Disable Firefox 3 Auto Save Tabs on Close to Prompt for Choice

When closing a window of Firefox 3.0 with multiple tabs open, the “Quit Firefox” dialog box with option to Save and Quite or just Quit without saving may be disabled and not be prompted or shown. Instead, Firefox automatically and silently saves all currently open tabs on exit, and then restore and reopen these tabs on next restart.

The no confirmation prompt on exit of Firefox 3 scenerio can happen by action of user or by design. When the user check the option of “Do not ask next time” and then click “Save and Quit” or “Quit”, then Firefox will no longer gives any warning in future and will close the window directly according to the action chosen.

Beside, if user set the “When Firefox starts” preference under Tools -> Options to “Show my windows and tabs from last time”, the Firefox 3 will auto save tabs on close too without prompting user to choose a selection of action choices. This is significantly different from Firefox 2, where the change is explained on article about missing or not working warning when closing multiple tabs.

To revert and disable auto saving of tabs when closing Firefox window, go to Tools -> Options, and configure the following settings:

For When Firefox starts, select Show my home page or Show a blank page.
Check (tick) the check box for Warn me when closing multiple tabs.

If you prefer to configure via about:config Firefox configuration page, set the following preference with the corresponding values:

browser.tabs.warnOnClose: true
browser.warnOnQuit: true
browser.startup.page: 1 or 2

Related Articles

• Firefox 3 Doesn’t Prompt or Warn to Confirm When Closing Multiple Tabs As Warning Not Working
• Change the Position of FireFox Tabs Close Button (or Revert Back to FireFox 1.5 Style at the End of Tab Strip)
• Firefox Add-on: TabCloser to Close All Opened Tabs under Same Website Domain Simultaneously
• Firefox Add-on: Save Images to Save All Pictures from Opened Tabs
• Disable FireFox Tabbed Browsing Scroll Arrows and Scrolling Tabs Feature
• Fix Firefox Does Not Save, Store or Remember Password On Some Sites Permanently for Always Auto-Complete
• Stop and Disable Web Pages Auto Refresh or Reload in Firefox
• Disable and Remove Bookmarks, Favorites, Pages in Tabs and Last Visited Sites from Firefox 3 URL Location Address Bar
• Change (Increase or Decrease) The Number of Recently Closed Tabs or Remembered by Firefox to Reopen or Undo
• Download Showcase to Preview Firefox Tabs in Thumbnail Mode

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 1:53 am and is filed under Web Browsers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.