Set a default container for new tabs

[comzeradd]

It would be nice if I could set a default container for new tabs.

So for instance if I click on an external app it opens without any container at all. It feels like there is an extra default container besides the ones I've set.

[jonathanKingston]

We have "No container" in various context menus etc and functionality wise that as you say behaves the same way as a container.

Are you essentially looking to change the name, color and icon of "No container"? Or is the issue more around menus not containing "No container" everywhere?

[comzeradd]

Yes, I think that the "No container" should also somehow visualized. From a UX perspective I think it would be more clear that actually this is also a container.

[ruihildt]

On the other hand, I would like to define myself what is the default container: when I click on "+" to open a tab, I want it to open by default in the container of my choice.

The "No container" is in fact a container, the "Default" one from the user perspective.

[jimdigriz]

Most intuative would be 'New Tab' should open a tab in same container as the current selection. Also, I think pushing home the message that 'No container' is 'personal' will fix a lot of the UI problems here too.

For example I put everything into my personal container, and now SnoozeTabs and Pocket are un-usable. By putting them in 'No container' I avoid this problem, but the instructions encourage a 'personal' container when in practice it just does not work out at all well for me.

[smichel17]

An alternative resolution would be to make new tabs private by default (#419, #427), potentially with the option to change the default to open in the current container (#245, #342).

[happyGNU]

I would like an option to have a default container as soon as Firefox opens, so I won't forget I have containers and I can use them. 😄

[chicagobuss]

Hi, just adding my voice here - I use firefox MOSTLY for work but I have a few cases where I need / want to use containers. So for me, I just want the work container to be the default container - the big thing I'm hoping for is ctrl-t ALWAYS make a new work container.

So to be super clear - I just want the option to set a default container to something other than this 'no container'.

[anthonyrisinger]

I left Firefox for use/development at the turn of the decade... some 8+ years ago. I seek now to rekindle an old flame. This one single feature overcame great "no objection to status quo" headwind and successfully lured me back to Firefox.

I admit the newfound duo quickly ;-) sell themselves! Nice!

Alas... most of the container experience encourages me, the user, to pretty much avoid using containers. Every single interaction is a break to existing workflow because there is no way to use containers naturally; one must devote energy in keeping yourself "contained". Hah! Hardly! :-D

I'd love to see containers be hyper-sticky to the intent and current context of the user. I only ever see/read/use a handful of major workflows, ordered by specificity (issues exist already):

• Current Tab
• Current Window
• Current Domain

Right now I can only set a default container namespace for "Current Domain", which does work sometimes, but not at all for major service providers like Google, Amazon, etc. I spend most the day on.

For my own needs anyway, it would be enough to add "assign default namespace for a given window" and "clone current tab's namespace when opening a new one". At this point the user need only assign a "Work" window and "Personal" window, then get on with loving Firefox.

I cannot agree more with most everything said here on UX: "no container" may as well be default/private. Anything! "No Container" yields no information. The user isn't interested in "containers" per se; they've already opted-in 100% to whatever they are because they understand the outcomes they deliver [isolated "logins"], and thus sought the extension and will accept "container" as an analogue, but are now forced to wonder "what happens when I forget and am 'uncontained'?! Un-isolated logins?! Oh noes!" It's a functionally meaningless distinction from a default or anonymous container.

Anyways, love what I see and it's good to be home, but also curious where this issue stands and how it stacks against other priorities.

[milezhacks]

FWIW, I think Chrome nailed this part of the UX with their multi-user mode. This binds a user to a window rather than a tab but the flow is always more natural.
That said, one way to improve FF's container flow/experience (IMHO) is: if I hit alt/cmd-T to open a tab, it should spawn the same type of tab that I'm currently in.

For me, I'm using containers to mix personal and work activities. When I'm looking at a personal page and open a tab, chances are I want a personal container. If I'm looking at a work tab and I spawn a tab, chances are I want a work container. CS101: Locality of (P)reference

The last bit of behavior that breaks the flow is when I click a link from an external app. If someone sends me a pull-request in Slack, I want that link to open in my work container. How would I control that? A link should open in the container type of the last viewed container. So if I look at a work tab and click a link, I want a work container. If someone sends me a l ink to reddit in iMessage, I'll look at a personal container and then click the link.

In the general case, all things boil down to :
new container( type = typeof(lastviewed) )

[Kylejustknows]

I want another kind of "Default Container" which I failed to get. Users can not define rules like wildcard.

I want google.com in Container1(for account reason), but everything else in Container2.
But now all the page I open from google.com(even I open in new tab) will keep using Container1, no way to switch containers automatically, no default container settings.

[eskemojoe007]

I actually love the one window, tabs of different types mix that containers allows, but I do wish that I could set the color and name of the "default" container. AKA the default container shows up on the list, is customizable.

[ghost]

An option to set the color of the "default" container would be nice, but an option to have links leave the container based on domain would be extremely useful, especially for isolating, say, Google, from the rest of my personal stuff. I don't use Facebook, and I don't trust that third-party "Google Container" addon.

[TuranTimur]

Hi. Any update on this subject? I'm surprised to see many ppl are interested.
Here is my use case

• I want to use multi session container for gmail
• gmail for company and gmail for my own
• currently: everytime my new tab does not have any session container. so I have choose which session to use regardless of what I want
• change: i set new tab default to my own gmail session. If I need I just change session container.

[andrewcrook]

The biggest issue that I have is not being able to set a default container (to act like a catch all) so that links to other sites in a container don't open in the same container but rather to a default one, unless they are already configured to their own container that is.

example: clicking on a link in Twitter to a site that I have never visited before.

I agree on being able to see this default container in the list.

[rr0ss0rr]

I have "Temporary Containers" installed and like having my default container being a temporary one. The container is removed when the last tab is closed. I just wish this feature would be added to MAC

[TuranTimur]

so how many upvote is needed?

[jonashaag]

@donghwicha Please think about how you communicate online. This is a free program; you are not paying any money, nobody owes you anything. Maybe you can try to implement it yourself and send a pull request?

[DIW79]

It's pretty appalling that 3 years have passed with no progress on this. I searched around a bit before requesting this feature myself only to find it's been requested many times beforehand already.

I am sick of opening new tabs in a container I have set for another website, particularly Google. I have a Google container, and if I am googling something and click a search result, I do not want to visit that site in my Google container. To me, this completely defeats the purpose of having Google in said container. We need a setting akin to "open all non-containered websites in a 'default' container" in this addon.

Does Mozilla even bother looking at these posts?

I wholeheartedly agree with everything @robmonte says here. I've even asked on other threads and been told 'use a different add on', but a) that beats the point of having one brilliant add on that does everything and b) the suggested add-on doesn't actually work in the intended fashion and is only a clunky stop-gap at best.

[andrewcrook]

@DIW79 @robmonte

I don't think this is an official product it started as a research experiment apart of Test Pilot. So it probably doesn’t get the same resources as the official products.

However, it is community driven and open source so, if you can program, contribute and start on some of these issues. It would be far more helpful than moaning.

[Solid-Ice8]

@DIW79 @robmonte

Nothing in the world is perfect.

I guess I'm the one to blame for being told to "use a different add-on". However:

1. "use a different add-on" is only the workaround solution after X years (which some of you have noticed) project has been abandoned.

2. I am sick of opening new tabs in a container I have set for another website, particularly Google. I have a Google container, and if I am googling something and click a search result, I do not want to visit that site in my Google container. To me, this completely defeats the purpose of having Google in said container. We need a setting akin to "open all non-containered websites in a 'default' container" in this add-on.

You should, by now understand that Multi-Account Container's "Default container" literally means uncontained tab, there is literally no container. It does not mean it's a 'No Container' container. No container is present at all. This is the main reason the sites are opening in Google container.

This is the reason I suggest other add-ons; like TC. I've tested the quoted text above isn't the behaviour for me. Whenever I visit a site outside Google, this will open a new temporary container tab. Naturally, this also means I've installed the actual add-on "Google Container" as well.

I've taken "google.com" out of my MA-C's Google container for this to work.

If you would like a video proof, I'll be more than happy to make one as confirmation.

And I also understand a 'Default Container' should be added, like the default download directory is always "Downloads" folder for FireFox (of course, unless you change it).

I'm taking steps to re-learn programming due to quarantine life-style while my occupation is outside programming.

[robmonte]

@Solid-Ice8

You should, by now understand that Multi-Account Container's "Default container" literally means uncontained tab, there is literally no container. It does not mean it's a 'No Container' container. No container is present at all. This is the main reason the sites are opening in Google container.

"No container" and a "default" container would be indistinguishable in usage from the user's POV. The end result would be the same either way. I called it a 'no container' container for simplicity's sake.

[kineita]

I like this feature. Example: I browsing web with Google container, but I click a hyperlink which is not in Google container so it will open "Default" or "Temp" container.
Hope it come soon.

[TuranTimur]

It is pretty sad to see the way how Firefox is managed. The kind of massage like "If you want it, go and f**k it by yourself" makes people disappointed. It would better to just be honest that

• firefox team don't have enough resource to manage this plugin in
• firefox team believe that this can be seed of another plugin with more possibilities

It is just sad for you guys to puke on people. If you all can not maintain this repository, just shut it off.

[audreytoskin]

It would be hard for a potential contributor to develop a pull request that would satisfy this issue, because it's not very clear what this issue is even about. It doesn't help that a lot of the comments have just been angrily impatient, but also a lot of the "+1"-type comments are actually asking for something different. It might make sense to split this into separate issues for discussing the different specific requests.

[Solid-Ice8]

I (& a few others) have continuously suggested "Simple Tab Groups" for users asking for a type of "default container" and this add-on will also solve #1749.

I'm sorry to say and I hate to be rude/harsh but most users don't actually "explore" add-ons.

In this add-on, users can create a new "group" and then set it to "Main Group" at the bottom of 'Group Settings'. This will force all external links opening into that main group.

And it'll do more too.

They can "catch" all of one container into this group or even multiple containers to auto-move into the group. This is a more advanced version of MAC's Sort Tabs.

I've tested with ThunderBird. All external links opening GitHub, FB, IG.etc all auto-move into their individual groups catching their own containers. Example: FaceBook external links open in 'FaceBook' container that's in "Social" group.

The only thing is, it won't be able to distinguish which container is logged into what account. Thus, this is where 'Sticky Group' comes into play.

'Sticky Group', which basically means locking the group. Tabs will not 'catch and move' to other groups if the same container(s) are in the group.

And finally, they can even use expressions for wildcards (*) domains.

I've basically suggested pretty much an all-in-one add-on for them.

To make things easier, do not depend on the sidebar. Simply press F8 to open STG pop-up. From there, you can "Manage Groups" which will display all groups and their settings icon.

edit:
I shouldn't need to go in THAT much detail how on how to use an add-on. You guys aren't babies and I don't want to insult your intelligence either.

I shouldn't have to give you a treat, unwrap it, feed it to you and even throw the wrapper in the garbage for you too.

---

I'm also quite confused why most users don't use "Google Container". Many Google sites are in there and even some I never expected pop-up being from Google. Naturally, previous Google container from MAC has to be deleted for this add-on to work.

[andrewcrook]

@Solid-Ice8 STG still doesn’t seem to open duckduckgo links into a default container I created and keep all tabs visible. I can make it move those links to a different group via domain matching giving them the default container. But I have to keep switching groups to view the tabs I would like all the tabs displayed at once keeping those groups settings otherwise it becomes annoying. I don't know if there is a way around this but if multi containers supported default containers there wouldn’t be this issue.

[Solid-Ice8]

I do hope Dev's will eventually start looking at these suggestions and implement them. It'll be good for me too as I won't have to find workarounds for everyone. Saves me the trouble.

I use DDG as well. I also use Temp Containers, you're correct. It doesn't open a new container tab like it does with Google search engine.

This add-on is a bit tricky as it has "isolation" methods which you'd have to do a one-time manual set-up of adding the pop-up version which appears at the end of URL to disable TC to add new domains into MAC. And you'll have the option of using keyboard shortcuts and a few other things in "Options" and there's "advanced options" as well.

You can enable "Alt+C" - which opens new Temp Container and "Alt+I (Capitalized i) and that's for disabling TC isolation. There's a few other shortcuts I haven't mentioned, so you can have a look.

And, it can also convert temp container tabs into perm container tabs, also from the pop-up; under "Actions" or the 3 lined hamburger menu (as Mozilla FireFox calls it). It'll name the container tab based on the site you're on.

When converting temporary container tab with the site 'www.msn.com' into a permanent container, that will be the new name of container: "www.msn.com".

[groovecoder]

Note: while 7.0.0 does not include this feature per sé, it does include "Site Isolation" which can help with some of the use-cases for this feature. E.g., isolating google.com into a container, so that the result links are opened into different container tabs.

[grahamperrin]

… set a default container for new tabs …

Now, will a single default container be substantially more desirable than a single default non-container (i.e a normal tab)?

Consider the features of recent releases of Firefox:

• Firefox 85 Cracks Down on Supercookies - Mozilla Security Blog
• Firefox 86 Introduces Total Cookie Protection - Mozilla Security Blog
• Introducing State Partitioning - Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog

---

Food for thought: Always In Container can:

• ensure use of a container

– or, to put it more accurately:

• ensure that no tab is ever non-contained.

tiansh/always-in-container#6

[grahamperrin]

From highest-rated comment #356 (comment)

… the big thing I'm hoping for is ctrl-t ALWAYS make a new work container. …

It appears that you can have one shortcut per container, up to ten:

[br4nnigan]

Excuse me for not reading the whole thread, but it seems that people want a choice to open new tabs in a container.

Personally I want the opposite: what annoys me is that a new tab (ctrl+t) is always opened in the container (or non container) that the current tab is in.

I should be able to set new containers to always open in a non-container.

@grahamperrin Hey I know you from the waterfox reddit! 👋 It's the browser I actually use

[remram44]

This is still a problem. "No container" is a de-facto container: you can have tabs in it, it stores cookies and session, etc. Yet it is present as an option in some contexts (e.g. "open in new container tab" shows "no container") but is painfully missing in others (e.g. no keyboard shortcut to open in "no container" container, not present in "always open this site in container").

I don't care whether the "no container" can be replaced by a "default container" (which would be available in all those contexts) or whether the "no container" container should just be added to those places as the container that it is. Either way would fix those many pain points for me. But the current situation is unreliable, inconsistent, and frustrating.

[synth]

I came back to Firefox after a decade or more (as others have stated) just for this containers feature. So, its truly a bummer to see that it doesn't really work as I would expect - which is that containers should be "sticky".

Imagine you have two browser windows open, one is focused. You switch to a desktop app and click a link. The new tab will open in the browser window that most recently had focus. This is dependable and expected behavior. Containers should follow suit.

If I cmd/ctrl-t, I would expect a new tab in the same context of the most recently (or currently) focused tab. If I click a link from a desktop app, the same thing should happen, a new tab should open in the most recently focused browser window and retain the container context of the most recently focused tab. To me, this is a better implementation than a named container that functions as a default as it follows existing browser/OS patterns.

Without this, this feature seems unusable for me as I would have cognitive load trying to ensure that I'm always in the correct container as I cmd-t dozens of times a day causing me to leave my expected container context or having to move tabs across which is unnecessary work.

I would happily submit a PR if I knew where to start or sponsor a developer to build this. This could even be a setting: "Sticky Containers".

[br4nnigan]

If I cmd/ctrl-t, I would expect a new tab in the same context of the most recently (or currently) focused tab

No, why would you expect that the new url you want to load is related to the currently focused tab? This would be highly annoying as usually you'd want a new tab to use no/the default container. I'm already having this exact problem with an addon that I use that uses the current container for new tab and it's highly annoying (TabSidebar, open tab by double click). Thankfully I can ctrl+t to open a tab without container.

Without this, this feature seems unusable for me as I would have cognitive load trying to ensure that I'm always in the correct container as I cmd-t dozens of times a day causing me to leave my expected container context or having to move tabs across which is unnecessary work.

No, with this, I would have cognitive load trying to ensure that the last container I was in (20 minutes ago?) suits some random link that I click. I would expect that link to open in the default container.

If you want certain urls opened within specific containers you can already ensure that by binding a certain container to a certain url.

Otherwise links should open in the default container imo.

[synth]

Exactly. I respect that you want it one way. I want it another. It should be a setting.

[remram44]

If I cmd/ctrl-t, I would expect a new tab in the same context of the most recently (or currently) focused tab.

This is the behavior I'm experiencing. In any case you can get this by pressing a different key combination (e.g. Ctrl+Shift+1 instead of Ctrl+T). My problem is that there is no key combination for opening a tab in the default container (maybe Ctrl+Shift+0 should do this?)

edit: It seems I'm getting this behavior because of an add-on, Tree Style Tab:

I wholeheartedly agree with more configuration options please, since it doesn't seem like it is easy to provide via extensions (Tree Style Tab has to guess a new tab was opened by noticing the about:newtab URL...)

[adrianmace]

To throw in my 2c.

I also have just come back to Firefox after a decade or more of Chromium. I am looking to replicate what Chrome does with their Profiles feature.

I want one window full of 'personal' tabs and one window full of 'work' tabs with almost no way to accidentally mix the two up.

I guess I need to change my workflow so that "default" on my work device is my 'work' container, and "default" on my personal device is my 'personal' container, but this means I cannot sync the settings between the two.

[remram44]

Firefox has profiles, go to about:profiles and use the "launch profile in new browser" button. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

[achernyakevich-sc]

I came back to Firefox after a decade or more (as others have stated) just for this containers feature. So, its truly a bummer to see that it doesn't really work as I would expect - which is that containers should be "sticky".

Imagine you have two browser windows open, one is focused. You switch to a desktop app and click a link. The new tab will open in the browser window that most recently had focus. This is dependable and expected behavior. Containers should follow suit.

@synth I would propose a solution that could behave similar as you described. It will be based on usage of Simple Tab Groups (STG) add-on together with Multi-Account Containers (MAC) add-on that could be greatly integrated. To achieve having two windows every with own container that by default will open tab in the dedicated container you need to do something like:

• Created in MAC containers C-A and C-B.
• Create in STG a group of tabs G-A and configured it as "sticky" so that this group's new tabs always will be open in the container C-A.
• Create in STG a group of tabs G-B and configured it as "sticky" so that this group's new tabs always will be open in the container C-B.
• Open new window in Firefox, switch it to show the G-A group of tabs.
• Open new window in Firefox, switch it to show the G-B group of tabs.

As result you will have two windows and every of them will be sticky to their container. And opening link from outside of Firefox will open it in the recent window and will move it to the sticky container.

To simplify you life I would propose never close these windows separately, instead you could use Ctrl+Shift+Q (or Cmd+Q) to close all windows of Firefox. So when Firefox will be started again you will have have restored all earlier closed windows. Alternative could be loading any other group to window that you plan to close. Otherwise you potentially could lose tabs earlier open in the group.

[synth]

@achernyakevich-sc Interesting! Thanks for the workaround! I'll check it out. 🤝