This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Control key functions don't work properly on Google Docs or Facebook

more options

Ctrl + A, C, V and F don't work on Google Docs to select, copy and paste text or find text in the page; instead, the relevant key is just typed (so Ctrl + A just types A). On Facebook, when typing into a status text field, pressing Ctrl + A results in *both* the letter A being typed, and also the text *before* the newly typed A being selected.

I suspect this is JavaScript related, because normal text boxes work fine (such as this bug report's box, or Google's search box). Google Docs and Facebook clearly have some code running that checks what I'm typing, that is probably overriding normal control function behaviour. However, I don't experience this issue on Google Docs with Chromium (haven't tested Facebook).

I tried restarting in safe mode with addons disabled and the problem did not go away. In case it helps, I have applied the following about:config settings in addition to those set via layperson-accessible settings menus etc.:

media.autoplay.enabled = false dom.webnotifications.enabled = false privacy.firstparty.isolate = true privacy.resistFingerprinting = true browser.send_pings = false

Unfortunately I've not been running Firefox Nightly for long - only a few days as I just set this computer up - so I can't tell for how long this problem has been there. At least on Firefox 57 I did not experience this issue.

Ctrl + A, C, V and F don't work on Google Docs to select, copy and paste text or find text in the page; instead, the relevant key is just typed (so Ctrl + A just types A). On Facebook, when typing into a status text field, pressing Ctrl + A results in *both* the letter A being typed, and also the text *before* the newly typed A being selected. I suspect this is JavaScript related, because normal text boxes work fine (such as this bug report's box, or Google's search box). Google Docs and Facebook clearly have some code running that checks what I'm typing, that is probably overriding normal control function behaviour. However, I don't experience this issue on Google Docs with Chromium (haven't tested Facebook). I tried restarting in safe mode with addons disabled and the problem did not go away. In case it helps, I have applied the following about:config settings in addition to those set via layperson-accessible settings menus etc.: media.autoplay.enabled = false dom.webnotifications.enabled = false privacy.firstparty.isolate = true privacy.resistFingerprinting = true browser.send_pings = false Unfortunately I've not been running Firefox Nightly for long - only a few days as I just set this computer up - so I can't tell for how long this problem has been there. At least on Firefox 57 I did not experience this issue.

Chosen solution

Did you try with resistFingerprinting set to false? That feature is evolving quickly and has lots of weird side effects.

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (4)

more options

I also tried clearing cache - didn't fix.

more options

Chosen Solution

Did you try with resistFingerprinting set to false? That feature is evolving quickly and has lots of weird side effects.

more options

jscher2000 said

Did you try with resistFingerprinting set to false? That feature is evolving quickly and has lots of weird side effects.

Wow, that fixed it! I would never have thought that would be the problem. Thanks very much for your help!

Does this get submitted as a bug report automatically, or should I make one?

more options

You could file a formal bug report on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

A lot of nightly users post on this subreddit, so you also could check there for any related discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/