Firefox back button loads top of page instead of where I left off

May 18, 2011 12:35 AM

How do I fix this Firefox problem? I go to a website. I scroll down, click a link, decide to go back to the original page. I click the back button, and when the previous page loads it loads at the top of the page, not where I had been in the page when I'd scrolled down and clicked the link.

This happens on every single website; Metafilter, Google search results, everything. Most of the time I open links in a new tab anyway, but sometimes I'm just quickly browsing and I just want to click, inspect, and go back, and this is ANNOYING.

I think it began when I upgraded to Firefox 4. Newest version is installed, I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 with all updates installed as well. Couldn't find anything in Firefox settings, and Googling led me either to 4+ year old posts linking to defunct extensions or smartasses saying that Firefox 4 is a mess. Not helpful.

Thanks!

posted by adrianna aria to computers & internet (8 answers total)

Do you have extensions installed? Does it happen in a fresh profile with no extensions?
posted by anaelith at 12:43 AM on May 18, 2011

I can replicate your experience if I hold down control when I click back.

But, if your control key were stuck, the link would open in a new tab.

When you click back, are you middle clicking?
posted by orthogonality at 2:47 AM on May 18, 2011

I get this, but only sporadically. I just chalk it up to software not yet being up to my expectations.
posted by rhizome at 2:54 AM on May 18, 2011

I'd recommend giving it a second. My experience with Firefox 4 is that it has to completely load the page before it will jump back to where you were on it. If there's anything holding up the browser from thinking it's completed the page, it will stay at the top.
posted by valkyryn at 3:24 AM on May 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

valkyryn has it I think - at least this is behaviour I have also noticed.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:49 AM on May 18, 2011

On top of what valkyryn said, I've noticed that if you get impatient and scroll the page before it's finished loading, Firefox will assume you don't want to go back to the old position and will leave you at the newly scrolled location instead.
posted by matsho at 10:08 AM on May 18, 2011

Answers: I do have extensions but I don't know what you mean by new profile-- like a new account on the computer and firefox installed? I didn't even think of the extensions being a problem, I'll try disabling all of them and seeing what happens.

I'm not middle clicking, just with the left mouse button or tapping the mouse touchpad (I'm on a laptop).

I've experienced the same thing as you, valkyryn and matsho, in the past, but this seems to be an entirely different behavior. I give it time and I don't scroll, and it still just loads at the top of the page.
posted by adrianna aria at 1:15 PM on May 18, 2011

You can make a new, clean Firefox profile using the profile manager. It's faster and more thorough than disabling extensions, and then you can just switch back to your normal profile when you're done testing.
posted by anaelith at 4:33 PM on May 18, 2011