Cursor now has only 1 tab in ui?

Support Help
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

i can’t get more than 1 tab to open up. i can click on a file and it opens up but it opens up by replacing the existing tab. Where I used to open up multiple tabs, now I can only have 1 tab?

Steps to Reproduce

see screenshot of reproduction. notice there is only 1 tab - just the package_lock.json file. community forum also has a limit of 1 upload file?

Expected Behavior

Previously each file i’d click would simply open up in a new tab…the standard behavior of any UI for the last 1/4 century. Not sure why this is different all of a sudden.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Screenshot 2026-04-04 145753.png
Screenshot 2026-04-04 145753.png1203×949 54.7 KB

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.0.4 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 63715ffc1807793ce209e935e5c3ab9b79fddc80
Date: 2026-04-02T09:36:23.265Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

For AI issues: which model did you use?

don’t think its an model issue, but my default is gpt-5.1 codex mini.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

3

Hey, this isn’t a bug. It’s expected behavior called Preview Mode. When you single-click a file in the explorer, it opens in a preview tab. You can tell because the tab title is italic. The next single click replaces that preview tab.

Two ways to fix it:

  1. Double-click files in the explorer instead of single-clicking. The file will open as a permanent tab.

  2. Turn off Preview Mode completely. Open Settings with Ctrl+, search for workbench.editor.enablePreview, and uncheck it. After that, any click will open the file in a permanent tab.

Most likely this setting got reset after updating to 3.0.4, or you just got used to double-clicking. Let me know if it doesn’t help.