Safari Tabs Acting Strangely--Duplicating and Glitching When Moved

I have a 2017 MacBook Air. I have a video linked below, but I'll also explain the problem. Basically, when I try to drag a tab away to either an existing window or to an empty space to create a new window, the tab will duplicate, it will be in both windows, and one of the tabs will be greyed out. Whichever window I am clicked into will look normal, but the one not clicked into will be greyed out. If I try to delete the original tab that was dragged (this doesn't happen when I delete the "new" tab/window), it will delete that tab, but the "child" tab will behave strangely. It won't close, exactly, but it seems like it just crashes, all I can see is the search bar and my bookmarks bar. So by deleting just the original tab, it actually essentially deletes both.


Once, when I tried to delete the tab (I can't remember if it was the original tab or the child tab), it ended up duplicating the tab instead, but not once, like 10x. This happened multiple times, and I was only able to delete all of the tabs by completely closing the window.


https://www.loom.com/share/2e245ab14c454376aa4ad3735ac98e9c

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 4, 2022 6:29 PM

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Posted on Oct 6, 2022 11:43 AM

Hi OliviaLaWr,


Welcome to Apple Support Communities. This doesn't quite sound expected since duplicating a tab should take additional action as mentioned in Prevent or create duplicate tabs in Safari on Mac - Apple Support.


In this case, try isolating this a bit by testing in a private window. That will help to determine if this might be related to cache or cookies. In Safari, choose File > New Private Window. Then try duplicating the issue from there. You can open multiple private windows if needed for testing purposes.


It might also be helpful to make sure that no keys are stuck. For instance, if Shift or Command is stuck it may result in actions similar to that which you've described. The commands for tabs are mentioned in Keyboard shortcuts and gestures in Safari on Mac - Apple Support.


Take care.

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Safari Tabs Acting Strangely--Duplicating and Glitching When Moved

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