New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on Nov. 13, 2020) follows:
There have been reports on official Chrome forums by users saying that they can’t drag or rearrange Google Chrome tabs at all – both within a window as well as between windows.
Furthermore, users say that not being able to use this extremely essential feature has taken a toll on their productivity. Below are some of the complaints.
Users facing this issue have an indispensable right to complain given the fact that the ability to drag tabs around is an essential feature, especially when cycling between a multitude of tabs or windows.
The problem isn’t just limited to a single platform as there have been reports from Windows, Mac, Linux, and even Chrome OS users.
It also appears that the issue can’t be attributed to Chrome alone, since a couple of users have stated that they are facing the same on other browsers like Firefox too.
Anyhow, you do not need to be frustrated for any longer, as we fortunately have a few workarounds to share.
- Restore settings to default: The first thing you may try is resetting Chrome. In Chrome, head over to Settings > Advanced > Reset and clean up > Restore settings.
Some workarounds to try
Check your extensions: Make sure there isn’t any out of the ordinary in your browser’s extensions section. A cranky extension/add-on could result in behaviors like these.
Use both mouse buttons: The other possible solution you may try to drag around tabs is the following:
Check your keyboard/mouse keys: Given that there is evidence of the issue being present on multiple browsers and platforms, it is quite likely that your issue is hardware related.
The culprit could be some jammed key on either your mouse or keyboard. Make sure that you thoroughly inspect them, and if necessary, do a clean up.
And that’s all for now. Let us know in the comments below if the above workarounds fixed the can’t drag Chrome tabs issue for you.
Update 1 (October 10, 2022)
01:13 pm (IST): One of our readers has reported that they were able to resolve the issue by clicking the ‘CTRL’ button before trying to drag the tab to another monitor. You can give this a try for a potential fix.
Thanks for the tip: Kat Dollar!
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