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This question asks for help using the Safari browser and is not primarily about the Stack Exchange website, though that's part of the context.

When I use Safari in macOS for my Stack Exchange activities which often involve a dozen tabs or more, I'm frustrated that each new window I open by right-clicking on a link to an SE post within an SE post opens a new tag that's not logged in to SE, and I have to re-login again in each new window.

Curiously if I simply click on a linked question in a chat room that I'm already logged into (e.g. this one), it opens a new tab that is already logged in so I know this is possible.

Question: Is there anything I can do within Safari on mac OS so that right-click opening a link within an SE post to another SE post will open the tab as logged-in?

note: I regularly clear my cookies and decline cookies when I login to SE, and I always use Private Window browsing in Safari. I have Safari 14.0, macOS 10.15.7

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    I use Safari, and I don't had this issue. I'm having a hard time imagining what might cause it. Have you disabled cookies for this site? Are you using a private (incognito) tab? Do you consistently use a VPN? All the stacks I work on seem to keep me logged in indefinitely unless I do something unusual, so I'm trying to figure out what unusual thing you might be doing...
    – Ted Wrigley
    Aug 4, 2021 at 22:03
  • @TedWrigley that info is good to know because it means there's hope for me! As my post notes, "I regularly clear my cookies and decline cookies when I login to SE." I will try not doing that and see if that works, will take about 20 minutes as I'm in the middle of somethings at the moment. If that's the solution, then there is no question about Safari and I'll just delete this post. Thanks!
    – uhoh
    Aug 4, 2021 at 22:06
  • @TedWrigley accepting all cookies has no effect, but note that I've updated the note at the bottom to include "Private Browsing". This is going to be the answer and it is Safari-based. :-)
    – uhoh
    Aug 4, 2021 at 22:32

1 Answer 1

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When you open a new tab, it will not share any cookies (and thus login status) with any other tabs.

When the website opens a new tab, a connection between those tabs exists that allows Javascript to execute across the tabs. This connection is preserved in Private Tabs and also means cookies are shared.

I'm not aware of documentation for this, but it's easy to confirm. If you open GMail and right click to open a new tab, it does not stay logged in. But if you click a link Google configures to open in a new tab, it will stay logged in.

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  • I'm not sure this is correct or at least complete as currently written/worded. For example when I log into gmail in one private browsing tab and from the menu choose hangouts it opens in a new tab logged in. It would be better if you cited some supporting source(s) and quoted Safari's behavior directly rather than paraphrasing or generalizing it yourself.
    – uhoh
    Aug 4, 2021 at 23:16
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    I've added an update - when you do that Gmail is creating the new tab and they are linked. In regular browsing, they can actually communicate via Javascript. In Private mode, this connection is preserved.
    – Ezekiel
    Aug 4, 2021 at 23:20
  • Thanks! This is very helpful because I'm seeing this intermittent opening of logged-in SE tabs from questions linked within chat rooms, and this might help to understand why. But rather than contradict the first paragraph with a second, perhaps they can be combined in a way that doesn't induce cognitive whiplash? And a supporting source would even further improve this answer's believability to future readers.
    – uhoh
    Aug 4, 2021 at 23:55
  • Just asked in the main meta: I can get an already-logged-in window clicking on a post link in chat, but not in another post. I have to re-login a lot; by design? (Safari private)
    – uhoh
    Aug 5, 2021 at 0:22

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