Moving one tab from an workspace to another window moves entire workspace to another window

adixor

Hi all

I love the Workspaces feature but I found a weird behavior today. This is what happens:

I have 2 workspaces, Personal and Work, each with a few pinned tabs + a few normal tabs. All in one Vivaldi window.
Say I am in the Personal workspace and I want to move a (non-pinned) tab to another window. I can do it either by dragging the tab outside of the window as I always done before or by doing right-click on the tab and then Move Tab -> To New Window
Unfortunately, after doing any of these 2 actions, a new window is created but the entire Personal workspace I was on is moved to this new window together with all its tabs. Now I have 2 Vivaldi windows, the old one having the Work workspace + the respective tabs and the new one having the Personal workspace + the respective tabs.
I see no way of moving everything back in one window easily. In the window containing the Personal workspace, the Work workspace appears in the workspace menu but says it is "in another window" and clicking on it switches to the other window. Same but the other way around for the Work workspace/window.

This is always replicable for me, and it takes some time to undo, basically by creating a new workspace in the window that I want to keep, moving the tabs from the newly created window one by one to this new workspace, etc, but that's obviously a no go for more tabs (I was lucky I only had about 10 tabs open). When this happened, I also couldn't use the tabs panel to move stuff around as it says something about operation not being supported (and shows a sort of backtrace) but I don't have that message anymore and I'd hate to go through a reproduction of this issue again - but I will if I must.

Is this a known issue or something that can be fixed soon?

Thank you

adixor

TLDR: trying to move a tab from a workspace to a new window moves the entire workspace that contains it to a new window with no (known) way to move the workspace back to the initial window

adixor

It gets even weirder.. take the same tab structure from point 1 above. Then I go File -> New Window. I get a new window, but when I want to check the workspace structure, it shows this:

It shows the Personal workspace as being part of this window but the Work workspace not. This is pretty much what I see also after the issue in the first post, it's just that in this case, this new window does not contain in fact any other tabs and closing it does not destroy any tabs (I can go back to my initial window which has both workspaces with their tabs inside).

Something seems to be off about opening new windows while using workspaces.

DoctorG

Feature Workspaces on 6.0 Stable has some unfixed issues.
I can not tell if a 6.1 Snapshot (tester version, can have other issues) will help you.
You can install Vivaldi Snapshot as Standalone version, that will not tangle your Vivaldi Stable Settings in case of issues in Snapshot.

Dancer18

@adixor This problem does not exist here. Even though I use Linux, I suspect it is due to the default configuration of the workspaces. For example, I no longer have a "Start Page", but have put my 6 workspaces as buttons in the address bar. As a replacement for "Start Page" I called the workspace "Standard". It is on the same level as the others, so to speak, and not superordinate as pseudo-neutral.

If I move a non-pinned tab by right-clicking with >Move to new window, only this tab is in the new window. But in the same workspace, which is logical.

adixor

Thanks for the feedback guys. I will test both the Standalone version on Windows and Vivaldi on my Linux setup and let you know.

adixor

I tested again on Linux Mint, latest snapshot, and also on Windows, Standalone install of the latest Snapshot 6.1.3009.3. I found pretty much the same issues in both cases so it seems 1) the issue is OS agnostic and 2) the issue is still present in the latest snapshot.

Here is my test, a bit more detailed, on Windows, latest 6.1.3009.3 snapshot, standalone install.

After installation, I didn't change any settings, just created:

one workspace called WRKSPC-1 containing 2 simple tabs (a search for "testA1" and "testA2" to identify the tabs easily)
one workspace called WRKSPC-2 also containing 2 simple tabs "testB1" and "testB2"

Then I tried to move one tab "testA2" like this: right click on this tab in the tab bar then "Move Tab -> To New Window".
I got this:

I have put both windows on the screen .. as you can see, it's already weird. I did get a new window with TestA2 in it but in the Panel I only have one Window mentioned though they are clearly 2 windows at this point, and testA2 seems to be allocated to the non-workspace space which maybe makes a bit of sense. If I look at the workspaces list I see this:

This is not completely wrong I guess (well if we ignore the fact that we have 2 windows but only see one in the panel.). However the moment I just change the focus to some of the tabs (not moving them, just switching to them) I get in this weird state which is what I mentioned in my first post:

If you look now, you will see a change from the screenshot before: now WRKSPC-1 seems to be part of the left window and WRKSPC-2 seems to be part of the second window (see the "active in other window" mentions). From this moment on, effectively, each window contains only one of the 2 workspaces, with no way I found to bring them back together in the same window. Example: if in the left window I click now on "WRKSPC-2 - active in another window" the focus just immediately moves to the right window, like the workspace doesn't even exist in the first window anymore.

Unfortunately, this is just one of the issues I found, during other testing I found even more unexpected and inconsistent behavior not to mention a couple of crashes (Vivaldi windows just disappeared and I had to restart the browser).

Is there anything I can do like opening a bug report or something? Or do devs monitors the forum for these issues? In my mind this is very easy to replicate, in 100% of the cases.

Thanks!
Adrian

LATER UPDATE: I just realized that if I close one of the windows, I still find the workspaces and their tabs in the other window, only losing those tabs that happen to be in the non-workspace area (like the tab I have just moved to the new window). I actually expected that closing one of the windows when I am in this state would make me lose the entire workspace from that window, but apparently it becomes active again in the window that is left. I guess some of questions I had have answers now (simple answer: to have everything back in one window I just need to close one of the windows and I only lose the tabs that are not part of a workspace). Still, the functionality is a bit weird and non-intuitive.

adixor

@Dancer18 said in Moving one tab from an workspace to another window moves entire workspace to another window:

For example, I no longer have a "Start Page", but have put my 6 workspaces as buttons in the address bar. As a replacement for "Start Page" I called the workspace "Standard". It is on the same level as the others, so to speak, and not superordinate as pseudo-neutral.

How can this be done? I was able to add the workspaces list element to the address/navigation bar but not a button for each workspace. I also couldn't get rid of the "Start page" outside-any-workspace-space or rename it.

Also, if you are in one of the 6 workspaces (not the default non-workspace one) and do the "move tab to new window" and then switch around through some workspaces and tabs, don't you get the problem I exposed above where the entire workspace which contained the moved tab is now in effect part of the second window?

adixor

In case nobody reads the huge post above, this is what I just found:

I just realized that if I close one of the windows, I still find the workspaces and their tabs in the other window, only losing those tabs that happen to be in the non-workspace area (like the tab I have just moved to the new window). I actually expected that closing one of the windows when I am in this state would make me lose the entire workspace from that window, but apparently it becomes active again in the window that is left. I guess some of questions I had have answers now (simple answer: to have everything back in one window I just need to close one of the windows and I only lose the tabs that are not part of a workspace). Still, the functionality is a bit weird and non-intuitive.

DoctorG

@adixor said in Moving one tab from an workspace to another window moves entire workspace to another window:

Is there anything I can do like opening a bug report

Yes, report to bug tracker.
Describe in a many steps you can how to reproduce it. If you made changes in settings f.ex. related to tabs and information on it.
Upload the images to tracker.

Dancer18

@adixor To answer the last question first, yes and no. In the new window is the same workspace, but only with the moved tab. If there are others besides this tab, they are not moved with it.

I have not had this scenario so far, because I almost never open a second Vivaldi window. That's what I have the different workspaces plus tab stacking for.

How it works to create custom buttons with individual themes is explained by Pawel in his blog.

adixor

Playing a bit more, I think the intention of this new feature (workspaces) is that the workspaces span all the the various windows that are opened (through File-> New Window or moving a tab to a new window) so in fact closing a window will NOT close the tabs that seem to be part of it - as it happened before v6.0: if they are part of a workspace they will remain accessible via the other open windows, and closing a window WILL ONLY close the tabs that are outside any workspace and in that particular window. However, the implementation is inconsistent.

Thanks Dancer18 for the blog and bug tracker link!

Dancer18

@adixor I have made my configuration so that there is no longer an area that is outside a workspace. Instead of "Start Page (as a somehow non-workspace)" I have the workspace "Default".
This is how it is in Opera Browser, but only limited there to 2 workspaces. Either one is just a workspace. Why should there be an area outside?

As I see it, the existence of workspaces replaces the need to open additional windows, and if there is a real need for something like a new window, the use of another profile would be more appropriate.

adixor

In my case I have a multimonitor configuration and quite often I want to move a tab to a different screen, which can only be done by moving it to another window. The workspace feature is irrelevant for this use-case. Using another profile is certainly too cumbersome just to have a video tab moved to another screen.

Dancer18

@adixor Even though the Opera predecessor for workspaces has been around for years, it's a recent feature in Vivaldi, so I expect that over time there will be a useful solution for multi-monitors as well.

May this discussion will strongly help.

adixor

It's already a really nice solution and greatly improves my workflow. It also touches on a LOT of parts of the UI so it is only expected that the first version is a bit rough around the edges, but like you said, it should get better soon. Thanks for the chat!

p.s. I agree that I don't see the need for the area outside workspaces, but in my particular usecase it seems it is used by the tabs that get moved to other windows, maybe some other cases too. Might be in fact easier if that thing wouldn't exist in the first place.

foresterh

@adixor did you end up opening a bug or resolving this? I'm hitting the same issue (moving a tab to a new window changes the workspace on the old window).

Wondering if I should open a bug, or there's a solution (or if @Dancer18 knows?)

mib2berlin

@foresterh
Hi, I cant reproduce it on Vivaldi 6.1.3035.111, Windows 11.
I was testing something else with 400 tabs and 4 workspaces, add a new workspace, open 20 tabs > move to new window.
The workspace with 19 tabs is still there.
Before you report a bug test this in a new clean profile all default, no extensions.
All Vivaldi developer and tester does so.
If you can reproduce it in the clean profile you can report it.
Extensions can do really strange things in Vivaldi, for a first test you can disable all, restart Vivaldi > test.

Cheers, mib

foresterh

@mib2berlin said in Moving one tab from an workspace to another window moves entire workspace to another window:

@foresterh
Hi, I cant reproduce it on Vivaldi 6.1.3035.111, Windows 11.
I was testing something else with 400 tabs and 4 workspaces, add a new workspace, open 20 tabs > move to new window.
The workspace with 19 tabs is still there.
Before you report a bug test this in a new clean profile all default, no extensions.
All Vivaldi developer and tester does so.
If you can reproduce it in the clean profile you can report it.
Extensions can do really strange things in Vivaldi, for a first test you can disable all, restart Vivaldi > test.

Cheers, mib

Hi... I first tried to repro on my laptop and couldn't. I went back to my desktop and it happens. Both are Macs running Ventura, both version 6.1.3035.111. My desktop is an iMac with external monitors so maybe it's something to do with multiple displays?

I tried to repro with a guest profile but I couldn't drag the tabs into a new window on either device. Not sure if it's a setting I enabled.

mib2berlin

@foresterh
I am sorry, you cant move to another window in the guest view.
You post in the Windows section, I cant test on macOS.
I will flag the thread, a moderator can move to the macOS section.
Maybe another user can reproduce this.

Cheers, mib