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Open tabs list in no order whatsoever!

I truly cannot fathom why a browser, in this day & age, cannot put the list of open tabs & windows in the drop-down menu, in even SOME KIND OF ORDER! But no, it's nothing more than a long list, impossible to filter in any way, that is not in chronological, alphabetical, order of most recent used, no option to list via website or page title, etc. This is so ridiculously frustrating, along with the molasses lack of speed in opening up windows or tabs, that I'm on the verge of just chucking this entire app, for good. Why do our state-of-the-art advanced technological devices and apps, feel more like we're going backwards, and not forward??

I truly cannot fathom why a browser, in this day & age, cannot put the list of open tabs & windows in the drop-down menu, in even SOME KIND OF ORDER! But no, it's nothing more than a long list, impossible to filter in any way, that is not in chronological, alphabetical, order of most recent used, no option to list via website or page title, etc. This is so ridiculously frustrating, along with the molasses lack of speed in opening up windows or tabs, that I'm on the verge of just chucking this entire app, for good. Why do our state-of-the-art advanced technological devices and apps, feel more like we're going backwards, and not forward??

All Replies (6)

They are ordered chronologically unless you download an extension.

They're not in any order, chronologically or otherwise, not on my iMac, and not with Firefox 93..

This sounded familiar, so I reviewed your previous threads on this topic. In the one you started on August 30, 2012, I found this explanation from Michael Verdi -- does this match your experience:

The windows listed in the Window menu are in chronological order starting with the oldest window near the top and the newest window at the bottom. The problem might be that you've opened a new tab in an old window. The windows are still listed in the same order but now they have the name of the newest tab. In my screenshot I opened this question in a new tab in my oldest window.

By the way, if you want a chronological list of recently visited tabs, I do have an add-on for that. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/switch-to-previous-active-tab/

On Mac, I don't think you can move its button to the address bar, it would need to be on one of the other toolbars. Want to give it a try?

After you install it, right-click (or with one button, Ctrl+click) its toolbar button and click Options. There you can set the button to show you a chronological list of recently accessed tabs across all open windows:

With results similar to:

Currently, the Global list doesn't mention which window a tab is in. Would that be useful? I'm not sure... bear in mind that unless an add-on assigns a name to a window, it doesn't have a name, just an ID number.

That explanation doesn't really make sense, either way you look at it. If a new tab is opened in an old window, why wouldn't the window take on the name of the newest open tab? And if it does, but still retains it's position based upon when the window was first accessed, that then is no help whatsoever, as ho wuld wanyone remermbe hnw a specific indow was first opened, when the frontmost tab changes the name of it, every time a new tab isopened?


I left the spelling uncorrected above, to show you what I'm now dealing with, with this new Firefox! Why can't Firefox handle even this most basic of functions?

StevenCee said

That explanation doesn't really make sense, either way you look at it. If a new tab is opened in an old window, why wouldn't the window take on the name of the newest open tab?

It does.

And if it does, but still retains it's position based upon when the window was first accessed, that then is no help whatsoever, as ho wuld wanyone remermbe hnw a specific indow was first opened, when the frontmost tab changes the name of it, every time a new tab isopened?

Why would a window move in the list of open windows because the active tab changed in that window? It is a list of windows in the order you opened them, not the history of what pages or tabs you accessed.

If you don't think the Windows menu is useful, don't use it. If you want to suggest that it work differently in the future, there is a new Ideas site to submit suggestions: https://mozilla.crowdicity.com/

Note: that site has its own accounts and doesn't use your Firefox Account for sign-in.

And in the meantime, you can consider using other tools.

I left the spelling uncorrected above, to show you what I'm now dealing with, with this new Firefox!

Older versions of Firefox fixed your typos for you? I don't think that was a built-in feature. Maybe it was an add-on?