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Safari opening websites on the wrong tab

N

Naramis

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 23, 2013
91
16
I've used Mac and Safari for a few years on a MacBook Air and never had this issue, but now with a new MacBook Pro this is driving me crazy.

This is how the bug goes:
-Open new tab, tell Safari to open a website on it
-Switch to another tab I had open (or even create a new tab)
-The website opens on my current tab, instead of the one I originally told it to open on

Has anyone experienced this as well?
 
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No, I haven't seen that.
What happens to the new tab you opened then?
How long do you wait between going to the URL on the new tab before you switch back to the first tab you had open?
 
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Check what your settings are here:

Safari -> Preferences -> General -> (In their individual dropdown menus) "New windows open with:" and "New tabs open with:"

There are options there, including "Same Page". I don't know why you're getting the effect for a previously opened and addressed tab. Change those settings if they're on "Same Page" as a first troubleshooting step.
 
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Gregg2 said:
No, I haven't seen that.
What happens to the new tab you opened then?
How long do you wait between going to the URL on the new tab before you switch back to the first tab you had open?
Click to expand...

The new tab stays blank (showing my Favorites). If I wait a bit before switching back to the first tab, the problem doesn't happen, but if I switch immediatly it sometimes happens. It's like the command to open a website is delayed for a fraction of a second, and if I switch before that, the command gets sent to the wrong tab

rshrugged said:
Check what your settings are here:

Safari -> Preferences -> General -> (In their individual dropdown menus) "New windows open with:" and "New tabs open with:"

There are options there, including "Same Page". I don't know why you're getting the effect for a previously opened and addressed tab. Change those settings if they're on "Same Page" as a first troubleshooting step.
Click to expand...

Both are set to open my favorites
 
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Hey there, second to op. First thought it was me clicking something wrong, but seems to be a bug doing it. Happened to me already twice today! System is 10.11.6 on iMac late 2013.
 
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Other things to try :

Disable all extensions; test. If better, reenable one at a time to find the culprit.

Enable the Develop menu in the Safari menu bar: Safari -> Preferences -> Advanced -> at bottom of pane, tick "Show Develop menu in menu bar". After that, click what you just added to Safari's menu bar --"Develop"-- and select "Empty Caches" from the dropdown. Test.

Boot into Safe mode and test, then reboot into normal mode and test.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
 
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Naramis said:
If I wait a bit before switching back to the first tab, the problem doesn't happen, but if I switch immediatly it sometimes happens. It's like the command to open a website is delayed for a fraction of a second, and if I switch before that, the command gets sent to the wrong tab.
Click to expand...
There you have it! You're too quick! Open the URL, take a drink of coffee, then click the tab. ;)
 
On some pages, cmd-click opens a new tab in the background with the link I've clicked and opens the same link in my current tab. Right-clicking and selecting "Open in new tab" usually works correctly, though.

It's weird. I haven't opened the offending pages with the inspector panel open to see if they wrote their HTML differently.

Probably not related to the OP's question, though...
 
Naramis said:
Has anyone experienced this as well?
Click to expand...
I have a feeling this will only be noticeable to a small subset of people like you and me.

The latest version of Safari definitely changes the tab loading behaviour compared to past versions.

I have a habit of entering URLs in the location bar, CMD + T and entering a new URL, rinse and repeat for several tabs. Safari screws it up now and loads the first page fully in the next tab rather than its original tab.
[doublepost=1484284839][/doublepost]I'd like to add that tabs loading in the background will even steal focus from your current tab. As in:
  • Enter a new URL, website starts loading
  • Create a new tab regardless of content
  • The tab loading in the background steals focus and takes over your current tab
  • The previous tab is now empty or defaults to what you set new tabs to open with
 
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TWLreal said:
I have a feeling this will only be noticeable to a small subset of people like you and me.

The latest version of Safari definitely changes the tab loading behaviour compared to past versions.

I have a habit of entering URLs in the location bar, CMD + T and entering a new URL, rinse and repeat for several tabs. Safari screws it up now and loads the first page fully in the next tab rather than its original tab.
[doublepost=1484284839][/doublepost]I'd like to add that tabs loading in the background will even steal focus from your current tab. As in:
  • Enter a new URL, website starts loading
  • Create a new tab regardless of content
  • The tab loading in the background steals focus and takes over your current tab
  • The previous tab is now empty or defaults to what you set new tabs to open with
Click to expand...
Yep, those are exactly the problems I see.

Strangely, I didn't notice this on my MacBook Air just a few weeks ago, despite it being fully updated (both the OS and Safari). Only started noticing when I got a MacBook Pro (maybe because it's faster?)

Anyway, glad to know I'm not alone..
 
My Safari never does anything like that. But it's fascinating how everything's going down the loo although everyone's (imputing) basically got the same config with a couple of different installed programs.
 
Naramis said:
I've used Mac and Safari for a few years on a MacBook Air and never had this issue, but now with a new MacBook Pro this is driving me crazy.

This is how the bug goes:
-Open new tab, tell Safari to open a website on it
-Switch to another tab I had open (or even create a new tab)
-The website opens on my current tab, instead of the one I originally told it to open on

Has anyone experienced this as well?
Click to expand...

I have the exact same problem. Can't quite say when it first appeared, but it has been driving me a little bit crazy. I'm running macOS 10.12.2 on a 15" MacBook Pro Late 2013.
 
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Add me to the list of people experiencing this. I have a habit of loading a slow site, and switching to another tab to wait for the first to finish loading. The page that should be loading in the background then appears in the new tab. Very annoying.

For me this only happens when you switch tabs while a webpage is still loading. When pages have finished loading the bug doesn't materialise.

Will report the bug but in the meantime I guess I might have to exercise some patience! :eek:
 
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Happened to me (Sierra), so I reverted to 10.11.6.
It's a painful bug! I couldn't stand it, but I've experienced this issue once again in 10.11.6 :|
(But hopefully just once, or maybe it was my fault)
 
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Same happens to me on a rMBP and on an iMac. I don't remember it happening on 10.11, so it really must be Sierra related.
 
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This is also happening to me, and I agree -- completely annoying. Typically I'll have some site up where I've paged through at least a dozen or more pages of results, and then load a site in another tab, only to have it take over the tab I was on, and make it so I'm unable to click "Back" on that old tab to get back to what I was doing.

I never noticed this odd behavior before Sierra. Tempted to move back to Chrome as my primary browser on my home MBPr (it's my primary on my work MBPr), it happens often enough to be mildly infuriating.
 
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Just came across this thread, and have to say this is one of my most annoying Sierra bugs. Along with Time Machine not showing up once you plug it back in (requiring restart) and how Safari uses up about 50% of your RAM until you close and re-open it again.
 
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Same thing happening here. I have a slow connection and it seems that if I switch the tab before Safari fully spawns a new web process and it connects - the newly opened tab stays empty and the tab I switched to loads the website supposed to be open in the new tab.
I can recreate it in El Cap and Sierra.
 
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