Problem with Firerox "Back" button/arrow

#1

I'm not sure how to describe the problem I'm having with Firefox. When wanting to go back to a prior page, all you have to do is click on the back arrow. If you want to go back more than one page, you can hold the left click on the back arrow and and you will see a list of prior sites or pages to select.

Here's the problem. Some websites (or an intermittent Firefox bug) seem to be "registering" the same page multiple times and when I click the back arrow, it stays on the same page. If I left click and hold the back arrow, I'll see the same page listed 3 or more times. I can select any page I want and it will go there, but it's a pain not being able to use the back button. (The same holds true if I use the control on the wireless mouse.)

I've tried to Google this problem but I don't see anything on point. Has anyone had this problem? If so, HOW DID YOU FIX IT!??

Thanks
Chas.

bigity · #2

I think you normally see this kind of behavior with certain sites. Depending on how the sites are coded, the back button doesn't work as you'd expect.

PBR · #3

Have you put any or updated any add-ons recently in FireFox? I know they tend to give some problems and cause buggy issues.

#4

I updated to the latest version but no new add-ons.

Chas.

RottenApple · #5

There is no "fix" for this "bug" because it's not a problem with FireFox. You can see the exact same behavior using other browsers; Safari, Chrome, and IE, just to know the biggies. It's all in the website coding. It's a type of redirect. Some browsers (Safari, for example) are notorious for not allowing too many redirects because it is an indication of a possible phishing/scam site.

I'm sorry to say, Charles, you'll just simply have to hold the left click and select the site you want.

Jim Beaux · #6

I use FFox-

When selecting a link I generally dont use the left mouse key but rather the scroll wheel - pushing it down will open the link in a new tab. It's not uncommon for me to have several tabs open. If I close a tab and want to go back to it I select "History" (between "View" & "Bookmarks") and select "Recently Closed Tabs". Simple and easy.

#7

I agree with RottenApple that it's probably the site(s), not the browser.

There are multiple ways to code a website to achieve the effect of disabling the back button. I say "effect" because you can't really disable it, but you can achieve the appearance of it being disabled. Why some site think this a good idea is beyond me, but it's relatively common. I'll describe some of the methods used to do this, but it can be difficult to know what technique is being used because the content finally displayed may not contain the source-code used to achieve the trick.

One method is to use JavaScript to open a new window that contains the webpage you want to display, tell the browser to disable the toolbar function (including the back button), and then automatically close the original window. If the site doesn't include the JavaScript on the called HTML page, then you can't see it by looking at the final page source. (This is probably not what you're experiencing because the Back button disappears altogether.)

Code: Select all

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function goNewWin() {
window.open("http://domain.com/the_real_webpage.html","newwindow","toolbar=0,status=1,menubar=0");
self.close()
}
</SCRIPT>

One way to defeat this without closing the window is to right-click anywhere on the page that's finally displayed. Most browsers give you a context menu that includes the option to go back a page. It's possible to disable that context menu option, though, by including this suffix to the HTML <body> tag:

Code: Select all

<body oncontextmenu="return false;">

A method with JavaScript that still shows the Back button but effectively disables it is to use the history.forward function:

Code: Select all

<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">
    window.history.forward();
    function noBack() { window.history.forward(); }
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY onload="noBack();"
    onpageshow="if (event.persisted) noBack();" onunload=""> 
[Regular HTML page content]
</BODY>

Every page involved would need to have that added to it. In other words, if you on Page A, then click to move to Page B, to keep a visitor from going back to Page A the code would need to be on both pages.

There's a more intricate JavaScript method that can be used to allow a visitor to go back to previous pages viewed on your domain, but prevent them from going back to an external referer, like a search results page.

Another method doesn't require JavaScript, but relies on frame redirection.

Code: Select all

<FRAMESET ROWS="100%,*">
<FRAME SRC="backcontrol.html">
<FRAME SRC="blankpage.html">
</FRAMESET>

This creates two frames, one that's set to 100% size and one that's zero (but the HTML page has to exist, even if it's empty). The 100% frame loads a page I called "backcontrol.html"; can be named anything. The trick is that the HTML contains no visible text, only the following:

Code: Select all

<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT=".0; URL=realpage.html">

So when "backcontrol.html" loads, it almost immediately calls "realpage.html," the page with the real content. And what happens when a visitor then clicks the Back button? It goes back to "backcontrol.html"...which calls "realpage.html" again. If you can defeat the go-back problem by very quickly clicking the Back button multiple times, this is probably the method used.

There are some other, more complex methods using servlet filters.

DocV · #8

I agree it is probably the sites. You can try firefox in safe mode https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tr ... =Safe+Mode to see if the problem goes away. However, I regard the NoScript add-on as being essential to safer browsing.

#9

Oh well, I'll obviously have to live with it.

Thanks for the info guys.
Chas.

DocV · #10

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Oh well, I'll obviously have to live with it.

Thanks for the info guys.
Chas.

My mind is in low gear today. Have you tried using the arrow keys? Command+left_arrow on a Mac. Alt+left_arrow or ctrl+[on a PC.

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Problem with Firerox "Back" button/arrow

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