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Comment by SwiftyBug | Hacker News Reader

> Firefox no longer warns you by default when you exit the browser or close a window using a menu, button, or three-key command.

Why would anyone want this? On macOS it is infuriantingly easy to press CMD + Q by accident. Why would you not want to confirm that you actually want to close ALL your tabs?

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On the flip side, this has always been an infuriating default for me. If I hit CMD+Q, that means I want the program to quit. Not prompt me or make me hold it down or use a different command. CMD+Q = Quit on Mac. Overriding that behavior is annoying and one of the first things I disable on nearly every program I install.

Do you also use CMD+W to close tabs/modal windows? Because I do, and it's very easy to accidentally press Q instead of W.

Losing dozens of tabs because of that is so damn infuriating that it ruins my entire day when it happens.

When you do that, open your browser, and either hit the hamburger menu on the right and go to History or Alt and go to History, and then click "Restore Previous Session".

It's not perfect (sites lose unsaved state usually), but I know that pain and it's not so bad when you know you can just recall all the tabs.

Or worse, you just want to use literally any other shortcut (Ctrl+Tab/Ctrl+Shift+Tab/Ctrl+1/Ctrl+A).

Yes, I use CMD+W and CMD+# and CMD+A and CMD+~ and CMD+Tab all day long. I rarely (once every few months) miss and hit CMD+Q. I also have it set up so that my tabs restore on restart, which makes it a minor annoyance at best. I quit Firefox purposefully once or twice a day, so overriding the default Mac behavior is a much more significant pain for me.

I recommend having “Startup: Restore previous session” checked in your settings.

CMD + Q is a two-key command, so presumably the warning will still be present.

I frequently press cmd+W to close the current tab. Unfortunately pressing one key to the left by mistake has happened too many times.

The Chrome solution to require you to hold quit down or press again is the ideal solution. Prevents accidental closures while also allowing pretty fast quits.

Typing in Dvorak really saves me here (the 'w' is down where the comma key is.)

Correct. According to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-configure-close-tab...

> The only instance in which a close modal is on by default is for two-key quit shortcuts on macOS and Linux. The risk of accidental closure is higher in this context since the quit shortcut (⌘+Q) is adjacent to the switch-application shortcut (⌘+Tab).

Also:

> you will still have full control over the quit/close modal behavior. All warnings can be managed within Firefox Settings.

I’m happy with this change. I regularly use Ctrl-Shift-W and Ctrl-Shift-Q – and never inadvertently – so I don’t need a confirmation prompt. I was – and still am – delighted when Firefox introduced the confirmation prompt for Ctrl-Q (which is too easy to hit instead of of Ctrl-W).

Why wouldn't you set the browser to save all tabs between sessions?

I like having the warning, period. Misclicks and accidental keystrokes happen. It is so much nicer to have the warning dialog than to have to restore the closed window.

Restoring the window doesn't preserve the data on pages with infinite scroll and it is a crap-shoot on whether or not the progress of a video I was watching gets restored.

Then simply enable the warnings after you upgrade to 94.

This is going to sound glib, but based on Mozilla's track record I expect the setting for this to disappear within one or two releases.

For one thing, incognito windows aren't saved.

> On macOS it is infuriantingly easy to press CMD + Q by accident.

Particularly if you use a Dvorak keyboard layout where "Q" is mapped to the key directly above CMD. I think I fat finger that at least every week or so. :D

It still asks for confirmation on Command+Q - and provides a way to disable that behaviour if you're not prone to that typo

I override this at a system level for some apps (e.g. Firefox, VS Code) by taking the following steps:

  1. Open System Prefs and go to Keyboard > Shortcuts
  2. Select "App Shortcuts", then press the + Button
  3. Choose "Firefox" (or other relevant app) from the dropdown
  4. Type *exactly* the name of the menu option that has the CMD + Q shortcut next to it, in this case "Quit Firefox"
  5. Focus on the Keyboard Shortuct input and choose whatever new key combination you want to be used for quitting the app. I usually use CTRL + CMD + SHIFT + Q
  6. Press the Add button

This video is older but also shows the general process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWbEBipLxKA

People complained about not having a warning message for years, and then they finally added it... and now they're taking it away again.

> however, if you prefer a bit of notice, you’ll still have full control over the quit/close modal behavior. All warnings can be managed within Firefox Settings. No worries!

For now at least it's possible to disable the CMD+Q shortcut entirely by setting the option "browser.quitShortcut.disabled" to true in about:config. This disables the keyboard shortcut and makes it so that the only way to quit is to select the Quit option from the File menu which is hard to do by accident.

Signed: a fellow Mac user who pressed CMD+Q by accident one too many times.

I think it's because "restore tabs on startup" is also the default now. So you won't lose your tabs and this will generally do the right thing.

There really needs to be an alternative "close all tabs now" command to replace this.

There is close all tab (under multiple tabs) if you right click on any tab. I don't know if there are any shortcuts.

Why is there so much argument among power users about a default setting that you can easily change?

You can always recall recently closed tabs.

Unless they were in a Private Window.

just upgraded to Firefox 94 and they do warn for CMD + Q. Maybe they are talking about a three-key command that we are not aware of.

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