Back Button Function
I've used Firefox for decades and much prefer it to any other browser I've experienced. I run the current version (115.0.2) on Windows 10 22H2. Recently I've noticed that - on some websites, primarily Microsoft pages - the back button does not take me back to the screen I came from on the active tab. It seems to happen all the time with Microsoft pages. I've noticed it on other web pages but have not recorded them.
Is the back button function not local to Firefox? If it is, how does MS take control of it in Firefox to prevent backing up to the web page one came from?
What is it that I don't understand correctly?
TIA
All Replies (4)
The backspace key no longer takes you back in the history since Firefox 87. You can set browser.backspace_action = 0 on the about:config page to re-enable this feature.
See Changed:
Thanks for the info. I made the about:config change.
Why have I only experienced the issue with a few specific web sites?
Note that this is only about using the backspace key on the keyboard. If you use the Back button on the Navigation Toolbar then it is possible that there are multiple history entries. You can hold the left mouse button or right-click either Back/Forward button to open the tab session drop-down panel and select an entry directly.
Historically, Microsoft has used a lot of redirects in its documentation because it dynamically adds a left navigation bar. If you right-click the Back button and use the tab history list, you should be able to bypass the redirect and get back to the source.
There is something of an experimental feature that filters Back button history based on whether the history was added as a result of a user action. I don't know whether this would make any difference on Microsoft's site, or what negative side effects it might possibly have. If you want to experiment with it, see: