Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Normal keys call firefox functions and mouse wheel zooms instead of scrolls

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

slashusr
slashusr
more options

Intermittently, without apprent cause, all keystrokes either call in-buit Firefox functions (ctrl-h, ctrl-f, etc) or produce no letters at all in text fields; mouse wheel stops scrolling and start zooming in an out instead; every link normally opening in same tab/window opens new tab/window instead.

It's as if the CTRL key were being held down for every keystroke. I have to restart in safe mode and I have no add ons to disable anyway...

Does anyone else have this problem?

Intermittently, without apprent cause, all keystrokes either call in-buit Firefox functions (ctrl-h, ctrl-f, etc) or produce no letters at all in text fields; mouse wheel stops scrolling and start zooming in an out instead; every link normally opening in same tab/window opens new tab/window instead. It's as if the CTRL key were being held down for every keystroke. I have to restart in safe mode and I have no add ons to disable anyway... Does anyone else have this problem?

All Replies (2)

Shadow110
Shadow110
more options

Try creating a new Profile and if still have the issue : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles If that fixes the issue running the new profile then : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If fails : uninstall Firefox. Then Delete the Mozilla Firefox Folders in C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files(x86) Then restart system. Then run Windows Disk Cleanup. (Note: This should be Pinned and run Weekly, If never done below expect 10's of gig's) Then run it again and click the button that says Cleanup System Files. Note: your Firefox Profile is saved. But you should make a back up before you do : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer

Reinstall with Current Release Firefox 57.0.2 with a Full Version Installer https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

It is possible that some of the status keys have the wrong state and Firefox sees them as still pressed.

Try to press all the status keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt) a few times to see if that helps to recover from this. If it doesn't help then close and restart Firefox or reboot the computer.