Enable Backspace in Firefox to Go Back to Previous Web Page With Backspace Key

Want to use the backspace key to go back to the previous page in Mozilla Firefox? Here's how to enable backspace in Firefox.
Warp Terminal

Remember the last time you used backspace key to go back to previous web page while browsing in Mozilla Firefox? It was probably when you were in Windows.

Firefox is the default web browser in many a Linux distributions including Ubuntu. And in here, the backspace key to go back to previous web page doesn’t work, by default.

The Firefox keyboard shortcut to go back is pressing Alt+Left Arrow key. This can be changed easily by altering the configuration.

In this quick post, we shall see how to enable backspace action in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. This will work on any operating system using Firefox.

Enable backspace action in Firefox

Just follow the below steps:

Step 1

Open Firefox and enter about:config in the address bar. It’s just a way of opening Firefox preferences setting.

A warning from Firefox will be displayed that your warranty will be void (as if there is one). You can ‘pinky’ promise to be careful and click on “Accept the Risk and Continue”.

about config in Firefox

Step 2

Here search for browser.backspace_action. Note that copy-pasting this value will yield no results. Since the entries are in alphabetical order, you can easily look for it.

When you find it, double-click on it and change its value to 0.

Changing backspace key action in Firefox

That’s it. Now if you hit backspace, it will take you to the previous web page.

💡
By the way, there is another Firefox keyboard shortcut. If you press shift+backspace keys, it will take you forward.

Disable backspace action in Firefox

If you change the same with value 1, the backspace key will work for scrolling page up (going upside of the page).

In future if you want to disable it, you can change it back to 2 or just click the reset button, it will load its default value.

More Firefox Tweakings

You can do a lot of other Firefox tweaks to make it behave the way you want.

For example, remove the title bar from the top.

How to Remove Title Bar From Firefox and Save Screen Space
Firefox has a tab at the top that displays the information about active tabs, taking extra screen space. Learn to remove title bar from Firefox.

You can also enable dark mode. There is no end to tweaking Firefox.

How to Turn on Dark Mode in Firefox
Operating systems, applications, and web pages are adding support for the dark mode (or dark theme/night theme) to help people reduce eye strain. You can enable the dark mode with Mozilla Firefox in various ways. Here, I shall highlight the methods to enable the dark mode theme on your

You can always explore the extensions to power up your Firefox game.

11 Best Firefox Extensions to Improve Browsing Experience
Use these Firefox add-ons to step up your browsing experience!

Enjoy Firefox the way you want :)

About the author
Abhishek Prakash

Abhishek Prakash

Created It's FOSS 11 years ago to share my Linux adventures. Have a Master's degree in Engineering and years of IT industry experience. Huge fan of Agatha Christie detective mysteries 🕵️‍♂️

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