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Dropdown and extension menus etc. close upon receiving Shift + other key

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by mabynke

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Any kind of popup menu in Firefox, such as the downloads dropdown, bookmark menu, settings menu, right click menu or extension dropdown closes as soon as I press the Shift key along with ny other key. Example: I open my password manager extension to log into it. I start entering my password. When I enter a capital letter using for instance Shift + K, the extension closes. When I open it again, it has been reset, and the password field is empty. This seems to happen with any key combinations including Shift, such as Shift + Shift or Shift + Arrow down. As this makes it especially difficult for me to log in to my password manager, it is a big problem. Resetting configuration or opening Firefox in safe mode did not fix it. Removing and re-installing Firefox (even using apt purge (I'm using Ubuntu)) didn't change anything, either.

Does anyone have any tips on how to fix this?

Any kind of popup menu in Firefox, such as the downloads dropdown, bookmark menu, settings menu, right click menu or extension dropdown closes as soon as I press the Shift key along with ny other key. Example: I open my password manager extension to log into it. I start entering my password. When I enter a capital letter using for instance Shift + K, the extension closes. When I open it again, it has been reset, and the password field is empty. This seems to happen with any key combinations including Shift, such as Shift + Shift or Shift + Arrow down. As this makes it especially difficult for me to log in to my password manager, it is a big problem. Resetting configuration or opening Firefox in safe mode did not fix it. Removing and re-installing Firefox (even using apt purge (I'm using Ubuntu)) didn't change anything, either. Does anyone have any tips on how to fix this?

All Replies (2)

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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.


Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window
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The problem is persistent through restarts of Firefox and reboots. Pressing all the status keys did not change anything. As mentioned, the problem is still present in safe mode. Hardware acceleration is disabled. Changing profile (even by removing the profile from the .mozilla/firefox folder) does not seem to do the trick, either.