1242020 - Every time I click on the Firefox icon, it opens a new window or instance of Firefox

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[BandiPat]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Fedora; Linux x86_64; rv:42.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/42.0
Build ID: 20151102093252

Steps to reproduce:

Simple steps to recreate, and that is to just click on the Firefox desktop icon.  With each click of the icon, another instance or new window of Firefox opens.


Actual results:

More than one instance of Firefox will start, if the desktop icon is clicked.


Expected results:

Normally, until the last several updates, if an instance of Firefox was running, that window would open on the desktop or another tab would open in the already started Firefox.  Having it open a new window each time is confusing to the user, plus you could end up starting Firefox a hundred times!

Comment 1

[BandiPat]

I have tested this on several versions of Firefox up to and including the latest for Linux, v43. Having looked through your support pages, I see Windows users are having the same problem.

Comment 2

[Loic]

Did you try to create a new desktop shortcut from the executable of Firefox? Sometimes metadata of the current shortcut are not updated and it opens multiple windows when clicking on it.

Comment 3

[BandiPat]

Thanks Loic for your suggestion, but it doesn't help.  This problem seems to be something in Firefox that has gotten changed or missed in the testing.I am not sure if the maintainers decided to make this a feature or others decided it would be a good idea. It appears to be a bug to me and others, so I await a fix or solution.

Comment 4

[Brindusa Tot, DTE]

Verified the scenario described in this bug and it works as described on latest release 43.0.4, on Nightly 46.0a1, on Firefox version 38.0 and also on Firefox version 16.0.

In my opinion this is the expected behavior, when user clicks on the Firefox desktop icon - a new Firefox window is opened.

 BandiPat, in bug description, you wrote: 

"Normally, until the last several updates, if an instance of Firefox was running, that window would open on the desktop or another tab would open in the already started Firefox."

Can you please let us know in what Firefox version you observed another tab was opened instead of new window opened?

Comment 5

[BandiPat]

Sorry Brindusa Tot, if I remembered the version where Firefox behaved correctly, I would have listed it in my original description.  Why would you want a new instance of Firefox to start, when you already have one opened?  That just does not seem to be the logical method of operation.  In the settings, there is a selection, under Tabs (Open new windows in a new tab instead). Shouldn't that also pertain to Firefox as well?  Why waste resources starting up a hundred new firefox windows because you've forgotten you had one open already and minimized??  The simple fix would be to put an option in the Preferences to operate either way by the user.  Isn't that what Mozilla is all about, giving the users a choice?

Comment 6

[Loic]

How do you launch Firefox? 
1) by clicking on the shortcut saved on the desktop
or
2) by clicking on the shortcut pinned in the taskbar

Comment 7

[BandiPat]

Since I run Linux, there is no taskbar icon. But it really doesn't matter, clicking on the icon on the desktop, which I believe I stated in the original description,from the menu or taskbar, it's all the same behavior. I also have a Windows 10 machine, which behaves the same way.  If this was suppose to be a feature, in the thinking of the developers, then it should have been an option in the settings to turn off. It has been going on a long time through several versions, but I have seen other complaints long before mine.

Comment 8

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to BandiPat from comment #7)
> It has been going on a long
> time through several versions, but I have seen other complaints long before
> mine.

That's odd, because I can find no reported bugs or mozillazine or support.mozilla.org issues about the specific complaint here. About websites opening new windows, yes. Not about what clicking the desktop icon does.

AIUI this has always worked this way in Firefox itself. It's not clear to me why you would want it to work differently - if you want a new tab, why not just click the new tab button? Or use ctrl-t ?

If you really saw the 'tab' behaviour on earlier versions, it sounds likely that you had an add-on installed that accomplished this, or had modified the desktop shortcut or similar. Check about:addons to see if there are disabled add-ons that aren't compatible with newer versions or that need updates to be compatible. It looks like tab mix plus's "single window mode" might do what you want.

I think adding a preference for this behaviour is likely wontfix, so I'm marking this as such.

Comment 9

[BandiPat]

Gijs, That seems to be a complacent & rude attitude about the problem. Wontfix?  Really? Do you speak for the Mozilla developers? If you look through the help files & questions, you will find others asking about this same problem.  Just because it is not filed as a bug, does not make it nonexistent.

It is not a matter of opening up a new tab.  For some reason, you don't seem to understand the problem or make an effort to understand it.You mention "single window mode", but fail to say what that is?  A setting, can't find it, an add-on?  It just seems obvious you don't understand the problem from your responses above.

I am frustrated, yes, but very disappointed in Mozilla and you for so quickly disregarding a problem in such a rude manner.

Comment 10

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to BandiPat from comment #9)
> Gijs, That seems to be a complacent & rude attitude about the problem.
> Wontfix?  Really? Do you speak for the Mozilla developers? If you look
> through the help files & questions, you will find others asking about this
> same problem.  Just because it is not filed as a bug, does not make it
> nonexistent.

I did look through the help questions and did not see any mention of the issue described in comment #0. Please provide links.

> You mention
> "single window mode", but fail to say what that is?  A setting, can't find
> it, an add-on?

(In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch from comment #8)
> It looks like tab mix plus's "single window mode" might do
> what you want.

Tab Mix Plus is an add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/tab-mix-plus/ .
It has an option/setting called "Single Window Mode" which might help.

>  It just seems obvious you don't understand the problem from
> your responses above.
>
> I am frustrated, yes, but very disappointed in Mozilla and you for so
> quickly disregarding a problem in such a rude manner.

I'm sorry if I've come across as rude; I have no intention to be. I've been using Firefox for over 10 years, have been an engineer working on it both as a volunteer and now as a Mozilla employee. To the best of my knowledge, it always did open a new window when opening it from the desktop, on both Linux and Windows, so it just seems obvious to me that some other factor has caused whatever change in behaviour you're seeing. Could be an add-on, could be a pref we removed, could be scripting, shortcut / default browser handling, or your desktop environment on Linux. Could even be that the shortcut your Linux environment provides on the desktop changed.

As it is, I don't think we will make a preference in Firefox to change this behaviour, and because I believe clarity is better than just leaving the bug lying around for 10 years and not doing anything to it, I closed it as wontfix.