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I'm running Google Chrome v28.0.1500.71 under Mac OS 10.8.4. With ~15 open tabs, I accidentally clicked "close other tabs" and wiped out all but one of my open tabs. I figured there would be an easy way to disable / hide that menu item but an extensive search on methods came up empty.

Does anyone know how to do it via Chrome or OS settings?

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    you know you can re-open them right? Right click on the bar and click "re-open closed tabs" or Do it one by one.
    – riseagainst
    Jul 15, 2013 at 18:24
  • Thanks @guisasso. I've been using Chrome for over three years now and have never even noticed that option.
    – Josh
    Jul 15, 2013 at 19:10
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    Yeah, I know about "re-open closed..." But I never need the "close other" button and would just like to disable / hide it. @A.M. - I was trying to "duplicate tab" but scrolled down too far. I guess the scroll part and click part of my brain weren't in sync that day!
    – user249493
    Jul 16, 2013 at 19:49
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    @user249493 It really should be possible to do what you want (for any menu!), but people could get themselves into trouble. I say it would be fine as long as there is a clear "nuke all customizations" button. Have you looked into Chrome extensions that would (a) disable the button you don't want, (b) take away the need for you to push buttons near the one you don't want, or (c) re-open more than one tab at once (maybe all tabs closed in the last minute instead)?
    – A.M.
    Jul 16, 2013 at 20:19
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    Re-open only works if the website still exists. For some of my important diagnostic status pages, the content is lost forever. I use 100+ tabs at once and I HATE that landmine in my right-click menu.
    – Dave Dopson
    Mar 12, 2021 at 8:37

1 Answer 1

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Chrome and all its clones have lost the ability to warn before doing that action, even Microsoft Edge.

It was previously possible to block with the extension "Google Chrome Toolbox Extension" which has been forcefully discontinued by Google. It used to be possible by pinning a website that demanded permission before close, but even this didn't work when I tested just now.

So I'm afraid that the answer is negative: There is no way to block that action, not even by an extension. The Chrome developers have blocked all the known methods, intentionally or not. (I admit that there might exist new methods that I'm unaware of.)

If that option is very important to you, the only solution is moving to another browser. For example, Firefox has an option for "Warn you when closing multiple tabs", and is compatible with Chrome extensions, so you won't lose your favorite ones when converting.

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  • Thanks, that's a good summary of the situation. Surely, there's gotta be some way to hack it. I guess extensions must not have access to that context menu, or can only add items, not take them away.
    – Dave Dopson
    Mar 12, 2021 at 23:16
  • An extension must declare in its manifest that it uses the context-menu API. The API is defined at chrome.contextMenus, and although it has the functions of remove and removeAll, these only pertain to items that were created by the extension itself. The in-built items cannot be removed by an extension since they do not belong to it. I verified these facts before writing my answer.
    – harrymc
    Mar 13, 2021 at 9:31

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