Firefox 3 Doesn’t Prompt or Warn to Confirm When Closing Multiple Tabs As Warning Not Working
After upgrading from Firefox 2 and installing Firefox 3, many users may notice that Firefox 3 no longer prompt or warn user before closing or exiting Firefox window with multiple tabs opened in the window. The warning when closing multiple tabs not working ‘error’ happens despite that the “Warn me when closing multiple tabs” option in Tabs section of Firefox 3 Preferences has been checked and enabled.
With the “Warn me when closing multiple tabs” option selected, Firefox supposed to pop up a dialog box titled “Confirm Close” asking “You’re about to close x open tabs. Are you sure want to continue?”, as practiced in Firefox 2 shown in illustration below. In Firefox 3, this is not the case, and Firefox closes and quits without warning and confirmation even with more than one open tabs, even with “browser.warnOnQuit” preference set to true.
However, this new behavior looks like not going to be classified as a bug, according to replies from various developers in Bugzilla@Mozilla (see bug 422040, 434961, and 419009) . In fact, it’s a new intentional change so that if Firefox is configured to enable session restore by selecting “Show my windows and tabs from last time” startup option (browser.startup.page pref is equal to 3), where Firefox will re-open and restore all opened tabs automatically on next restart, Firefox does not warn or prompt for confirmation when user closes a Firefox window of a Firefox session with only single window with multiple tabs or quit the Firefox application with multiple Firefox windows and/or tabs opened, as long as Firefox deems that these tabs and/or windows can be saved and reopened automatically by Firefox on next start up.
In short, current FF3 behavior on closing window with tabs is that user no longer be warned every time when quitting Firefox, but warning or confirm close dialog will only be prompted if the window or tabs cannot be restored.
The exit without confirmation feature may be nice for some people, but not all people will love it, especially users who tend to accidentally click on the Close (X) button in the web browser window, and when there are tens, if not hundreds of tabs open in the window. Just image the time Firefox requires to reopen all those tabs again.
The workaround to set Firefox to warn or ask for confirmation before closing window with multiple open tabs, or quit Firefox application, is to disable session restore by setting Firefox to start up with home page or blank page. To do so, click on Tools menu and then Options. In the Main tab Startup section, select Show my home page or Show a blank page for “When Firefox starts” option (Note that “Show my windows and tabs from last time” means session restore, which mean you won’t get any close tabs confirm warning).
After configuring Firefox to load homepage or blank page on startup, Firefox will prompt a “Quit Firefox” titled dialog box, saying “Do you want Firefox to save your tabs for the next time it starts?”. User can select “Save and Quit” to override “When Firefox starts” setting in order to save and restore and reopen all opened tabs that are been closed on next Firefox session, “Quit” to start afresh on home page or blank page (depending on setting above), or “Cancel” to cancel the exit operating and stay in current window.
Note: If “Do not ask next time” is selected, clicking “Save and Quit” will set the “When Firefox starts” to “Show my windows and tabs from last time” (browser.startup.page = 3) automatically, while clicking “Quit” will uncheck the “Warn me when closing multiple tabs” option (browser.tabs.warnOnClose = false) in “Tabs” preference tab, which must be selected and ticked if you want any warning or confirmation dialog. So in order to always continuously receive a “Save and Quit” dialog, ensure that you never select or tick the check box for “Do not ask next time”.
The new “Quit Firefox” dialog in Firefox 3 no longer show the number of tabs opened as in the old dialog box from Firefox 2. In order to receive the “Confirm Close” dialog box as everybody familiar with in Firefox 2 as shown in figure on top of this article, the working workaround is to launch and open more than one (can be 2, 3 or more) windows of Firefox. Then close the window with multiple tabs (not exit Firefox application though which closes all windows), and the usual “You’re about to close x open tabs. Are you sure want to continue?” dialog will pop up with “Close tabs” or “Cancel” buttons. Make sure that “Warn me when I attempt to close multiple tabs” is always checked.
The ‘feature’ affects Firefox 3 in all operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Related Articles
- Disable Firefox 3 Auto Save Tabs on Close to Prompt for Choice
- Run Command Prompt in Multiple Tabs
- Change the Position of FireFox Tabs Close Button (or Revert Back to FireFox 1.5 Style at the End of Tab Strip)
- Firefox Add-ons – InstaClick v1.4 Opens Multiple Tabs with Single Click
- Disable FireFox Tabbed Browsing Scroll Arrows and Scrolling Tabs Feature
- Change (Increase or Decrease) The Number of Recently Closed Tabs or Remembered by Firefox to Reopen or Undo
- Firefox Add-on: TabCloser to Close All Opened Tabs under Same Website Domain Simultaneously
- Firefox Add-on: TooManyTabs Organizes Firefox Tabs and Frees Up Memory Usage
- How to Resize Firefox Tabs to Become Its Favicon Size
- Download Showcase to Preview Firefox Tabs in Thumbnail Mode
Entries (RSS)
April 28th, 2009 05:34
Yes yes, very useful, I’ve been using the “Show my windows and tabs from last time” for a while now and it’s great. However, my occasional problem is that some websites open things in a separate window despite my setting to open new pages in a new tab. If I then close Firefox from the tabbed window and I’ve forgotten that there was another window open, then bingo I’ve lost my tabs. Any way to get them back without trawling through the history for each one? A kind of “restore the session before last” button?
April 10th, 2009 04:13
Thanks so much!
I accidently selected not to show the dialog again but couldn’t find the setting where re-enable it.
It’s odd there is no reference to this behaviour in the FF wiki.
You saved my day, thanks
April 4th, 2009 05:15
Thanks for the article. What helped me solve this issue, which prevented me to migrate to FF3 for so long. Now thanks to junglelove (comment #19) I am able to use FF3 with the way I was accustomed to use it since god knows when!
Thank you junglelove
March 27th, 2009 20:05
I have been using ff since v0.8+
I have been puzzled by ff3 behavior for a long time until i read this article.
Because I have checked the warning box as the description seems to convey. Indeed, the description is very misleading since it doesn’t do what it says.
Anyway I tried to change the browser.warnOnQuit
browser.warnOnRestart
to true as suggested by no.20 by double clicking but nothing changes to true, although I can change other topics. I don’t understand why I can’t change them.
So I tried browser.tabs.warnOnClose = true as per no 10 but I’m afraid to actually test it by closing the window yet unless I have to sooner or later because the restore tabs don’t work on all sites since some sites will require you to sign-in again.
Now I think ff3 is digressing by omitting some useful features like this warning and also autocomplete off,
and in the process, offended some loyal users.
I hope they fix this feature or there is a better browser whichever come first.
March 21st, 2009 10:16
-go to windows search
-type in: C:\Users\YOUR NAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
-open folder labeled: evdigo0r.default
-deleted “prefs” line
-restart FF
after this it started asking me if i wanted to save before closing multiple tabs again. and no other preferences were changed.
March 17th, 2009 05:10
for me, this fixed the problem:
first, make sure you have firefox set to warn you when closing multiple tabs, under the tab options.
then go to about:config
set both of the following to true:
browser.warnOnQuit
browser.warnOnRestart
btw, i think i also know how these settings got messed up. i think the “tab mix plus” extension can alter these settings and they stay that way even after you’ve uninstalled it.
February 6th, 2009 15:46
to fix and get the dialog for save quit/quit/cancel you have to set browser.startup.page value=0 if you have it as 1, 2 or 3 3 will auto save every time 2 will quit and 1 will open on blank i think but if you set to 0 it will not have a choice and therefore ask for all 3, and fixing your accidental mouse click, have fun now!
January 8th, 2009 08:15
Thank you so much man! I clicked once “Do not ask next time” and couldn’t find a way to set it back… this page should be on top of Google’s results!
November 3rd, 2008 23:30
Awesome man…… very nicely explained……
October 26th, 2008 13:53
All I can say is, the author of this article is just AWESOME for explaining this to me. Thank you!!!
October 14th, 2008 20:01
I still have a problem with this “closing multiple tabs in FF3″ issue… I want the firefox2 behaivor back, like this:
1. I have multiple tabs open
2. I close firefox down
3. I see a warning about closing multiple tabs. I press enter and firefox closes.
4. I open firefox again, and get a blank page or whatever home page I have configured. Ie no saved tabs.
The best I can get now is the question about if I want to save the tabs, and if I click enter the tabs are saved. But I don’t want that. i want to press enter to make the warning go away. Is this behaivor possible to get with Firefox3?
October 9th, 2008 01:51
HERE IT IS, THE “Warn Me When Closing Multiple Tabs” FIX:
To be alerted every time you close a window with multiple tabs:
Set your “When Firefox Starts:” preference/option to: “Show my homepage” or “Show a blank page”
Type about:config into the address bar, press Return and then click “I’ll Be Careful” to get into Firefox’s hidden preference settings.
Find “browser.tabs.warnOnClose” and if it’s not already set to “true” double-click it to set it to “true.
Find “browser.tabs.warnOnQuit” and if it’s not already set to “true” double-click it to set it to “true.
(NOTE: If you can’t find a “browser.tabs.warnOnQuit” item, you have to make your own. Here’s how to do it on a Mac (I don’t know how to do it on Windows, but I assume you just Right-Click instead of Control-Click?):
Control-Click anywhere on the page and select New>Boolean from the pop-up menu.
Enter browser.tabs.warnOnQuit as the Preference Name and click OK
Select “true” in the next window, click OK
That’s it, now you have a browser.tabs.warnOnQuit setting, and it’s set to “true,” so close the about:config tab)
Now, the next time you accidentally hit Command-Q (or click the red X in Windows), Firefox will ask you what you want to do before it quits. This is what worked for me on my Mac, your mileage may vary. Good luck, and, if this works for you, please spread it around, let other folks know how to fix this really dumb problem!!
September 13th, 2008 18:43
Thanks for the tips. I chose “do not ask again” and couldn’t find how to undo that, but now I found it.
In FF2 I often clicked the close button just to see how many tabs I had open. I wish the Quit confirmation showed that as well, but at least I can open another window in order to find out
I got used to the old way of choosing on startup whether to restore the old session. Now the decision has been moved to the moment you close Firefox. I don’t know if that’s better or worse, but it’s not a huge difference.
But after getting my sessions lost many times because of badly working session-restorers, I’ve found that you shouldn’t trust it anyway. Here’s a tip: Bookmark All Tabs -> restore them by selecting Open All in Tabs!
July 19th, 2008 02:37
I love both Linux and OSS…
But this looks like the last crap’n s**t developer’s choice.
No way to consider that as a feature, since just today I closed three times my Firefox session because of a simple keyboard mistake (look how close are the W and Q keys).
Sad, once again, sad.
S.
July 15th, 2008 07:04
I already had my “browser.tabs.warnOnClose” set on True. Nevertheless, I double clicked it to set it to false and then double clicked it to set it to true again. AND YES IT DID WORK!!! Thank you. I hope it continues to work without me having to do this same thing again. Damn computer logic! They don’t even follow their own rules as specified in their configuration files.
July 15th, 2008 06:42
In about:config, try setting browser.tabs.warnOnClose = true. This seems to have done the trick for me.
July 8th, 2008 14:14
as i use tab mix plus which makes uing LOTS of tab very comfortable
i REALLY miss the confirmation dialog because sometimes i close 100+ tabs and it takes ages to reload them
but i must admit that ff3 reloads even such big ammount pretty quickly compared to ff2 with fasterfox!
the accidental closing sometime happens when you have the ff3 window maximized and another which is about maximum but not really maximized
when you just put your mouse in the upper right corner and klick yo actually hit the x of the window behind which sometimes is firefox…
would be nice to have that option again
aa extension for this schould be pissible?
July 4th, 2008 13:41
This suggestion does not work and I am very pissed. The decision to remove this as a feature on Firefox 3 was thoroughly stupid. Whoever would not like to be notified of multiple tab closing could just check the darn “Do not ask me again” box. Somebody, please hit the lamer(s) who helped make our lives more stressful by authorizing this change.
June 30th, 2008 22:30
[...] Firefox 3 Doesn’t Prompt or Warn to Confirm When Closing Multiple Tabs As Warning Not Working » M… The workaround to set Firefox to warn or ask for confirmation before closing window with multiple open tabs, or quit FF application, is to disable session restore by setting Firefox to start up with home page or blank page. There myst be a better way.. (tags: Firefox 3 Tweaks) [...]
June 29th, 2008 20:57
[...] poniéndome a pensar en todo esto. también he visto otros comportamientos inconsistentes como el manejo de la restauración de sesión con el mensaje de confirmación al cerrar múltiples pestañas… Ok, tal vez ese no sea un bug pero estoy convencido que al menos debería haber un texto [...]
June 23rd, 2008 18:17
Firefox 就是麻烦，还是Opera 9.5 好用
June 23rd, 2008 09:17
It’s a feature in Firefox that automatically shown when Firefox crashes or closes unexpectedly. If you just want to ’session restore’, go to Preference and select Show tabs and windows from last session (read article above too).
June 23rd, 2008 02:42
Hello,
Having found the information very useful I still have been unable to find an answer to what I was looking. I hope you are able to help, closing and saving multiple aside I sorely miss the ‘restore session’ and ’start new session’ dialog box. Many times i have tabs saved from work or so which I hope to view later, but sometimes I don’t get to it and it gets redundant by the next day. the ’start new session’ is certainly messed, would you know anyway I can restore that dialog box in firefox 3?
June 21st, 2008 11:09
Thanks, now I know I’m not the only one: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=70395
June 19th, 2008 01:53
[...] 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. [...]