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.

Pressing Esc at the address bar no longer returns focus to the page

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by bmclarnon

bmclarnon
bmclarnon
more options

Until 57.0, pressing Esc when focused on the address bar or search bar returned focus to the page. This was an appreciated shortcut, and the lack of this in Chrome was an irritant when I needed to use it. It is unclear why this feature was removed, or if this is simply a bug, but it would be nice to have it back, even if just as a non-default setting in about:config.

Until 57.0, pressing Esc when focused on the address bar or search bar returned focus to the page. This was an appreciated shortcut, and the lack of this in Chrome was an irritant when I needed to use it. It is unclear why this feature was removed, or if this is simply a bug, but it would be nice to have it back, even if just as a non-default setting in about:config.

All Replies (3)

Roland Tanglao
Roland Tanglao
  • Moderator
more options

Hi bmclarnon:

  1. Wow! Didn't know this about FF56 and older versions! #til
  2. "Until 57.0, pressing Esc when focused on the address bar or search bar returned focus to the page. " <---- you mean to the html portion of the current web page?
  3. I wish I knew of a keyboard shortcut for this but you got me stumped!

Cheers!

...Roland

bmclarnon
bmclarnon Question owner
more options

Hi Roland,

Yes, the previous behaviour was to defocus the address bar, which meant that keyboard navigation of the web page returned. This was useful when using plugins like VimFX (XUL-only, sadly) and Vimium that enable keyboard-only browsing.

I mainly noticed it due to the fact that opening a new tab automatically focuses the address bar, despite me generally wanting to select one of my Top Sites. Incidentally, a similar toggle for this behaviour would also be appreciated. =)


Thanks, Barry

bmclarnon
bmclarnon Question owner
more options

This is still an issue as of Firefox 58.0.1