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How do I keep FireFox from moving tabs to new windows?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Firefox is constantly moving existing tabs to a new windows even when I only have couple of tabs open plus one pinned in the current window. There doesn't seem to be any performance-related reason for it - I used to be able to have many tabs pinned AND many tabs open in a single window before anything would automatically be moved to a new window.

Now I end with multiple windows open, with only one or two tabs in each, and have to be constantly jumping between them to try and find the tab I need. As I work frequently in web-based apps, this is slowing me down and interfering with my work, which is REALLY annoying.

There used to be a setting to turn off automatically moving tabs to new windows, but I can't find it anywhere. How do I stop this irritating and counterproductive behavior?

Firefox is constantly moving existing tabs to a new windows even when I only have couple of tabs open plus one pinned in the current window. There doesn't seem to be any performance-related reason for it - I used to be able to have many tabs pinned AND many tabs open in a single window before anything would automatically be moved to a new window. Now I end with multiple windows open, with only one or two tabs in each, and have to be constantly jumping between them to try and find the tab I need. As I work frequently in web-based apps, this is slowing me down and interfering with my work, which is REALLY annoying. There used to be a setting to turn off automatically moving tabs to new windows, but I can't find it anywhere. How do I stop this irritating and counterproductive behavior?

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In Firefox 74 and newer there is a pref on the about:config page to disable tear-off and prevent moving the file accidentally to a new window.

  • browser.tabs.allowTabDetach = false

There is still "Move Tab -> Move to New Window" in the Tab bar context menu to use this feature. You can drag the tab back to the Tab bar in the original window to undo the 'tear off'. Firefox will automatically close the now empty window.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.