Usually Firefox will follow the website's lead on this. If the link is marked to open in a new window, Firefox will open it in a new window or tab, but if not, the link will be opened in the same tab.

If you always got a new tab before, you might have been using an add-on for that feature. There are many tab-related extensions, for example, that could have done this.

In case you extensions need an update, you can try here:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > "gear" button > "Check for Updates"

In case a tab-related extension has become disabled, you can review and re-enable it here:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Extensions category

Note: disabled extensions cluster at the bottom of the list.

One other note: Google has its own setting to open search results in a new tab. If you want to turn that on, see this article: Open results in a new window - Google Search Help. That preference is stored in a cookie, so if you clear or block your Google cookies, then it probably will stop working.

Any luck?

Note that you can middle-click or hold down Ctrl and left-click a link to open the link in a new tab.

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.link.open_newwindow (3) (1: current tab; 2:new window; 3:new tab)
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction (0)

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

I was going to say "No" to the "helpful" question but the following lines stopped me. You wrote:

Note that you can middle-click or hold down Ctrl and left-click a link to open the link in a new tab. "

This exactly what I do bout then Firefox lines up a new tab in the bar but it will not open it as it used to. I have to go and click on the inert tab for it to open. On a small scale, I could live with that but when doing legal research, I need to open a lot of sequential tabs and it becomes a king size nuisance. I did check for add-ons, there is nothing related that I can see. I had 2 that were disabled by Firefox: The Norton IS toolbar and The Skype one. Could one of these still be causing that problem? If so how do I "Remove" these disabled add-ons? Thank you very much in advance.

Hi ArletteGH, I'm not sure which one of these is the better description of your issue:

If you Ctrl+click or middle-click a link:

• Firefox creates a new tab, loads the link in that tab, but the tab stays in the background rather than being made active (default behavior)

• Firefox creates a new tab, but doesn't actually fetch the page until you make the tab active

• Firefox creates a new tab, but the tab and address bar stay blank, as though the address never got transferred to the page

Are any of those close to describing your problem?

Greeting jscher2000

The second option listed is what was happening to me.

After going in safe mode and checking the add-ons, I had almost given up when I recalled a seeing a clause about tabs buried somewhere in Firefox and I eventually found it under “Tools/Options/Tabs”. Duh!

Now I did not select that option so I do not know how it came to be selected, but it was. It is the one that says: “Don’t load tab until selected” and that is exactly what I had been doing for the past two weeks and going crazy because of it.

Over the last ten days, I had a gushing of Microsoft driver updates after a near-new re-install, I upgraded to NIS which toolbar has been disabled by Firefox and I also had to revive a new Firefox software, so it is not surprising that a few things went askew. Since this thing happened without my active participation, it is possible that it could happen to others too so you may want to add that option to the places to check for reluctant tabs.

Thank you very much for being so prompt to respond – Great Work!

Hi ArletteGH, that option usually affects tab you restore from a previous session, either by starting Firefox with your windows and tabs from last time, or by manually restoring your previous session. I didn't think of that scenario, I just assumed you were having this problem on new tabs you were opening. I'm glad you made the connection.