In the current version of Firefox, which is Firefox 84 as of
now, you can use either Backspace, Alt + Left arrow, or a toolbar button to go
to a previous web site (if any) on Windows. This will be changed in Firefox 86.
Developers explain their move as intention to not override
common actions. The Backspace button is widely used in the text context to
remove letters to the left in a text box. However, if the user has accidentally
moved the focus from that text box, the current behavior can be descriptive. An
unexpected return to a previous browsing history page can cause a data loss.
At the moment of this writing, Firefox is the only browser
where you can use the Backspace key as a keyboard shortcut for navigating to
the previous page. This behavior was implemented years ago, and was first
introduced in Internet Explorer. Modern browsers like Opera, Chrome, or Edge
are no longer use it by default. Chrome had such a shortcut in 2015, but it is
now removed. In Microsoft Edge, the option is hidden in Flags. In Firefox 86,
it will be possible to re-enable the backspace key for navigation.
This post will show you how to enable the Backspace Key to
go back in Firefox.
To Enable Backspace Key to Go Back in Mozilla Firefox
- Open Mozilla Firefox.
- Type about: config in the address bar and press the Enter key.
- Click on Accept the Risk and Continue on the Proceed with Caution page.
- Type browser.backspace_action in the search box.
- Double-click on the browser.backspace_action parameter to set its value to 0.
- You are done. From now the Backspace can be again used for its "history back" function.
Note that the browser.backspace_action parameter supports
the following values.
0 = goes Back/Forward
1 = acts like PgUp/PgDown
2 = disable the key
(used by default in Firefox 86).
This change will align the Firefox behavior on Windows and macOS with how it works in Linux. On Linux, the backspace key is already disabled for quite a long time.