Firefox: Disable Backspace Page Back.

[Lamron]

The default behavior in Firefox is for your Backspace key to go to the previous page, the same as clicking the page back button.

The problem is that if you are in a text field, like the one I'm typing in now, the backspace key works as expected. But if you unfocus that field by clicking anywhere else on the page, now Backspace leaves the page and you lose everything you typed.

I've had this happen to me several times on Facebook and here in the forums. I take the time to type out a brilliantly conceived and composed piece of wisdom, and then lose it all. The world is then a poorer place for missing out on what I had meant to share with it.


I went looking for a solution and found that this behavior can be disabled.

In Firefox, type this into your address bar:

about:config

Find or search for: browser.backspace_action

Double-click on it and set the new integer to: 2

Now the Backspace key will never cause you to lose everything again!

[Major_A]

I wondered what was doing that to me.

I had to retype a couple of VERY detailed things not long ago.

Fixing this now! thanks!

[RedRock]

Mar 20, 2016 12:57:51 GMT -5 Lamron said:

The default behavior in Firefox is for your Backspace key to go to the previous page, the same as clicking the page back button.

The problem is that if you are in a text field, like the one I'm typing in now, the backspace key works as expected. But if you unfocus that field by clicking anywhere else on the page, now Backspace leaves the page and you lose everything you typed.

I've had this happen to me several times on Facebook and here in the forums. I take the time to type out a brilliantly conceived and composed piece of wisdom, and then lose it all. The world is then a poorer place for missing out on what I had meant to share with it.


I went looking for a solution and found that this behavior can be disabled.

In Firefox, type this into your address bar:

about:config

Find or search for: browser.backspace_action

Double-click on it and set the new integer to: 2

Now the Backspace key will never cause you to lose everything again!

I've had premature sendage many times on emails, hitting a key that sends my email before I'm through, and I've been on websites that time-out while I'm composing a nice entry and thus lose all that typing, so I've learned to do my manuscript creation in my word processor or a smaller app, and then copy and paste into the websites and email apps. This had kept me from being embarrassed many times. No longer do I lose masterpieces, and no longer do I send "YOU f'ng jerk, why did you...." when that's not what I want to send, I want to send, "Sorry, disagree strongly...." after I've had time to cool down. Same thing for doing stuff where a backspace error might lose your data, respectfully suggest you use a word processor, rather than tinker with internal app settings. But as I said many years ago, Lamron, you are a tinkerer!