Fix Firefox Backspace to Take You to the Previous Page December 21, 2006
Posted by Carthik in bugsquashing, snippets, ubuntu.trackback
In a surprising development that seems really strange and unnecessary, Firefox 2.0 won’t go to the previous page when I press the “backspace” button on the keyboard. I have grown used to this over the period I have used Firefox. The fact that I can’t use backspace the way I am used to has been annoying me no end. So I decided to dig a little deeper.
The feature was removed to fix a bug. The bug that was caused by fixing the previous bug, which is that the backspace does not behave like it should has been fixed too (Thank heavens!)
But then, until the bug fix propagates to a firefox build available on Ubuntu, one has to resort to a little scratching to fix the matter. Here’s how you resurrect the backspace button in Firefox 2.0 (current as of this date):
Type “about:config” in the address bar of Firefox and press Enter.
`Filter` for ‘browser.backspace_action’ and change its value to 0 (zero).
Thanks for this. I’ve just about stopped myself from going for the backspace key – time to re-learn. (OpenSUSE 10.2 user)
Cool. That has been bugging me for a while. The backspace works on my XP box but it didn’t on my Ubuntu machine.
This is really helpful, thanks for posting it!
yes, thank you :-=
Great info !
Only…. In my Ubuntu backspace works fine on Firefox, could it have to do with the fact that I tried mint-linux 2.1beta and still have it on my box ?
Any other mint-users who can confirm this ?
The feature WAS a bug. Good riddance!
I just install the new Bea version of Mint that came out yesterday and this patch / fix is included.
Thank you!
This has been bothering me a lot too!
Ugh no! I rely on backspace being the opposite of the spacebar for scrolling!
BTW Alt+Left arrow is also equivalent to the back button.
I found backspace’s behavior of going back to the previous page an incredibly bad user experience problem. I’ll be rather disappointed if it returns.
I didn’t even realize it was broken til you told me. Thankfully(!) I use mouse gestures as primary means of navigation on my Ubuntu machine.
It seems like already there are a bazillion different ideas of what people expect backspace to do in their browser. This may turn into a problem that won’t go away.
sweet, back to normal! ctrl + [ was getting old
this was fixed in version 2.0.0.1 install this version it fix all problem in simple way
Backspace works for me without doing anything in firefox.
Great fix, i’m linking to this on my blog!
[...] Some of you may have noticed that in Firefox 2, backspace no longer brings you to the last page you were on, but you can change it, ubuntonista has posted a way to fix it on his blog, here. It works and is really handy! [...]
[...] Muita gente, inclusive eu, achou estranho com o que acontece (ou o que não acontece) quando se aperta a tecla backspace no Firefox 2.0: não se volta para a página anterior. Uma postagem no Ubuntu Blog informa os motivos (a funcionalidade foi cortada em uma correção de bugs) e ajuda a configurar o recurso novamente. Os passos são simples: digite “about:config” na barra de endereços e procure pela opção “browser.backspace_action“, trocando seu valor para zero. [...]
That is amazing… Thanks very much.
YES!!
thank you god!
I’ve been annoyed by this forever, thank you so much for helping me fix it!
thank you for this tip.
thank you for this fix!
Thanks, you saved my nerves
I hitted the backspace thousand times for nothing.
Thank you so much. And happy new year.
Thanks, I knew you had the answer.
Backspace works fine in Fedora but not Ubuntu. Thanks for the fix.
thanks!
I can’t believe the fix is sooo easy and this thing has been driving me nuts for such a long time…
Thank you soooo much!!
Thank you so much! That was very very helpful!
Thank you so much..! This has also bothered me forever.
Thanks mate
BIG thumbs up, thanks this was really bugging me,
consider yourself a hero
Here comes Johnny come lately…but bloody thanks. That was annoying!
Wow! Thanks a lot!
gracias!
thanks a lot! sooo helpful.
Thanks a lot, it was upsetting me.
Thank you for the info ! It helps me a lot.
HURRAY!!! You are my hero
Thanks
Thank you so much.
As a recent windows convert, I found this extremely frustrating, as I didn’t even know the key combo.
I dont know you man but i love you.. thanks
Spot on, this had been bugging me for ages
Ha! Nice. This was driving me nuts. Almost made me regret upgrading to Edgy, where this started. Thanks for the tip!
Wow, I wouldn’t have guessed so many folks were as bugged by this as I was
thanks, I was looking for that
thank you, thank you, thank you, i was going insane!
oh man, this is a lifesaver! ty
YeS!! This really was a small thing, but I rather liked hitting the Backspace button and had grown used to it as a way to zip around web pages. Now I will be hitting the backspace button to go back to gmail from whence I came!
Thanks!
Thanks for the tip. It was beginning to get on my nerves
thanks man ! you’ve helped me a lot ! it was very annoying ! they’re trying to repair old bugs and they’re making new ones
Thanks a ton. I could use FF on Windows XP without this problem but it didn’t work on Ubuntu untill now. Thanks once again.
Small problem, easy fix, huge impact! Thanks!!
Thanks for the fix! Makes life much easier again.
[...] to this post here there is a very easy way to stop firefox 2.0 paging up when you hit the backspace key. Returning it [...]
Awesome! Thanks! Simple solution to simple problem!
Great – such solutions are sometimes hard to find, but then sooo simple
Thanks, great fix!
Thanx. ;o)
Thank you, you just solved one of 5 complaints my girlfriend had before switching to ubuntu fully.
thanks i was going nuts !!
Oh, thank gods! Finally a solution! Cheers!!!
Thanks Dude!
You’ve saved quite a few people from headaches by posting this…including myself – you rock! =)
Thanks a lot, you made my day! on PClinuxOS it did not work – until now
Only just found this, but the backspace issue was one of my top annoyances, especially as I use both Windows to Linux. Thanks!
thanks a lot !
haha, so many people annoyed and such an easy fix. thanks man!
Thank you so much. I switched to ubuntu a few months ago and that has been bugging me ever since.
Carthik ftw. Thanks.
Thanks dude.
thanks soooooo much!!! it was driving me crazy lol.
thanks a lotts !!! …
now ubuntu treats my fingers better !!!
[...] the behavior of something as simple as the Backspace key in Firefox can really spoil your [...]
[...] the behavior of something as simple as the Backspace key in Firefox can really spoil your [...]
Everyone thanks you. It’s funny that all you need to do is go to the config and look for ‘backspace’ – but I never did, because I didn’t suspect it could be that easy. After all, firefox doesn’t let you configure keybindings by default.
Thank you so much! Now if I could only figure out how to remap all the shortcut keys to their windows values…
[...] the behavior of something as simple as the Backspace key in Firefox can really spoil your [...]
[...] Firefox Backspace to Previous Page Fix [...]
I know everybody have been thankin’ you, but I also will. This is very useful!
Thnx again!
thanks – this applies to mandriva as well. i’m sure no one will read comment #83 but thought i’d add that just in case anyone is desperate enough.
Ugh, thank you kind sir. This has been driving me absolutely hog-wild for months. I had finally given in just recently after switching over to a laptop to do a google query…
On my desktop, losing the backspace functionality wasn’t all that bad because I had a proper mouse. Now that I’m primarily using a laptop, it was absolutely killing my browsing speed!
Truly appreciated. And wow, what an insane amount of comments.
Kudos
All right! Thanks a bunch, that’s been bugging me. The Alt+Lft Arrow is also a good tip from a commenter, I wasn’t aware of it.
Thanks Carthil
I submitted a patch to mozilla to fix this bug. Please oh please go vote for it so they actually get it in firefox 3.0!
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=400518
i love you thank you for resolving that!
No no. It’s not RESOLVED until someone actually merges it into the code.
In order for that to happen, you need to vote for it.
Go vote:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=400518
I hate this function, always accidentally bring me back to previous page when i am filling in some form. I hope it can be disable by default!!
Thanks! Finally a solution for this annoying feature!
How is that a platform convention? Nautilus (default Gnome File browser) uses backpace to backup. Firefox on linux is a GTK app and has taken on the GTK interface standards (such as Edit: Preferences).
Does this mean Nautilus is breaking convention, too? That would be quite surprising.
Simple fix but big gain !!!!
Thank you
Awesome! I don’t know why I spent a month being completely frustrated with the loss of my backspace functionality. Thanks!
I’m going to be hitting backspace all evening now… JUST CAUSE I CAN!!!!!!
You are a god. This fix is a sanity-saver.
You all need to complain to the people who brought this upon us in the first place, or it will never get changed. They seem to think that this is a desirable feature. Tell them otherwise. Their emails can be found in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=358764
Thank you!!! This was really bothering me, and your solution was quite simple.
Thank you very very much
Thanks.. it really helped, i didnt even have to restart firefox to see the change.
Nice one, that’s really useful.
Although I’ve just discovered that you can go back & forwards in firefox with alt left/right – but only through the comments here.
Thanks
Thanks it was bugging me -I hated having to two finger ALT-left arrow. Backspace works for me much better…
browser.backspace_action = 1
That’s what I want. I was typing a letter in Yahoo when I lost focus on the text area. I then hit the back button (to erase a line), but was sent to the previous page [FF 2.0.0.1].
I lost all my previous work I typed out when that happened.
So, “browser.backspace_action=1″ will keep the backspace from backing up a page.
Thank you for this information!
Thank you so much!
Firefox 3 started doing this to me, and the fix works fine and dandy!
Wow ! Using FireFox 3.0 on Ubuntu 8.04 and setting it to 0 worked !
Thanks a lot !
another thank you from an ubuntu 8.04 user with firefox 3.0.. that was driving me insane. Thanks.
Excellent! Didn’t even know this configuration area existed. Now I am going to go about “voiding my warranty”!
You saved the day, the new “feature” was driving me mad!
[...] that in Firefox 3 my backspace key doesn’t take me back a page. Thankfully this fix (backspace key for ubuntu firefox) solves the problem in just a few [...]
Thanks
thanks also for the ALT-right/left arrow key combination tip to navigate back and forth.
This works in Firefox 3.0 as well, thanks for the fix!
thanks for the fix!
this should be the default behaviour in Hardy FF3.0, anyone know why it isn’t???
I’ve been bugged by this after changing from Windose XP to ubuntu – thanks for fixing that, this flaw was still present in FF 3.01
I was anoyed for a long time by this issue.
Now i’m happy thanks a lot
I’ve just found this page after screaming at Firefox. I just lost a page of text I wrote on my blog because I hit the backspace button. If your cursor isn’t focussed in the text window Firefox goes back a page and you lose your work. ARRRGGGGHH!!!!
Right, now to switch the stupid feature off. I’ve never used it, instead I use mouse guestures – far quicker and easier.
Finally! Thanks a lot, bud!
Nice. Thanks a ton. Makes my porn surfing much more efficient.
Lots of, lost of thanks!
This was bugging me to the utmost (on RedHat by the way, not Ubuntu) and I never would have thought of this.
Keep up the good work!
You’ve just fixed the most annoying thing for me on Ubuntu Firefox – thank you!
I actually agree with poster 12….I happen to find the backspace as a back button incredibly frustrating. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit backspace in an attempt to erase a bit of text in an email, only to be pulled back one page and lose the entire document. This extreme frustration may be due to the fact that I use a macbook, and there is no separate “backspace” and “delete” key…there is only delete, which firefox apparently interprets as backspace. I wish there was a config menu within firefox to bind/unbind keys as I see fit. Backspace as back must go!!!
awesome, thanks!
to cutty: If you accidentally hit “back” when you didn’t want to, hit forward. Your form data should still be right where you left it.
You solved me days of frustration.
Many thanks!
thank you, i cant understand why it is not a default, especially when ubuntu want xp users to migrate
Agreed with Cutty here. Ideally form data should be saved between back and forward, but in reality, this never seems to work. Possibly due to bad page design, or auto-clearing fields on page-load. Regardless, the backspace-as-back-button causes a lot of problems. Alt-left/right already work as back/forward shortcuts, so why add extra shortcuts that cause accidental loss of form data? I don’t even use the back button anymore with tabs, so the backspace thing really irks me.
Hurrah for this post! Ubuntu sucks less now!
you are the best, thank you
[...] Source [...]
[...] then noticed that the backspace key didn’t take me to the previous page. Fortunately I found Fix Firefox Backspace to Take You to the Previous Page, which fixed the problem [...]
thanks!
you’re the man
Ah you have to love the internet for getting the answers you need just by typing “backspace ubuntu”
Thank you
Thanks man
thanks dude, this was really bugging me
WUU thanks
well, it’s been over 2 years since your post, and nothing propagated to my firefox 3.0.6… thanks for the post
A simple fix to an irritating problem – thanks for making the solution so clear (and easy to find!)
Still works on 8.10 and is the first Google result for backspace firefox ubuntu. Nice going! Cheers.
Thanks!!!!!!!!!
This one was especially annoying when I switched to a laptop, and gestures are not so easy to use with the touch-pad!
This is still a valid solution. thanks!
Was wondering how to fix this, still unsolved on 8.10 with FF3. Thanks!
what a joke! here we are now at Ubuntu 9.04 and still backspace doesn’t work like it should without this tweak . thank you so much for your help!
Thanks, backspace is back in action
Thank you, thank you! That was soooooo annoying! especialy since my ubuntu machine is my laptop.
Cheers!
hi,
thanks very much. i was looking for that!
thanks, its been bugging me for like two weeks.
Awesome! This bugged me a lot about Firefox 3 running on Ubuntu. Now I can go back to the previous page using backspace again! Thanks a lot!
I can’t tell you how many hours of work i’ve lost when trying to edit a field and when i hit the backspace key, it went back to the previous screen, wiping out all my work. Going forward brings me back to the page I was working on, but about 75% of the time with all my work erased. I’ve also had it happen when running a java application, again wiping out all my work.
I set that option to “1″, and hopefully that will prevent the backspace key from going back a screen.
thanks you much admin!
I agree with carl, [alt Left] and [alt Right] is much safer