633300 - Tabs sometimes get teared off when selecting them

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[juleeeeees]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 (BT-beachlife) Firefox/3.6.13
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 (BT-beachlife) Firefox/3.6.13

If there are more than 1 tab opened an I switch between them firefox opens the tab I wanted to switch to in a new window. It happens not regularly. The tab which should be in front gets closed and firefox opens it in a new window. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Opened 4 tabs
2.switched between tab 1 an tab 3
3. 
Actual Results:  
Happens every time but not at regular intervalls.

Expected Results:  
Firefox opens selected tab in a new window. Instead it should have switched to the tab without opening it in a new window.

 Reported to me by many Firefox-Users from Germany.
- using the Add-On Colourfull Tabs

Comment 1

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Does that also happen in Safe Mode (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe Mode)?

Comment 2

[juleeeeees]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Does that also happen in Safe Mode (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe
> Mode)?

As far as it was possible for me to check that(because it doesn´t happen regularly)I can say that it doesn´t happen in the Safe Mode ;)

Comment 3

[juleeeeees]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > Does that also happen in Safe Mode (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe
> > Mode)?
> 
> As far as it was possible for me to check that(because it doesn´t happen
> regularly)I can say that it doesn´t happen in the Safe Mode ;)

I´ve tried a bit and now I can say it happens in Safe Mode too:/

Comment 4

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

How do you switch between tabs? Are you using the mouse? Do you drag the tab a bit when you select it? Could be the reason why a tear-off action gets started.

Comment 5

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Also please install the latest beta of Firefox 4. This could have been already fixed.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

Comment 6

[juleeeeees]

This would have been my next step if my problem has been still existing ;)

Comment 7

[juleeeeees]

(In reply to comment #4)
> How do you switch between tabs? Are you using the mouse? Do you drag the tab a
> bit when you select it? Could be the reason why a tear-off action gets started.

(In reply to comment #4)
> How do you switch between tabs? Are you using the mouse? Do you drag the tab a
> bit when you select it? Could be the reason why a tear-off action gets started.

I´m just clicking at the tab. I´m not dragging it;)

Comment 8

[juleeeeees]

(In reply to comment #6)
> This would have been my next step if my problem has been still existing ;)

I´ll install Firefox 4 beta now an then I´ll report to you wether it happens there too;)

Comment 9

[Tobias Aust]

I'm working with firefox 4.0.1 and it happens to me too. Firefox opens the tab I click on in a new window if I have more than one tab open.

Comment 10

[juleeeeees]

(In reply to comment #9)
> I'm working with firefox 4.0.1 and it happens to me too. Firefox opens the
> tab I click on in a new window if I have more than one tab open.

You´re right it also happens with firefox 4.0.1. I have updated mine too. How do I get this problem solved-.-

Comment 12

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Does it happen with an external mouse or with a touchpad?

Comment 13

[Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel]]

Touchpad

Comment 14

[Tobias Aust]

external mouse

Comment 15

[Stephan Sokolow]

I can confirm this behaviour happens for me on Aurora 46.0a2 and I've been noticing it intermittently since at least some time in the 30s.

Given how my Firefox behaves under load, I suspect it might be something along these lines:

1. Mouse button pressed and released over a tab
2. Press event is handled
3. While the handlers for the press event are running, the cursor moves off the tab
4. Release event is handled
5. Release handler uses the pointer's current position rather than the position stored in the event when deciding whether a tab drag occurred.

Comment 16

[mfm773]

Still occurring in 66.0.5 and if anything, it's gotten worse. The tear off by drag function is oversensitive. Solutions: a) allow disable by user, B) allow delay (longer than normal mouseclick), C) increase range to drag -- please implement one or more of these. Only option now is to use an addon that disables move to new window altogether, throwing out baby with the bathwater.

Comment 17

[Stephan Sokolow]

(In reply to mfm773 from comment #16)

Still occurring in 66.0.5 and if anything, it's gotten worse. The tear off by drag function is oversensitive. Solutions: a) allow disable by user, B) allow delay (longer than normal mouseclick), C) increase range to drag -- please implement one or more of these. Only option now is to use an addon that disables move to new window altogether, throwing out baby with the bathwater.

Option C wouldn't help and option B probably wouldn't either.

Back in the Firefox 2 days, Firefox would drop keypresses if you typed too quickly while the system was bogging down, rather than allowing them to queue up. This appears to be a similar design problem with the mouse input where, when it gets around to processing the button release event, it takes the position of the cursor rather at the time the event is processed, rather than the position at the time it was emitted.

That means that "press, release, move" effectively gets mistakenly interpreted as "press, move, release" if Firefox gets delayed in processing the event.

(I know this because I've managed to get my Firefox so bogged down that I've managed to tear off tabs even when I click, wait a split second, and then move the mouse elsewhere when I've verified that the amount of movement during the click is well below the threshold Firefox uses to consider it a drag when not bogged down.)

Comment 18

[Andrei Purice]

Marking this as Resolved > Worksforme since the issue is no longer reproducible on Firefox Nightly 96.0a1 (2021-11-05), beta 95.0b3 or release 94.0.1 on Windows 10, Ubuntu 20.04 and MacOS 11.6.
If anyone can still reproduce this issue please re-open it or file a new one.