1134975 - Pinned tab becomes immutable and acts like empty part of tab bar

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Storm]

Attachment: firefox-tab-broken-2.jpg

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:35.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0
Build ID: 20150126171358

Steps to reproduce:

Since I upgraded my Firefox package a few days ago, every time the browser is started fresh with restored tabs, my second pinned tab breaks in an unusual way.


Actual results:

It turns light gray (on a dark theme) with a light blue effect on it and it doesn't behave as a tab anymore: It cannot be selected, moved or closed, and right clicking brings up the context menu for the tab bar itself (like when clicking empty part of it) rather than the context menu for a tab.

My open tab list starts with 9 pinned tabs and it's always the second tab, even if I rearrange them.

Disabling Tab Mix Plus addon doesn't solve the problem.

The ONLY workaround I found is this:
1, Open new window
2, Using Session Manager addon, reload session forecefully into the new window. Reloading session to same window doesn't work.


Arch Linux x64 + KDE
firefox-35.0.1-1 package from Arch repository

Addon list:
Adblock Plus, BetterPrivacy, Classic Theme Restorer, Download Managerr (S3), Firebug, Ghostery, Greasemonkey, Hide BookmarksBar, HTTPS-Everywhere, Magic Actions for YouTube, Plasma Notify, Session Manager, Stylish, Stylish Sync, Tab Mix PLus, Toggle Web Developer Toolbar, Web Developer, WOT, YouTube HD

Comment 1

[Storm]

I tried to pinpoint a possible addon as the source, by turning addons off and then back on one by one, but the results were inconsistent, I couldn't reproduce the issue this way. Sometimes it comes back when restarting Firefox, sometimes it doesn't, but it so far always came back when I booted my system and FF started the first time.

Comment 2

[bl4ckscor3]

I am experiencing the same issues.

Firefox version: 36.0
OS: Windows 8.1

Comment 3

[Kain6]

This occurs for me as well in the exact same spot. Moving the pinned tabs around will always result in the second tab becoming blank on restart. I have tried restarting Firefox with all add-ons disabled and it still happens. I believe this bug started a couple of weeks ago around the time of a Windows Update.

Firefox Version: 36.0.1
OS: Windows 8.1
Add-ons: Adblock Plus 2.6.8, Classic Theme Restorer 1.2.9.6, Dangerous Websites Blocker 4.5.1.379, Magic Actions for Youtube 6.8.5.1, Virtual Keyboard 4.5.1.379

Comment 4

[Matt]

I have the same thing happening. It also happens in more than one Firefox profile, even one without any Add-ons so it doesn't seem to be related to add-ons.

Always the second pinned tab no matter what website it is. My "workaround" for now is to leave an un-important tab pinned in slot 2.

The tab can be accessed by going to tab 1 and using Ctrl + Pg down to get to it and the content functions normally.

Firefox Version: 37.0.1
OS: Arch Linux x86_64 with Awesome WM

Comment 5

[Matt]

I just wanted to add a note that this issue is still present in Firefox 38.0

Comment 6

[Matt]

I'm using 38.0.5 now and this issue stopped happening. Maybe a fix somewhere in there?

Comment 7

[Storm]

Still happening in 38.0.5 - I just wasted like 15 minutes to get the friggin tab work...

Moreover, the issue is now WORSE because now often it completely stops the session from being restored, no any tab after the second, broken one will load.

The only temporary solution I found is opening a new window, and restoring session in that window using Session Manager, and Replace session. But not even this works every time.

I didn't have this issue for months so I kind of forgot about it, then I started getting it all the time since yesterday - which is funny because I changed NOTHING on my system. Not even an update since like 5 days.


Why is this issue still ignored? I know many others have it, I've seen for threads about it, just hard to find them because everyone words it differently so hard to find out what to Google for.

Comment 8

[bl4ckscor3]

After going a few months without any issues - the issue suddenly stopped appearing, I have no idea how that happened - and a few updates of Adobe Flash, I updated it yesterday to the newest version 18.0.0.203 and I started having the issue again. 
I noticed a bit more weird behaviour arise:

- Selected unpinned tab is the only tab which displays the close button, unfocused tabs do not have it
- Sometimes when closing an unpinned tab all open unpinned tabs move to the right, leaving an empty space the size of a tab. Upon hovering over that space, all tabs move to their intended position.
- When having no unpinned tabs in the tabbar anymore and having a pinned tab selected, clicking a bookmark will unfocus the focused pinned tab, but not open another unpinned tab.

Comment 9

[Storm]

After my last comment I did "Refresh Firefox" and the issue was gone, I hoped maybe that solved it but today it's back.

Actually, I just updated my Flash player two days ago as well. Maybe there is a relevance?

Why is this issue still ignored? It doesn't sound too bad but IT IS!!! I can't use FF properly, have to mess around with stupid workarounds, and it's getting on my nerves really badly.

I'm actually considering switching to another browser ONLY because of this!

Comment 10

[Storm]

Bug still happens EVERY SINGLE TIME I start Firefox... please, someone look into this nonsense!

Comment 11

[Storm]

Bug still present.

Comment 12

[Justin [:JW_SoftvisionQA]]

Hello All,

Sorry for such a late response!

I am looking into this bug and can not reproduce on Linux 14.04 x86, WIn 8.1 x64, and Win 10 x64 on the newest firefox build 42.0 and nightly build 45.0a1.

Is this still an issue for you all?

Thank you,

Justin

Comment 13

[Justin [:JW_SoftvisionQA]]

I will close this bug due to lack of response. If the issue persists I will happily reopen.

Comment 14

[Andrei Vacariu]

I am seeing this exact bug (including it being the second pinned tab) in Firefox 46.0 on Ubuntu 16.04 x86_64. I've manually removed the tab from sessionstore.js (as there doesn't seem to be another way of closing it), but as soon as I have a second pinned tab and restart the browser, the bug reappears.

Comment 15

[Andrei Vacariu]

To provide a bit more detail: I have reordered the tabs using sessionstore.js, and whichever tab is the second one at startup is the one that is "immutable". I can drag the other pinned tabs, thus moving the "immutable" tab to different positions, and it remains immutable; however, when I restart firefox, whichever tab was in the second position is now the "immutable" one.

I went through all my add-ons and disabled them one by one, and once the bug disappeared, I re-enabled everything and the bug didn't reappear. So maybe it was one of my addons that caused it; even if it was, I'd still consider it a bug that an add-on _could_ cause something like this.

Comment 16

[Andre Jonas]

Exactly the same problem here on Firefox 47.0, Arch Linux x86_64, MATE Desktop. The tab is reachable via Alt + 2 which keeps it from being totally unusable but it’s annoying nonetheless.