Why is the Firefox tabs close button disappearing? How do I get them back?

Question

I've downloaded the new firefox and have a close button on each tab until the number of tabs reaches a certain number.

ie if I have Firefox maximised in one monitor, with 7 tabs open I have the close button on each tab, with 8 tabs open all the close buttons have gone on the inactive tabs

if I have Firefox stretched across two monitors, with 17 tabs open I have the close button on each tab, with 18 tabs open all the close buttons have gone on the inactive tabs

Why is the Firefox tabs close button disappearing?

How do I get them back?

Answer 1

The response from Critical Failure is spot on, the rendering code removes the close button when the number of tabs is too high to save space on the screen.

There is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to control this behaviour: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8005

It allows you to have a close button on all tabs, only the active tab or neither.

Answer 2

I haven't looked at the Firefox source, but it's likely that the tab-rendering code removes the close buttons first if the tabs become too small. That is likely why they disappear when you open the 8th or 18th tab (as in your examples).

Answer 3

You can always use CTRL+W to close the active tab or middle-click on the tab to close it.

CTRL+W - Close tab

CTRL+SHIFT+W - Close all tabs

CTRL+SHIFT+T - Open recently closed tab

CTRL+T - Open new tab