Pinned Tabs lost (any way around this?)
Hi, is there any fix for the following? The functionality is intentional but it is absolutely maddening, so I'm hoping there is a plugin workaround or something:
> Pinned tabs are bound to a specific window, so make sure to Quit Firefox while this window is still open and do not simply close a window and leave Firefox running with the menu bar visible.
The user should never be in a position where one simple wrong move obliterates things they've saved (even if it is a recoverable situation). To say 'the user must close windows in a certain order else lose all the tabs they clearly don't want to lose' is just bizarre.
All Replies (10)
Thanks Dropa.
I'm not 100% sure if this is exactly the same situation you're describing, but if it is then this behaviour seems really bizarre.
The use-cases for pinned tabs vs bookmarks are very well-established. They co-exist precisely because those use-cases are different.
- You bookmark a page that you want to save permanently.
- You pin a page if you want to come back to it, to complete it (e.g. if you're in the middle of reading a page and want to finish it later, but do not wish to save it permanently)
Either way, you are indicating that you don't wish to lose it. You'd never pin a page without clear intent to come back to it. You should never have to pin a page and then bookmark it as well.
There should never be a situation where a user can accidentally do something as simple as closing two windows in the wrong order, that should override the user's clear intent.
NOTE: I've seen a number of other users make the same complaint - these posts get answered with 'if you close the windows in the wrong order you'll lose pinned tabs' and then the post gets archived as 'solved' which means no one else can comment on them if they're experiencing the same frustrations
Modified by Zedr
On Mac closing Firefox can be more complicated because you can close all open windows, but keep Firefox running with the menu bar visible or minimized in the Doc.
Make sure to use "Quit Firefox" with all windows still open, especially if you want to use "Restore Previous Session" and need to keep pinned tabs. Otherwise check "History -> Restore Previous Session" and "History -> Recently Closed Tabs/Windows" to see if you can recover this lost window.
Use one of these to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox Title bar, especially if you have multiple windows open to prevent losing tabs in unnoticed windows.
- "3-bar" menu button -> Exit (Power button)
- Windows: File -> Exit
- Mac: Firefox -> Quit Firefox
- Linux: File -> Quit
Thanks @cor-el and @Dropa - I appreciate your answers.
Again, I'm left absolutley puzzled by this and why tabs don't carry over into new windows.
Ah well! I'm still holding out in case someone knows of an extension to get around this, but I expect for me it's simply a case of 'use another browser then'.
Modified by Zedr
Hi Zedr, I haven't tested this add-on, but you could give it a try: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/persistentpin/ If you need help installing it, let us know.
Pinned tabs are specific tor a window and each window has its own pinned tabs. You can't carry pinned tabs over to a newly opened window and you will have to open those tabs once again in a new window and pin those tabs once again. You can possibly bookmark tabs via "Bookmark (Selected) Tabs" and open those tabs in the new window.
> You can't carry pinned tabs over to a newly opened window
In some browsers this is the way it works, which makes so much more sense me (bookmarks offer permanance, while pinned tabs continue to exist until you tell the browser otherwise).
It just seems so odd to me to say 'hey, we have this useful feature for marking pages until you're done with them ... but only if you don't make a single little mistake, else we'll wipe the whole lot of them"
I mean, why even bother with pinned tabs if that's the case? Just make everything a bookmark and be done with it.
Anyway! Thanks for the reponses.
Modified by Zedr
You can carry over multiple homepages to a new window as a new window opens by default with the homepages, but pinned tabs are window specific. Note that pinned tabs aren't include in the homepages if you were selecting multiple tabs and use "Use Current Page(s)" to set the homepage(s).
Gah, if I could just have pinned home pages showing here that would be good enough; but for some bizarre reason FF forces the user to show 'top sites' too whether they want it or not (another head-scratcher!) And without showing recent activity I'm not finding any easy/obvious way to add the site I'm viewing to the homepage.
When you have 'pinned sites', 'top sites' & 'recent sites' all showing it's just masses of unecessary eye clutter.
It's okay, I'm clearly not liking Firefox's decisions here but that's cool - I think maybe I've just moved on from what FF offers. I used to be a huge fan, but I'm finding it all a bit irksome so I'll just delete it. I appreciate your recommendations in trying to help me find a solution :)
Modified by Zedr
Hi Zedr, I think there's a misunderstanding. This isn't a decision Mozilla made; it's a bug. There are different scenarios, so the team hasn't decided on the best solution.
For now, the closest solution I could find is the Active Pinned Tab add-on, which will move your pinned tabs to the active window.
Thanks Chris - this sounds like it would sort it, but it's not working for me at all. I just did a full reinstallation of FF, but nope, doesn't remember any tabs (have tweaked the settings to allow that).