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

Pressing ctrl opens the bookmark sidebar - how do I change this?

more options

As the title says, every time I press ctrl, the bookmarks sidebar opens. I've checked what my shortkeys are and it shows that the bookmark sidebar should be opened with ctrl+b, but it opens and closes every time I just press ctrl. This makes it impossible to use any other shortkeys and it's driving me insane. Why is it doing this and how do I change it?

As the title says, every time I press ctrl, the bookmarks sidebar opens. I've checked what my shortkeys are and it shows that the bookmark sidebar ''should'' be opened with ctrl+b, but it opens and closes every time I just press ctrl. This makes it impossible to use any other shortkeys and it's driving me insane. Why is it doing this and how do I change it?

All Replies (4)

more options

Did you try to close and restart Firefox or reboot the computer ?

more options

cor-el said

Did you try to close and restart Firefox or reboot the computer ?

Yes, I've tried this and the problem persists.

more options

Can you try a different keyboard in case there is a problem with this keyboard ?

You can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.


Do a clean reinstall of the current Firefox release and delete the Firefox program folder before installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.

If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows Registry and settings in security software.

  • do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall the current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including personal data in profiles created by other Firefox versions

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

  • (64-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
  • (32-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
  • it is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling

Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you reinstall or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.


Reinstall Firefox

more options

Does that happen with both Ctrl keys?
Sometimes the right Ctrl key works a bit differently than the left Ctrl key with some applications.