Tab "protected", "locked" and "pinned" ☠ - still disappears

[David.P]

Hi forum,

this to me is like Micro$oft-style creeping featuritis. No human person can understand and remember why with Firefox, there is THREE ⚡☠☢⚔⚡y options called "Lock", "Pin" and "Protect" on every tab.

Worse than this, I have two tabs (Gmail and Calendar) that simply should ALWAYS be present no matter what happens to the browser. But they don't. If Firefox crashes, or a new window is accidentally opened and the first one closed, or whatever, gone be my "protected, locked and pinned" Tabs, and I have to start all over again LOCKING, PINNING and PROTECTING -- only to loose them tabs next time again.

OTOH, this has worked like a charm with Opera for about five years without a single failure. Note that with Opera, there is only ONE command called "PIN TAB", and this (other than the three confusing respective options in Firefox) WORKS.

Thus, what else (besides "LOCKING", PINNING" and "PROTECTING" all over the place) am I supposed to DO in order for my two tabs to NEVER disappear from my browser?

Thanks
David.P

[DanRaisch]

It sounds as though you should have done a quick Google search for the definitions of those functions:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/internet ... n-firefox/
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pi ... sites-open

What option do you have selected in Firefox under menu path Tools->Options->General->When Firefox starts? Is "Open windows and tabs from last time selected"? It should be to achieve what you indicate you want to happen.

[David.P]

It sounds as though you should have done a quick Google search for the definitions of those functions

I have, and that's why I wrote: "No human person can [...] remember..."

What option do you have selected in Firefox under menu path Tools->Options->General->When Firefox starts? Is "Open windows and tabs from last time selected"? It should be to achieve what you indicate you want to happen.

Yes. But if a new Firefox window is opened, then the window with the pinned/locked/whatever Tabs is closed, and later Firefox is restarted, the pinned/locked/whatever Tabs are still gone.

Anyway, I guess "single window mode" in Tab Mix Plus will do the trick...

Still, I'm pretty sure that 99,9% of the Firefox users will never get it nor memorize what the difference between a "protected", a "locked" and a "pinned" tab is, and which option therefore they should choose in order to pin/lock/protect a tab, whatever the respective mechanism actually does anyway.

Cheers David.P

[KWierso]

Given that lock/protect isn't actually part of Firefox (Tab Mix Plus, I guess?), I don't think 99.9% of the Firefox users will even have anything to be confused about...

Only "Pin tab" is natively part of Firefox.

[David.P]

LoL is this true ?

[Anonymosity]

I see only Pin Tab, but not Lock or Protect. How can tabs of any kind be restored if the history is cleared? Maybe that is the root of the lost tab problem.

[DanRaisch]

LoL is this true ?

Yes, it's true. The two additional options are added by the TabMix Plus extension.

[David.P]

Here we go again guys.

Honestly, I don't want to, and I can't, remember and distinguish what the heck the difference between "attaching", "protecting", "locking", and "pinning" of a tab is.

(If one of the options actually DID work, maybe then I would.)

I only want NEVER to loose my Gmail tab EVER again, having to start all over "attaching", "protecting", "locking", and "pinning" it, only to loose it again next time, e.g. when someone opens a new FF window, closes the old one, and gone be my attached, protected, locked and pinned tab the next time FF is restarted.

So can someone point me to a way how I can WELD, RIVET, SUPERGLUE or BOLT my Gmail tab to my Firefox browser once and for all, and for good?

Thanks heaps already
David.P

[DanRaisch]

Do you have the TabMix Plus extension installed? If so, the Protect Tab option should prevent anyone from closing that tab except by first intentionally unprotecting it and then closing it.

[David.P]

Yes, it can't be closed, but still disappears regularly under certain (yet unknown) conditions.

[DanRaisch]

That can be caused by a number of things, including the use of software like Ccleaner or an overly aggressive security software.

Are you regularly backing up the Firefox to ensure that you can restore the status of your profile should this sort of thing happen? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

[David.P]

No, I suspect it happens mostly by simply opening a new FF window, then somehow the original one (with the attached, protected, locked, pinned and superglued tab) gets closed -- and gone is the tab.

[DanRaisch]

Then your problem is not with tabs but with session management. You can't expect a browser to know that a window that the user intentionally closed had a tab that the user wished to preserve. If you use an extension that provides for multi-session management you can name a particular session that includes that sacred tab and just reopen it anytime it is inadvertently shut down.

[David.P]

I'd need a way to tell FF:

• "on start, open last session, and if this does not include a protectpinnedattached tab named X, then restore the latter"

Or:

• "NEVER close a window that contains a protectpinnedattached tab named X"

Other ideas welcome

[DanRaisch]

Neither option is supported by any extension that I am aware of.

What you can do is what I described above. Use a session management tool that supports storing multiple sessions. Set up the tab or tabs you never want to see lost and save that particular set up as a named session. Then anytime that tab is lost it can be recovered by simply restoring that particular session. Same result, different approach.