Firefox adds option to remove 'List All Tabs' button after user backlash
Mozilla released Firefox 131.0 a few weeks ago. This kicked up a storm amongst users who were upset by a change. What's all the fuss about?
Firefox responds to user feedback about the List All Tabs button
Firefox users were unhappy that Mozilla had added a new "List All Tabs button" next to the plus button (new tab button). Was it a new addition? No, it has always been there, you just may have not noticed it. The old style used a downwards arrow (Caron symbol), which was quite minimalistic. The new style for the List All Tabs button has a bigger icon.
The fact that many people started complaining about the button does prove that the old icon was not noticeable and this perhaps unused by a lot of users. That's why Mozilla changed it to a bigger icon. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Mozilla did the right thing, I just wanted to point out what could have inspired them to change the style.
Anyway, the primary complaint from users was this: why can't we remove the List All Tabs button in Firefox? A few also raised the question of why the button existed, when Firefox View serves a similar purpose. That is a good point, and Firefox View can be removed if you don't like it.
So, what was the idea behind making the List All Tabs button permanent, aka non-removable? According to some comments from developers, it was done because the button contains the hidden tabs sub menu, and this acted as a preventive measure against add-ons that may hide tabs maliciously, or extensions that may not have a good UI to re-show the tabs. Naturally, this response was met with criticism from users, which gained the attention of the developers who then agreed to make the button removable.
I'd like to point out a comment from another developer, who stated that Mozilla was working on migrating some of the button's functionalities into other areas such as the sidebar, vertical tabs and tab groups. He went on to explain that the dev team may reconsider the need for the button after those tasks have been completed. Okay, that sounds interesting, but the fact that a Mozilla dev recommended editing the userChrome.CSS to hide the button seems rather silly, but some users edited the CSS file. Others complained that there should be a toggle in the browser to allow users to choose what they want to use. I get it, I'm not a fan of unnecessary changes either, but it didn't bother me.
There's too much drama about this, I don't really care about the aesthetics, but it got me wondering, is the button useful?
Is Firefox's All Tabs button any good?
I have mixed feelings about it, it has some potential, but there is plenty of room for improvement. The close all duplicates tabs option is nice, but this action is already available in the tab context menu via a right-click on any tab. The New Containers option is handy too, but again this also exists, you just need to right-click on the new tab button. The List All Tabs button's namesake feature is to list all the tabs, which it does reasonably well, it's sort of like a vertical tab bar.
The main problem with the List All Tabs button is the search function, which is rather abysmal. Clicking on the Search tabs option in the menu changes the focus, i.e. moves the cursor from the pop-up menu to the address bar, and switches the search mode to find tabs.
Speaking of which, Firefox's keyboard shortcut (search open tabs) to use the feature is not super convenient either. You need to press Ctrl + L, type % followed by Space, it's rather odd to require multiple inputs for this action. In comparison, Chrome's Tab Search feature lets you search for tabs with Ctrl + Shift + A. This is slightly faster and more efficient.
Circling back to the List All Tabs button's search, it feels rather outdated. One would expect that searching for a tab would filter the list of tabs directly in the pop-up to display the corresponding result, on an as-you-type basis. Right? I mean, that's how Chrome handles it. Guess what, that is exactly how the search function in Firefox View works. Why doesn't the List All Tabs button follow this design?
Take a look at Tab Manager Plus, I reviewed the add-on 4 years ago. This extension has a much better search function, you just need to type the name of the website or part of the page's title, and it highlights the relevant results. If an extension can do the job so efficiently, why can't Mozilla implement something similar in the browser?
Search All Tabs is another extension that can be used to find tabs quickly. You can read my review of the add-on here. TabSearch is another alternative that you may be interested in.
Mozilla lets users remove the List All Tabs button from Firefox's tab bar
Mozilla released the Firefox 131.0.3 update yesterday to patch some security issues. The change log for the update mentions that the update "fixes an issue where the List all tabs button was not able to be moved from the toolbar." Sure, it was "a bug". If you don't like the button, right-click on the Firefox toolbar, select Customize Toolbar, and click and drag the button away to the customization screen. There, problem solved.
Do you like the List All Tabs button in Firefox?
I really love this button and I’ve used it from the very beginning. Yes, it lacks the quick search feature which could improve it a lot.
What’s in it for me that I like it so much? The simplicity and it’s not breaking the flow. I don’t need to open the sidebar or switch context of the sidebar, I don’t need to go to any full-screen window (Firefox View) and search something in there (and be bothered with tons of other topics I have opened that might distract me). It’s just a small list of all hundreds of Tabs open that doesn’t distract the flow and helps me to:
– quickly switch to this one tab I am looking for but I don’t need to remember its name, even the containers are marked there
– I can close some tabs I don’t need just by looking at their icons, quick hint on the name and poof it’s dead
– I can preview which tab is now annyoing me with the audio and mute it/kill it
– I can restore this specific YT tab to restore audio which I’ve muted seconds ago
I liked it more when it was simply an arrow because it pointed me exactly what is it about to do: show a list below, instead now, after the updated – I was afraid they’re making this as a popup/window/new tab which would break the full game.
tl:dr it’s small, not-fancy (not needed), non-disruptive way of quickly hopping to something else without giving it additional thought, so you’re not getting out of flow visuall and mentally
Kind of agree with you Sandman, there are other things out there
Still, serves as a good reminder that just because FF is the lesser evil, compared to chrome/ium alternatives, it is by no means all that good and the people in charge are to blame.
Buttons like that, that are forced on people, are in part what is wrong with firefox.
Remember the ‘pocket’ button? How many years did we have to put up with that?
Speaking of which, I do not even see it on the ‘customize toolbar’ screen any longer. Then again, I did go into about:config to turn it off.
Which is another point about FF. You have to keep up with far too many settings that are stowed away in there, away from the preferences ui. The defaults are not good nor is the UI for managing them, being packed away in the ‘:config:’ list that you mostly need a reference manual and years of experience for. Except they do not provide proper documentation for it for the public.
Another user backslah and they all will downgrade to Firefox version 52. Not the best irony, not the worstjoke. Last good version of all time. Thanks for the article! :]
Must have been a REAL slow day at GHacks. Much ado about absolutely nothing!
I don’t understand the reason for Mozilla to copy the Search tabs from Chromium… like, it doesn’t really have any feature to take advantage of it, only the containers. in Chromium, you can even find Tab Groups with it by searchinh the groups name. I wish they would add a context menu so you can mute, and manage the tabs from the search tabs, but seems like the idea Google had worked better for the features Chromium has implace, while Mozilla just copied it just to copy anything from Google.
Mozilla Firefox, the supposedly independent and ‘more customizable browser’ always catching up and copying Chromium…. so weird.
Firefox added the “list all tabs” dropdown menu in 2.0 (2006, 18 years ago), and tab search in 4.0 (2011, 13 years ago). All they did in the past month was make the icon distractingly ugly.
Who copied who?
The only real use of this is to see tabs you cannnot already see on your screen. That is a concession to smart phone users, but an annoyance to desktop and laptop users. A “show any hidden tabs” function is useful, but there should actually be no hidden tabs in the first place–they should be disclosed by the add on or third party as part of the installation or in the documentation.
I realize this is not a perfect world, and there may be some cases where this would be useful, but if you have so many tabs open at a time they are reduced to an icon, your muti-tasking is not really helping you.
I never understood why these developers do not understand that if you add something you may have users who simply do not want it and require a way to disable. Firefox used to be a source of users first development and like any open source project a means to customize to the user liking.
Most browsers have a long list of options anyway so might as well add one more.
I have lost the X to close the FF window and can not get it back.
Anyone know how to get it back… the X and other window options common in windows OS
Funny. I like and use the List All Tabs function. I am used to the arrow, but I don’t really care (much) if they’ve switched to a button.
Change for the sake of change. So important.
Also funny. I just got the popup that says I am posting too quickly. I seldom post at all.
Do you like the List All Tabs button in Firefox?
That’s an unequivocal “No, I think whoever had the “clever” idea should go back to design school–it is so out of place!
As soon as I first saw it, I was frantically spending precious time attempting to eliminate it. The down arrow is as horrid; that’s a simple “remove from toolbar.”
I know my open tabs because I simply don’t open enough to get lost/drowned in open tabs.
All the wasted time from developers to users who, like me, were either making a complaint or attempting to eliminate the superfluous.
Earlier I mentioned that my LAT button was gone. I figured out why.
I hope this can help others.
It’s some code in userchrome.css.
If I comment out the following code, the button is back and the tabs are in 5the default location …
/* TAB BAR – below nav-bar */
#navigator-toolbox toolbar:not(#nav-bar):not(#toolbar-menubar) {-moz-box-ordinal-group:10 !important;}
#TabsToolbar {-moz-box-ordinal-group:1000 !important;}
#TabsToolbar {
display: block !important;
position: absolute !important;
bottom: 0 !important;
width: 50vw !important;
}
#tabbrowser-tabs {
width: 100vw !important;
}
BTW, I managed to recover the List All Tabs button. I stuck it in the overflow menu with other “stuff” I do not use.
All I had to do was …
1) type about:config in the address bar, hit enter and accept the risk
2) search for toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets and set it to FALSE (double click)
3) restart FF and the missing item is now there
4) use customize toolbar (right click on the toolbar)
5) drag the button to the overflow menu
6) repeat steps 1 and 2 but make the value TRUE
7) restart FF
Firefox is my primary browser, and I did not even know I had a list all tabs icon. Now that I tried it for the first time, it seems quite useless to me. However, while there clearly has been way too much fuss over this very minor issue, I do always support the idea of letting the user decide what he sees as opposed to having the browser programmers play a nanny role.
I am running the latest release of Firefox (131.0.3). I do not have the LAT button as I have it running now.
With all addons and the theme disabled, I still do not see the button even if I restart FF.
However, if I restart in troubleshoot mode the button appears.
Nothing obvious was changed via about:config.
So, what is taking out that LAT button?
But the official icon is the down arrow or the tab look one?
Running Firefox 115 ESR so no idea about the new ‘List All Tabs’ button.
What I may say is that I’ve always noticed and removed the old style used a downwards arrow (Caron symbol), quite minimalist indeed, to replace it with an extension’s toolbar button which not only as well lists the opened tabs but also saves the currently opened tabs list to be able to restore it later :
‘Tabs Keeper ‘ [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabs-keeper/] : that’s one button to achieve two tasks.
–
What I learn here and now is that this new ‘List All Tabs’ button contains the hidden tabs sub menu :
I have never heard about “hidden tabs”, no idea what they are (besides hidden), no idea how they get generated, how they appear. You think you know quite well your browser and discover hidden “features” :)
That’s it. I’m switching to Brave. On Linux. /s
Seriously, so much angst over 10px or so icon. Get a life people.
Not the point. All of Firefox UI should be customizable for different workflows.
@Scroogled
Exactly! One of Firefox’s strengths, they shouldn’t be going against it.
So then Firefox should have a feature that exactly 0% of all software has? The whole UI?
What workflow is getting hurt by a 10px icon?