Have it set correctly: [Screenshot 2026-02-23 at 9.07.09 PM] But external links are opening in the same tab. Is it a bug?

Are you overriding it with your personal preferences?

It’s set to open in new tabs as well: [Screenshot 2026-02-24 at 6.30.03 AM]

If you change your preference here on Meta (and reload the site), does it work as you expect on this forum?

Yes, I just set it on here in my preferences and it opened an external link in a new tab.

Then this doesn’t seem to be a bug in Discourse. Is there something special about your forum? Have you tried safe mode ? Is there a plugin that could cause this?

Nothing special. Self hosted on Hostinger Ubuntu. I disabled all plugins also. I will try safemode.

For anyone else that has this issue, here is the fix. Just create a theme component and add this code to the js section: import { apiInitializer } from "discourse/lib/api"; export default apiInitializer("1.8.0", (api) => { api.decorateCookedElement( (element) => { element.querySelector…

Links not opening in a new tab

Support

NateDhaliwal (Nate Dhaliwal) February 24, 2026, 10:49am 3

For reference, that’s under Preferences > Interface > Open all external links in a new tab .

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External links in new tab Support	3	891	March 21, 2017
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"Open external links in a new tab by default" not working Support	19	2367	December 16, 2020
Open internal links in same browser tab Support	3	514	February 17, 2021
Open links in new tab not working Bug	5	3969	September 22, 2016

Links not opening in a new tab

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