Dragging tabs out often leaves floating "ghost tabs" in front of other windows

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Dragging tabs out often leaves floating "ghost tabs" in front of other windows

Since upgrading to Ventura, I have noticed a new appalling bug in Safari: very often, when I try to drag a tab off into a separate window, the drag fails but deposits a new floating tab, which I call a "ghost tab", in the foreground. This screen shot shows three ghost tabs floating in front of two Safari windows.

These ghost tabs cannot be selected or dragged. They appear to be in the foreground all the time. I can drag the remaining functional Safari windows around, but they stay behind the ghost tabs. The only temporary solution appears to be to quit and restart Safari.

This bug is in addition to the other one I noticed recently where I will drag a Safari tab to another monitor, and it leaves a blacked-out version of the original tab in the original window. The new copy is functional. This started happening in Monterey before my Ventura upgrade.

I'm using the current Ventura software as of November 4, 2022, on an M1 Max MacBook Pro, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB SSD. Would really appreciate a fix.

MacBook, macOS 11.3

Posted on Nov 4, 2022 6:01 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Matthew.S81

Community Specialist

Nov 6, 2022 10:41 AM in response to jeffkirk

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, jeffkirk,

We understand you're seeing some "ghost tabs" in Safari while using it on your MacBook Pro. We'd be happy to help you troubleshoot this.

Check to see if this continues after restarting. If it does, check if you can replicate it in safe mode:

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

"How to use safe mode

Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:

Apple silicon

Shut down your Mac.
Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window.
Select your startup disk, then press and hold the Shift key while clicking “Continue in Safe Mode.”
Log in to your Mac. You might be asked to log in again.

Intel processor

Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up.
Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac.
You might be asked to log in again. On either the first or second login window, you should see ”Safe Boot” in the upper-right corner of the window."

If it continues in safe mode, check if you can replicate this in another user account:

Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

Regards.

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