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firefox 3.6.12 loses keyboard shortcuts on some pages

  • 3 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by mooner

meeotch
meeotch
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Since upgrading to firefox 3.6 from 3.5, I've run into a problem where the browser will periodically stop responding to keyboard shortcuts. I will amend this question with a list of sites as I encounter them. The most recent one is the boarding pass page on jetblue.com, so it's not useful as an example unless you happen to be flying today.

It seems to affect all shortcuts - once on the page, I can't switch to another tab via keyboard, nor access the url or search fields with alt-D or ctrl-k. The only workaround is to click on another tab with the mouse - sometimes clicking back to the "broken" tab works, sometimes not.

Since upgrading to firefox 3.6 from 3.5, I've run into a problem where the browser will periodically stop responding to keyboard shortcuts. I will amend this question with a list of sites as I encounter them. The most recent one is the boarding pass page on jetblue.com, so it's not useful as an example unless you happen to be flying today. It seems to affect all shortcuts - once on the page, I can't switch to another tab via keyboard, nor access the url or search fields with alt-D or ctrl-k. The only workaround is to click on another tab with the mouse - sometimes clicking back to the "broken" tab works, sometimes not.

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
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This can happen if a plugin has focus.

Did you try to click anywhere in the user interface (location bar) to set the focus elsewhere?

meeotch
meeotch Question owner
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It seems that there are a couple of cases: One in which all shortcuts are swallowed. This happens, for instance, with the Foxit plugin taking focus. Workaround is to click in the address bar as you mentioned. Looks like there's already a bug filed for this: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78414

There's another one where only keyconfig configured shortcuts disappear. Often happens on restoring the window after it's been minimized for a while. Workaround is switching to a new tab and back - clicking address bar doesn't work.

I'm pretty sure there's a third mode, affecting all shortcuts, but requiring the tab-switch workaround. But due to this being a sporadic problem, I'm having trouble defining the behavior.

mooner
mooner
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I have a similar issue when I minimise firefox and then maximise it again. It is very possible that this problem occured when I updated to 3.6, though I cannot be 100% certain.

Whenever I minimise firefox, even if I had it "fit to screen" before, upon shifting back to firefox it will appear as a floating window. And then until I click on one of my browsing tabs other than the one in focus I am not able to use any keyboard shortcuts. The problem is a general one on all websites, even on pages where there are no plugin modules present.

Edit: Should also have said I am running W7 and Firefox 3.6.12

Modified by mooner