Firefox switches windows

[Harryh]

Windows 7 Home 64-bit, Firefox 20.0.1

When I open a new window in firefox it often switches back to the previous window. It has been doing this since last year I think. Again today I searched the net and firefox support for a solution, but couldn't find any.

Is there a fix for this problem?

Thanks
Harry

[Allan]

I assume you mean "tab" and not "window"? If so, check OPTIONS - TABS - "When I open a new tab switch to it immediately"

[Harryh]

When I am on my google mail page, I click on bookmarks, right click on The Weather Channel, click on 'Open in a new window.' The Weather Channel page will begin opening in a new window, and at some point I will be switched back to google mail. I have to click on the weather channel tab in the task bar to get back to that page. This happens when opening other web sites also, but not all web sites. You get switched back to the page you were on previously.

I mention the example above because this is something that I do often. Opening the weather channel from google mail ALWAYS switches me back to google mail. It seems to me that there are web sites that I open in a new window and never get switched back. Such as Amazon. I'm afraid I can't say if there are some sites that sometimes switch and sometimes not.

I have seen posts going back to Oct. of 2012 complaining of this problem. Some say it's a Flash problem, others say it's a Shockwave problem. Some say it is an Add-on problem. Others say it is settings in options for firefox. No-one seems to have a solution. Some posts say that Mozilla isn't responding to this problem when they see it on the forums.

[Allan]

Why do you open in a new window instead of a new tab? Unless there's a reason, you're using resources unnecessarily.

[Harryh]

I prefer to open different subjects in different windows. And since I'm usually not doing too much on the computer, email, weather, looking something up, I don't think I'm taxing anything.

One thing I might add about this problem is that The Weather Channel web page, the page that seems to give me the most trouble, seems to do a lot of resizing or something. It changes quite a bit as it's loading.

I was just now opening and closing the weather channel page. It opens with the banners at the top filling across the screen, and the weather info below a little sort of filling the screen. Suddenly the lettering in the banners gets a little bigger and the weather info fills the screen from left to right.

I really don't know if that has anything to do with the problem. It's just that that page does the most resizing and gives me the most trouble.

I better also add here that while opening and closing The Weather Channel several times to check the resizing thing, I was NOT sent back to the previous page. Most days, I check The Weather Channel 2, 3, 4 times a day without restarting my computer, and am sent back to the previous page.

[patio]

Try WeatherUnderground for your new weather page...probably one of the best out there...

[Harryh]

Thanks Patio, I could do that. But The Weather Channel is not the only page that causes a problem. Maybe as much a 20 percent of the pages I go to revert back to the previous page, for 6 or 8 months now. It's getting annoying.

P.S. I just tried Weather Underground. It reverted back to previous page.

[soybean]

A suggestion; with the Menu bar displayed, select Tools, Options, and then select the Tabs tab.  At the upper part of that panel, you should see an option labeled "Open links that open in a new window in:"  Click the drop down arrow next to it and select New Window. 

[Harryh]

Thanks Soybean, but that option doesn't appear in the Tabs panel for my Firefox browser. Nor do I see it anywhere else in the options menu.

I thought this problem with firefox was more widespread, but must not be since no-one here seems to have heard of it. I think it is as someone on a forum wrote. That Mozilla wrote some bad code somewhere and hasn't been able to find it.

[BC_Programmer]

I occasionally open pages in a new window for various reasons. I've never had FF force me back to the other page.

Not sure if it's the issue you described, but When I open a link in a new window, the focus does switch back to the previous window.


I was able to change this by changing Tools->Options, Tabs, and selecting "When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately". Otherwise the behaviour is that the new window will open, then it will switch to the original window, which sounds like your problem. (Though in my case this is what happens every time and is usually what I want anyway)

[Harryh]

Thanks BC_Programmer, but that option is already selected in my Tabs panel. I rarely open a link in a new window. I usually tell it to open in a new tab. But, I often go to my bookmarks, right click on a bookmark and click on 'open in a new window.'

It does sound like we are having the same problem, but because we use our computers a little differently, yours may not happen as often. I mentioned earlier that mine happens about 20 percent of the time, but I've been paying closer attention, and it happens perhaps 40 to 50 percent of the time. Some pages, like google search or Amazon, it never happens. Others, it seem to always happen. So, I assume it has something to do with how those pages open and how firefox handles them.

( I just found something called Shockwave Flash in my Firefox plugins. I'm going to disable that and see what happens.)

[Harryh]

Well, I disabled Shockwave Flash, and turned my computer off. Turned the computer back on and went to my homepage, google mail. I checked to see if Shockwave was still disabled, which it was. I then went to bookmarks and opened The Weather Channel in a new window. For the first time, other than special conditions, it did not jump back to my mail page. I opened some other pages in a new window also, ( not a good enough test yet) and they did not jump back to the previous window either.

So, it seems to have something to do with Shockwave. ( I tried to play some videos on a couple of pages, and couldn't of course.)

Does this give any new ideas on how to solve this problem?

BY THE WAY, THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE TRIED TO HELP.

[bill30955]

Saw this on Mozilla site. See attached. And here is link to the discussion:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/955659



[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]

[Harryh]

I'm going to use the second option solution in the link above, which is to always have a window open that uses shockwave. I tried it, and so far that seems to solve the problem.

Thanks bill30955, and all the others who have added they're attempts to solve the problem. Apparently it's an Adobe problem and not firefox.

[Harryh]

I'm going to call this topic solved. I don't know if it's a Shockwave or Firefox problem, or both. I keep the Wunderground (weather underground) page open and that seems to work.

I did once have Wunderground and The  Weather Channel open at the same time for half and hour or more, and they both suddenly shut down. So maybe you can't have two of them sitting open.

Thanks Folks.   

[patio]

What sites do you visit that still need Shockwave ? ?