Mozilla plans to change the "warn on quit" logic of the Firefox web browser in the upcoming Firefox 65 release.

Current versions of the Firefox web browser warn users under certain conditions by default when they use a keyboard shortcut or the quit commands in the menus to exit the browser. Firefox users may use Ctrl-Shift-Q on Windows, Ctrl-Q on Linux, and Cmd-Q on Mac OS X to quit the browser.

Firefox displays a warning in this case if multiple tabs are open but only if session restore is not enabled, if the user did not modify the preference responsible for the behavior, and if the browser is not in private browsing mode.

Mozilla's train of thought was that Firefox would restore the tabs on the next start of the browser if session restore was enabled, and that it was not necessary therefore to warn users specifically.

A nine year old bug report on Bugzilla@Mozilla highlights the reasoning behind the change. What it boils down to is that Firefox should not ignore the "warn on quit" preference of the browser even if session restore is enabled. Turning on session restore should not disable quit warnings by default in the browser.

However, when turning on Session Restore, this "never ask again" behavior is automatically enabled, which is confusing. I appreciate the logic ("you're not losing anything by quitting since session restore is awesome"), but it still causes a long startup time if you do it accidentally.

Firefox 65 will display the warning even if session restore is enabled by default. Mozilla removed the session restore case from the process.

Please note that Mozilla aims to make the change in Firefox 65 but that development and testing is ongoing and that things may change before release.

Old Firefox:

Does not display a warning if..

Only 1 tab is open in one window.

The session will be restored on startup.

The preference browser.warnOnQuit is set to false.

The browser is in Private Browsing Mode.

The browser will be restarted.

New Firefox:

Firefox 65 or newer won't display a warning if..

Only 1 tab is open in one window.

The preferences browser.warnOnQuit or browser.warnOnClose are set to false.

The browser is in Private Browsing Mode.

The browser will be restarted.

Closing Words

It is easy enough to disable warnings if you use session restore or don't need them in general. You could set the preferences to false to do so. (via Sören Hentzschel)

Google retired the command Ctrl-Shift-Q in Chrome recently.

Now You: Have you disable quit warnings in Firefox?

Summary Article Name Mozilla changes Firefox's Warn on Quit logic Description Mozilla plans to change the "warn on quit" logic of the Firefox web browser in the upcoming Firefox 65 release. Author Martin Brinkmann Publisher Ghacks Technology News Logo

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