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

Firefox does not respond to Basic Keyboard Commands

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

more options

Hello Mozilla Support,

Firefox occasionally does not respond to basic keyboard commands. These key commands include Command+Q, Command+T, and Command+W. I use Firefox for 8+ hours a day and this issue occurs quite a bit. I do not experience these issues in other web browsers such as Chrome and Safari. I can provide a video if necessary.

I am running OSX Mavericks 10.9.5 with 16GB of RAM and a 2.5 GHZ Intel Core i7 Processor. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Please fix!

Best regards, Paul Hessing

Hello Mozilla Support, Firefox occasionally does not respond to basic keyboard commands. These key commands include Command+Q, Command+T, and Command+W. I use Firefox for 8+ hours a day and this issue occurs quite a bit. I do not experience these issues in other web browsers such as Chrome and Safari. I can provide a video if necessary. I am running OSX Mavericks 10.9.5 with 16GB of RAM and a 2.5 GHZ Intel Core i7 Processor. Please let me know if you have any questions. Please fix! Best regards, Paul Hessing

All Replies (2)

more options

Hello Paul, try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

  • Click the menu button New Fx Menu, click Help Help-29 and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

  • On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
    (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

SafeMode-Fx35

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.

thank you

more options

This can happen if a plugin has focus and processes all key presses.

Did you try to click elsewhere on the page or the user interface to move the focus outside the plugin?