I get around this by; When I find a link I want to check out, I open it in a new tab/window. Then when I am done, I close it and am back where I started.

Thanks, that's true but I'm mostly curious why the "back button" isn't working. If the issue is firefox or the website.

It could be the way the site is set up. Or, how the link ends up in the browser. I don't know for sure.

It is possible that there are multiple entries in the tab history menu and that if you go back one entry you get automatically forwarded again ,so effectively nothing changes. You would have to skip one or more items to go back.

You open the tab history via the right-click context menu or by holding down the left mouse button until the drop-down list opens.

Just to add I have this issue with the current Firefox 70.0.1 for Mac OS Catalina. Not on this particular site but on several major sites including Facebook and Twitter. While working within those sites, I am unable to step back using the Firefox back button. Sometimes (as in Twitter) there is an internal back arrow in the site that functions, but it's much quicker and more efficient to have the overarching FF back button work. In Facebook it's even more of an issue because there isn't such an arrow that I've seen. It's also not consistent, and depends on what I click on, which makes any problem extra hard to solve. This is a strange and recent thing that's been happening. Ideas?

Hi documental, take a hard look at the Back button.

If it's gray, most likely the last link/button launched a new tab or window and the source page is open in a different tab/window.

If it's not gray, right-click (if you have one button, Ctrl+click) the Back button to see whether intermediate pages appear there and skip over those and click the page you want to return to.

Yes, thanks, and sorry I didn't specify but in my case the button is greyed out so no right click possible. This seems a different issue from the OP's problem (which I recreated) where the back button presses but just reloads the page. There is no visible new tab in my situation, but perhaps some add-on is allowing a new tab to replace another tab? I should try refreshing Firefox, maybe.

documental said

Yes, thanks, and sorry I didn't specify but in my case the button is greyed out so no right click possible. This seems a different issue from the OP's problem (which I recreated) where the back button presses but just reloads the page. There is no visible new tab in my situation, but perhaps some add-on is allowing a new tab to replace another tab? I should try refreshing Firefox, maybe.

In case the other tab closed, could you try one of these to undo the last closed tab:

• Command+Shift+T
• (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Tabs

If nothing happens, you may be viewing the link in a new window and you could try using the Window menu to find your earlier page.

Nope, definitely in the same window. I'm not THAT hopeless! It's really just an occasional problem, which is why I always am so surprised when it happens. I guess I use the back buttons a lot more than I realized!