Ye blog of Adam Wright

DIY, tutorials, stuff for geeks, all updated when I have the time to spare.

How to: Ubuntu Firefox Backspace button fix

25 Comments Posted by on 02/01/2012

When using Firefox in Windows, pressing the Backspace button goes back a page in history, as if you clicked the “Back” button. However, when using Firefox in Ubuntu, by default the Backspace button does nothing.

Here’s how to make the Backspace button go back a page when using Firefox for Ubuntu:

  1. Go to about:config in Firefox
  2. Search for “Backspace”
  3. Change ‘browser.backspace_action’ to 0 (zero).

Chad added a useful note in the comments below: “set it to 2 and you won’t get sent back a page while typing on the web, it’s annoying to lose all your info after hours of work because of a shortcut key” – Thanks Chad!
UPDATE: According to user blameitonthesatelite, “This seems to have stopped working as of v 27.0 (although 0 works)”

 

linux, tutorials , , ,

25 responses to “How to: Ubuntu Firefox Backspace button fix”

  2. veins 07/22/2012 at 2:41 AM

    Thanks ^^

    Reply
  3. Wescrape 10/27/2012 at 11:04 AM

    This didn’t work for me.

    However going to “about:config” and changing value of “browser.sessionhistory.max_entries” to “100” ( was 0 earlier ) and restarting firefox does the magic.

    Reply
    • Adam 10/27/2012 at 12:24 PM

      Seems like your problem was the zero setting for max session history.
      Glad you got it working!

      Reply
      • OLe OLeo OLee 12/01/2012 at 7:40 PM

        WRONG. He just didnt noticed that it works after restart and assumed that it worked after doing other thing. Read the commands. Backspace and sessionhistory are different things.

  4. OLe OLeo OLee 12/01/2012 at 7:41 PM

    Heres why its stupid arguments for making backspace not to be back.
    We should make global cross platform voting.

    Fix Firefox Backspace to Take You to the Previous Page

    Reply
  6. tom 03/29/2013 at 6:51 PM

    well done – I had forgotten about the advanced settings.

    Reply
  7. mancio 04/20/2013 at 4:35 PM

    thnks!!!!!

    Reply
  8. Julio 04/21/2013 at 1:52 PM

    Great! And simple.

    Reply
  9. Miho 10/15/2013 at 1:20 PM

    Thank you!

    Reply
  10. jim 11/09/2013 at 4:15 PM

    prot-tip: whenever writing anything more than a quick short entry, always write everything in a text editor, then do a copy and paste. You get full editing control, don’t have to worry about page timeouts, and you can easily have a copy for your own files.

    Reply
  11. Hayden James 01/15/2014 at 7:43 PM

    Thanks. I forgot this as I just reinstalled Arch + xfce. First in 2 years. Bookmarked! 😉

    Reply
  12. Dan 05/06/2015 at 4:20 AM

    It ‘s a relief.. Man! Thanks so much. : ))

    Reply

Leave a comment