Tab MRU order doesn't regard multiple skips

[ygoe]

Description

Pressing Ctrl+Tab doesn't support skipping to more than the directly single previous tab. Pressing it multiple times always goes back one tab. Very much not like Alt+Tab does in Windows or how Ctrl+Tab works everywhere else.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Enable Ctrl+Tab MRU order in settings
2. Press and hold Ctrl key
3. Press Tab key multiple times
4. Release Ctrl key
5. Press Ctrl+Tab once again

Actual result:

Tab active as before pressing Tab the last time in step 3

Expected result:

Should move back to the tab that was active when pressing the Ctrl key in step 2

Reproduces how often:

Easily reproduced

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave	1.29.81 Chromium: 93.0.4577.82 (Offizieller Build) (64-Bit)
Überarbeitung	e3a25d9b9e2d0b728e045ec87c0aa4942aa46e4e-refs/branch-heads/4577@{#1237}
Betriebssystem	Windows 10 OS Version 2009 (Build 19042.1237)

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release? yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel? not installed
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel? not installed

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields? no
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards? no
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome? feature not available

[andconta]

I made a video about the bug, comparing Brave with Firefox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPKqNGYxzRs

[dimonomid]

So as I see it's still not done, and it's really critical for me to be productive, so was looking for this issue.

@guifel @simonhong any chance it can be fixed? (tagging you since I see you were working on the implementation of the feature in #913) 🙏

[andrewklimek]

I also noticed this also, and it kind of makes the feature worse than not having it at all, unfurtunately. As much as I appreciate the work that went into implementing this.

[dimonomid]

Let me bump this issue again (hoping that doing that once or twice per year isn't too annoying). I love the Brave browser, I really do. But a browser without the native MRU implementation still sucks for me; I have to use this Chrome extension, which is better than nothing and better than Brave's broken MRU support, but being just a Chrome extension, it has to use a few workarounds, which don't always work flawlessly.

Any chance we can get it fixed in Brave so that we'll have a properly working MRU? Feels like we're so close! 🙏

[Lincoln-Chamberlin]

I had trouble understanding the issue from the description alone, I am posting new reproduction and results sections to make the bug more understandable.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Enable Ctrl+Tab MRU order in settings
2. I open tabs 1-3 and visit them in the order 3 2 1 (so I have tab 1 open at the end).
3. Press and hold Ctrl key
4. Press Tab key 2 times
5. Release Ctrl key
6. Press Ctrl+Tab once again

Actual result:

start on tab 1
press tab once in step 4: go to tab 2
press tab again in step 4: go to tab 3
press ctrl-tab in step 6: go to tab 2

Expected result:

start on tab 1
press tab once in step 4: go to tab 2
press tab again in step 4: go to tab 3
press ctrl-tab in step 6: go to tab 1

The difference is the last ctrl-tab, where the expected result is tab 1 (the last tab the user interacted with), but the real result is tab 2 (the tab the user passed by when going to tab 3)

Additional Notes:

This expected result matches the behavior of shift-tab in Windows and ctrl-tab in Firefox.

[Lincoln-Chamberlin]

FYI: This issue would be solved by #33693

[dimonomid]

Thanks for adding a better description Lincoln.

FYI: This issue would be solved by #33693

Thanks for that link too. While I can see that implementing this preview will likely come together with fixing the MRU behavior, let me share those two thoughts:

• It seems to me that this whole new preview UI etc would require a lot more work than just fixing the MRU behavior;
• While preview UI might be nice, not having it is not actually a deal breaker; while malfunctioning MRU kinda is, unfortunately.

I don't know if that preview feature is being considered for the near future work; doesn't seem like it, since it says "Untriaged backlog". So I'd say, if both features are just sitting in the backlog, then it'd make more sense to focus on fixing the MRU first (given the two datapoints I shared above).

Lmk if I'm missing something.

[haryp2309]

I'm having the same issue myself. I ended up disabling the feature and installed this extension (CLUT). The keybinding is Alt-W instead of Ctrl-Tab, but it works as a temporary workaround.