Hello,

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

• Click the menu button , click Help and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

• On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
• On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
• On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
  (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.

Thanks for the quick response. I followed the suggestion of running in safe mode but I still had the same issue.

When I link to a second page (eg if reading a newspaper online and selecting an article to read) if I right click on the back button I can see the current page is mentioned at least twice so clicking back once leaves me on the same page.

I get around this by; When I find a link I want to check out, I open it in a new tab/window. Then when I am done, I close it and am back where I started.

FredMcD said

I get around this by; When I find a link I want to check out, I open it in a new tab/window. Then when I am done, I close it and am back where I started.

I do exactly the same.

But the back button should work though .....

CW said

When I link to a second page (eg if reading a newspaper online and selecting an article to read) if I right click on the back button I can see the current page is mentioned at least twice so clicking back once leaves me on the same page.

There are some sites that add to history as you scroll down, sometimes each time you hit a new title. Other sites may redirect in a way that Firefox recognizes as a new address. I am not aware of a way to prevent this from happening.

As you discovered, one workaround is to use the drop-menu from the Back button to skip backwards over those intermediate entries. The other is to use the method described in other replies, which is to open articles in a new tab so you can close that tab when you're done with it instead of having to go Back within the same tab.

Note that you can hold the left mouse button on either back or forward button to open the tab history drop-down list. If necessary then you can middle-click (or hold Ctrl and left-click) an item to open the link in a new tab.

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses - much appreciated.

However I will be switching to Chrome as their back button works correctly! I switched last night on my home laptop and will today in work.

It was fun while it lasted but why would I use a workaround when I don't need to on another browser?

Thanks again for your help.

Did you check browser.backspace_action on the about:config page?

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.backspace_action