Middle Click Not Opening New Tabs in Firefox

Factual Questions
1

My mouse randomly decided to not open tabs when clicking on hyperlinks in Firefox sometime overnight. I have already checked the the mouse properties to make sure the middle click functionality is enabled, and even re-downloaded the driver for my Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500, and both are as they should be.

I’ve also opened Firefox is safe mode to make sure none of my extensions are screwing with its functionality, but it doesn’t work there, nor did it help to download the most recent browser version. The scroll function works perfectly, and it even opens my bookmarks in a new tab if I click on them (as well as working perfectly in IE), but it refuses to acknowledge hyperlinks in Firefox.

Can anyone help me with this? Right clicking and clicking open link in new tab is pretty annoying after years of using middle click.

2

The first thing that occurs to me is to check the Firefox configuration. Type “about:config” into the URL bar and check the setting of browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick – it should be “true”.

What currently happens when you middle-click a link – nothing, open in new window, open in current tab, something else?

3

Nothing at all happens.

The value for browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick is true.

4

Many browsers support this feature as the default setting. Try it in chrome or IE. If it works there, continue looking for the appropriate setting in firefox. If not, concentrate on your mouse settings instead.

5

It works in IE, and I’ve checked my mouse settings, which are as they should be.

I’ve also tried Firefox in safe mode, where it doesn’t work. It seems to be a browser issue.

6

Same problem reported here. Does anything on that page help?

7

Same problem. I went to the previous version of Greasemonkey as recommended, and everything was okay. Petek’s link says that Gm has been fixed, but I haven’t installed the new version.

8

Thanks, Petek! That did it. Weird that Safe Mode didn’t disable Greasemonkey.

Now I am having a problem with left click opening all links in a new tab. I must have changed a setting somewhere when trying to figure out the initial problem and now I can’t change it back. Any help on that one?

9

You can download a newer version of GreaseMonkey with a bugfix for this very issue here: Greasemonkey version history - 12 versions – Add-ons for Firefox (en-US)

It was a compatibility problem with Tab Mix Plus in the GreaseMonkey extension.
@Ephemera: Try Tools > Tab Mix Plus Options, then select the “Links” tab at the top. There should be an option “Force to open in new tab”; change it’s value to “Nothing”.

10

Every time Firefox upgrades to a new version it breaks my middle click. 6.0.2 just came out last night and sure enough I had to uninstall and reinstall to fix it.

11

Thanks, Mopquil. That did it.

12

I guess my announcement went by without anyone reading it. :frowning: I tried to warn you guys about this bug.