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Is it possible to switch back to the last tab used (tab toggling)? I often like this behaviour on the Mac OSX when switching between apps with the CMD + Tab shortcut key.

Dashed
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13 Answers13

155

Switching back to last tab on Firefox:

  1. browse about:config
  2. find browser.ctrlTab.sortByRecentlyUsed
  3. set true

Done! :)

You can switch back to the last tab via Ctrl + Tab.

Ariel
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kb44
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    @Dashed You poor soul, waiting 1 year for the best answer. :P – iglvzx Feb 23 '12 at 19:45
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    And I've been waiting for several years! Thanks! – neu242 Aug 23 '12 at 08:00
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    Odd how this isn't even available from the options window. – rhyek Jul 27 '13 at 20:28
  • Can't believe this has been around for 3 years and I just now found out about it. Thanks! – Samuel Mar 18 '15 at 18:13
  • I'd upvote this answer multiple times if I could :D – Piotr Owsiak May 27 '15 at 18:24
  • Useful but not so. This will override the default ctrl + tab behaviour, meaning there will be no way to have both left/right and recently used tab navigation means at the same time. – kellogs Sep 22 '15 at 09:41
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    @kellogs: ctrl + pgup and ctrl + pgdn works fine, so it's possible to have the best of both worlds. I agree though, binding it to another key would be great. – runejuhl Sep 26 '15 at 22:09
  • @runejuhl there's no pgup/pgdn on mac :(. Do you know of any replacement ? – Ciprian Tomoiagă Sep 21 '17 at 12:20
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    found it: cmd + shift + [, cmd + shift + ] – Ciprian Tomoiagă Sep 21 '17 at 12:26
  • The "Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order" option is useful, but is there any way to do this....

    a) without the annoying pop-up window? I just want it to jump straight to the relevant tab intead of using the extra pop-up with thumbnails.

    b) such that Ctrl+Shift+Tab can be used to start the process? I'm used to pressing this first, but you can only invoke the pop-up with Ctrl+Tab (without Shift)

     – caponica Mar 30 '18 at 20:24
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    This setting exists also in "Options" > "General" > "Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order". Cf. @Emmanuel's answer below. – Cristian Jun 19 '18 at 06:47
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    Now it is called "browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder". – marli May 25 '20 at 12:32
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    In Firefox 89 the relevant about:config option's name is browser.ctrlTab.sortByRecentlyUsed. But the setting is still also available via the GUI as mentioned in another comment. – Peter Bašista Mar 30 '21 at 11:16
  • As of Nov 2021, the correct setting is browser.ctrlTab.sortByRecentlyUsed. I don't know if the setting in the answer worked before, but currently it does NOT work. If you set it to true, ctrl+tab goes to the NEXT tab, not the LAST one, as requested in the question. – Ariel Nov 04 '21 at 13:31
11

I am not fully sure whether I've got the question right. Also on Windows you can use CTRL+Tab to cycle through tabs or CTRL+Shift+Tab to cycle reverse.

If you're looking for an option to select what happens when you close a tab I recommend to have a look at the Tab Mix Plus extension. In Events -> Tab closing you will find an option to define what happens when you close a tab. There you can select options like selecting the tab right or left to the closed one as well as going back to the previously active tab.

SkyBeam
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  • I apologize for the confusion in my question. I've meant to find a tab toggling feature much like how you switch to the last channel viewed on a television. It seems Tab Mix Plus supports this feature. – Dashed May 31 '11 at 09:12
  • For anything related to taps TMP might be worth having a look at. So without even knowing it exactly it solves your problem. So actually TMP should get a reward ;) – SkyBeam May 31 '11 at 17:08
  • Ctrl + Tab doesn't work on my FF 52 (it just go to next tab), but I found plugin cycle-last-used-tabs works well (toggling with Alt + z / Alt + shift + z) – Noam Manos Apr 03 '18 at 12:46
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In addition to @kb44's answer: you can do it via the Options panel too. Open Options panel, go to General tab the tick the "Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order".

Emmanuel
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5

This is default behavior in Firefox 64.0, but the toggle for this control is now stored under the browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder in about:config (enter about:config in your address bar to access this control and set it to "true").

Will C
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2

There's also another add-on that does this very well (and also for all newer Firefox Versions >20): It's called simly "FLST" for Firefox 4+. (Focus last selected Tab).

https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/fww-flst

I found out that you can use your mouse by clicking on the current tab or also use a Shortcut which is Ctrl + . (Ctrl and Dot)

charly
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1

A recent WebExtension plugin "Active Tab History" that works for the newest Firefox has been really helpful for me: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/active-tab-history

xji
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1

Do I understand your question correctly, that you want to be able to toggle between two tabs (both of which remain open)?

Firefox's Ctrl+Tab already has this behavior (at least on a Mac): Hold Ctrl, click Tab, and release both. The previous tab you were viewing gets the focus. Repeating it toggles between the two tabs. The trick is to let go of both keys immediately.

JRobert
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  • The CMD + TAB shortcut is used by the application switching feature on the OSX, so I cannot replicate this behaviour on my side. I've looked into Tab Mix Plus which supports this feature. – Dashed May 31 '11 at 09:10
  • @Dashed: Oops, bad fingers! I meant that to read 'Ctrl-Tab', not 'Cmd-Tab'; fixed above. – JRobert May 31 '11 at 19:08
1

THIS will toggle between Tabs in Firefox versions 34 and later. Use 'Tab Mix Plus' extension (by 'onemen' Gary Reyes) https://addons.mozilla.org/hu/firefox/addon/tab-mix-plus/ Go to its Options. Here select: - Mouse - Mouse Gestures - Now enable 'Switch to last selected tab when clicking current one'. - Click Apply. Done.

NOTES:

  1. The placement in Tab Mix Plus has changed compared to older TMP versions.
  2. 'Cycling through Tabs' in other answers, was probably not asked by the OP.
Ooker
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Fallon
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0

Starting from Firefox version 70.0 the key (at about:config) has changed from 'browser.ctrlTab.previews' to 'browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder'.

altgov3en
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0

You're looking for CTRL + SHIFT + T - it opens the last tab closed in Firefox.

You can also view 'Recently Closed Tabs' and 'Recently Closed Windows' in the History menu on the menu bar.

To switch between open tabs in Firefox with the keyboard, just press CTRL + 1 or 2 or whatever the tab "number" is, from the left (e.g. if your "Twitter" tab is the 5th tab open, from the left, just press CTRL + 5).

studiohack
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0

Before Firefox 20 http://timothyhumphrey.name/lasttab/ could do just that, ( without the option to disable the preview - which just seems slow to me.) I hope that timothy has time to update or someone else will, because the nearest that I can find will only toggle between two tabs, which is even less use than the default behaviour.

Alexx Roche
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-1

I've been using the Ctrl-Tab add-on, but it is limited to 5 most recent tabs. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/ctrl-tab/?src=search I could use accessing like 10 of the most recent tabs!

LastTab doesn't seem to work for me on Firefox 20 on Ubuntu 12.04. It just does the default Firefox thing (switching linearly through the stack of tabs).

martian
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-1

If you want to switch to literally the last tab in your browser (the right most tab) then use CTRL + 9.

Matthew Lock
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