to open in a new tab, it does, and it does switch to it, but it does not when I create a new tab myself. Option setting for switch to new tab when they are created is enabled. I've tried the reboot to safe mode, open firefox and open a new tab, and that didn't work either. No new addons or plugins have been installed between the time this was working and now. Ideas or actual solutions, in the even anybody has encountered this, would be immensely appreciated. Just an annoyance really, but I dislike having to click the + and then remember to click again before typing my search string or navigating to a link in bookmarks. It worked before, it ought to work now. Thanks in advance for any help.

Chosen solution

i can reproduce that behaviour when the "New Tab Homepage View" extension is installed - you could try https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/ as an alternative..

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All Replies (12)

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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 anyway...

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

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Same behavior occurs in safe mode. Click the + sign for a new tab and it opens, but does not switch to it.

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firefox safemode that is? could you go to the firefox menu ≡ > help ? > troubleshooting information, copy the contents of that page and paste them here into a reply on the forum? this might give us a clue what is going on...

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And, like I said, nothing new was added or extended in Firefox, so it's clear that it's something brought with the update, although I understand that the issue at it's core could be related to an addon, because of something that changed with the new version, it's definitely not due to any NEW addons.

The only addons that are even running are adblock plus, Covenant eyes (Required, work related home use machine) and the "New tab homepage view" addon.

Modified by Darkbreeze

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Application Basics


Name: Firefox Version: 46.0.1 Build ID: 20160502172042 Update Channel: release User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:46.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/46.0 Multiprocess Windows: 0/1 (Disabled) Safe Mode: false

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days


All Crash Reports

Extensions


Name: Adblock Plus Version: 2.7.3 Enabled: true ID: {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}

Name: Covenant Eyes Version: 0.8.1 Enabled: true ID: firefox-integrated-extension@covenanteyes.com

Name: Firefox Hello Version: 1.2.6 Enabled: true ID: loop@mozilla.org

Name: Multi-process staged rollout Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: e10srollout@mozilla.org

Name: New Tab Homepage View Version: 1.1.1-signed.1-signed Enabled: true ID: clearz@gmail.com

Name: Pocket Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: firefox@getpocket.com

Graphics


Adapter Description: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 amdxc64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 amdxc32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64 Adapter RAM: 3072 Asynchronous Pan/Zoom: none Device ID: 0x679a Direct2D Enabled: true DirectWrite Enabled: true (10.0.10586.0) Driver Date: 4-15-2016 Driver Version: 16.150.2401.0 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 11 (OMTC) Subsys ID: 00000000 Supports Hardware H264 Decoding: Yes Vendor ID: 0x1002 WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (AMD Radeon R9 200 Series Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: true AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d 1.1 AzureContentBackend: direct2d 1.1 AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

Important Modified Preferences


accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1 browser.cache.disk.hashstats_reported: 1 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.frecency_experiment: 3 browser.download.importedFromSqlite: true browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7 browser.search.suggest.enabled: false browser.search.update: false browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand: false browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20160502172042 browser.startup.homepage: www.google.com browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20160502172042 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 46.0.1 browser.tabs.loadInBackground: false browser.tabs.warnOnClose: false browser.tabs.warnOnOpen: false browser.urlbar.userMadeSearchSuggestionsChoice: true dom.apps.reset-permissions: true dom.mozApps.used: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 46.0.1 font.internaluseonly.changed: false gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.appVersion: 46.0.1 gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.deviceID: 0x679a gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.driverVersion: 16.150.2401.0 gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.feature-d2d: true gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.feature-d3d11: true gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.direct3d11-angle: true gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle: true gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-d3d11: false gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-warp: false gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-try-d3d11: true gfx.crash-guard.status.d3d11layers: 2 gfx.crash-guard.status.d3d9video: 2 gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext: 2 gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 media.gmp-eme-adobe.abi: x86-msvc-x64 media.gmp-eme-adobe.lastUpdate: 1462305589 media.gmp-eme-adobe.version: 17 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.abi: x86-msvc-x64 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate: 1462305589 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.version: 1.5.3 media.gmp-manager.buildID: 20160502172042 media.gmp-manager.lastCheck: 1462305587 media.hardware-video-decoding.failed: false network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true network.predictor.cleaned-up: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1461903170 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_bgimages: false print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_duplex: 3000 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_evenpages: true print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_footercenter: print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_footerright: &D print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_headercenter: print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_headerright: &U print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_in_color: true print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_oddpages: true print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_orientation: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_paper_data: 1 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_paper_name: print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_paper_size_unit: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_resolution: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_reversed: false print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_to_file: false print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_Adobe_PDF.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 privacy.cpd.downloads: false privacy.cpd.history: false privacy.cpd.offlineApps: true privacy.cpd.siteSettings: true privacy.sanitize.migrateClearSavedPwdsOnExit: true privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 0 services.sync.declinedEngines: storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1460698864 ui.osk.debug.keyboardDisplayReason: IKPOS: Touch screen not found.

Important Locked Preferences


JavaScript


Incremental GC: true

Accessibility


Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions


NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.12 Version in use: 4.12

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.22.3 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.22.3 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.22.3 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.22.3 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.22.3 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.22.3 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.22.3 Version in use: 3.22.3

Experimental Features


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Is there any difference between pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+t and using the "+" button?

Are you using the built-in new tab page, or making any changes through "non-extension" methods?


Sometimes sudden inexplicable breakage following an update can be due to corruption or alien files in the program folder. This is what we generally recommend for that:

Clean Reinstall

We use this name, but it's not about removing your settings, it's about making sure the program files are clean (no inconsistent or alien code files). As described below, this process does not disturb your existing settings. Do NOT uninstall Firefox, that's not needed.

(A) Download a fresh installer for Firefox 46.0.1 from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ to a convenient location. (Scroll down to your preferred language.) For maximum plugin compatibility, choose the 32-bit version.

(B) Exit out of Firefox (if applicable).

(C) Rename the program folder as follows:

32-bit install on 64-bit Windows

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox

All other installations

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files\OldFirefox

(D) Run the installer you downloaded in step (A). It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

Note: Some plugins may exist only in that OldFirefox folder. If something essential is missing, look in these folders:

  • \OldFirefox\Plugins
  • \OldFirefox\browser\plugins

No idea whether that will help, but you already tried most other things.

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Have already uninstalled Waterfox, reinstalled Waterfox, uninstalled Waterfox, installed Firefox, with reboots in between.

Have also tried purging all Firefox folders and settings between installations. No change.

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Also, another of my fellow Tom's hardware moderators is reporting similar behavior in Linux. And he has none of the same plugins, addons or extensions installed as I do.

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Ctrl + T does the exact same thing.

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Chosen Solution

i can reproduce that behaviour when the "New Tab Homepage View" extension is installed - you could try https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/ as an alternative..

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Yep, that was it. Apparently that extension was the problem. I'll report it to the extension developer. Thanks for smacking my head against the wall to clear out the confusion. :)

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And, the other extension works fine without any issues. I was using that one previously, a while back, but after one of the updates to FF it was no longer supported so I switched to the other one. Now it seems, I'm switched back. Maybe after the next update, I'll have to switch again. Thanks a ton for the help you guys.