Hello,

To find the correct solution to your problem, we need some more non-personal information from you. Please do the following:

1. Use ONE of these methods to open the Firefox Troubleshooting Information page:
   • Click the menu button , click on help and select Troubleshooting Information.
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If you need further information about the Troubleshooting information page, please read the article Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I haven't noticed this myself yet.

Firefox normally can't display .XLS or .XLSX files in a tab. Are you using an add-on for that?

Do you encounter this problem when grabbing an XLS or XLSX file from search results, or another readily accessible site?

https://www.bing.com/search?q=site:microsoft.com+filetype:xlsx

It is a longstanding rule in Firefox that sites cannot close a page using the window.close() method unless they launched the page using the window.open() method. I am not aware of that changing.

Hi   Muddyyeti   !

This may not be what you want, but when you click a link, holding the Shift key,   the link will open in the current tab.
When you open a link in a new tab,   the current tab shouldn't close though.
Let's try Firefox in Safe Mode : If Firefox is not running : Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox. If Firefox is running : 3-bar menu => ' ? ' (at the bottom of the dropdown) => 'Restart with Add-ons disabled'. Then OK the restart. A small dialog should appear. Click 'Start in Safe Mode' ( not 'Refresh' !)

See : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode

Thank you for your responses.

Let me first start by amending my original description of the problem...when I click the link to create the .xls report, the current tab is closed and replaced by a blank new tab while the .xls file is downloaded and appears in my download folder (I believe I originally said the .xls file is opened in a new tab, that was incorrectly stated). So to summarize, current tab is closed when link is clicked, .xls doc goes to download folder and a blank new tab is created.

jscher2000, I had no trouble with the tabs or .xls file when using the link you provided. Happy112, using firefox in safemode had no effect on the issue :(

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 54.0 Build ID: 20170608105825 Update Channel: release User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:54.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/54.0 OS: Windows_NT 10.0 Multiprocess Windows: 2/2 (Enabled by default) Google Key: Found Mozilla Location Service Key: Found Safe Mode: false

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days

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Extensions

Name: Application Update Service Helper Version: 2.0 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Cisco WebEx Extension Version: 1.0.9 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Firefox Screenshots Version: 6.6.0 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Follow-on Search Telemetry Version: 0.8.0 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Multi-process staged rollout Version: 1.50 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Pocket Version: 1.0.5 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Web Compat Version: 1.1 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Adobe Acrobat DC - Create PDF Version: 15.01.01 Enabled: false ID: [email protected]

Having a blank page appear when Firefox is fetching a binary download is not unusual. But it is odd that the tab from which you requested the download would close, unless that is how the site is designed to work.

Sometimes a page directs a download to a new window/tab. When Firefox determines that it is not intended to be displayed inline, it displays the download dialog and closes the unnecessary tab. If you are using a setting or add-on to block the new window/tab and force the content into the same tab, that might explain the problem you're experiencing.

Could you check this setting:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste neww and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If the browser.link.open_newwindow preference is bolded and "user set" to 1, I suggest resetting it to the default value of 3. You can do that by either right-click > Reset, or double-click it to display a dialog where you can enter that value.

Hi jscher2000,

I checked the browser.link.open_newwindow setting and the preference wasn't bolded and the default value read 3 so I don't believe that was the issue.

I don't believe the sites (efsllc.com and factorfox.com) were designed to operate the way you described in your first paragraph as each of these sites have functioned without this problem for as long as we've used them (little over a year).

I feel fairly confident in stating the issue began when the browser was updated to version 54. To verify, I tested the site(s) on a separate computer where version 53.0.3 was still being used and had no issue. Once updated to 54, the problem began to occur.

Can you submit this issue to the two sites to see whether they are aware of it?

Could you take a look at this new thread similar to yours?

opening a PDF document closes underyling window

Jscher2000,

Thank you for referring me to that thread...the issue described there is exactly what I was experiencing. I followed the instructions posted there and similar to mfridman, I experienced successful results using method 2 (making sure browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2=false). I appreciate your help!

This worked for me too about:config browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2=false

Thanks!

Note that this issue is probably fixed in the 54.0.1 update.

• Help -> About

cor-el said

Note that this issue is probably fixed in the 54.0.1 update.

• Help -> About

Yes, it's the "Fix a tab display issue when downloading files" line in the release notes: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/54.0.1/releasenotes/