Why does the backspace key navigate to the previous page, instead of just backspacing over what I am trying to type?
This problem happens all to frequently; I am filling out an online form and I make a mistake and hit the backspace key and then Firefox navigates back a page instead of just backspacing over the text. This has caused endless amounts of frustration as I have to then re-fill out the form I was trying to complete. I have disabled this function in about:config but this isn't a viable solution as it gets overwritten every time a Firefox update occurs.
Can this feature just be gotten rid of completely or have an option to turn off?
Chosen solution
You shouldn't lose pref settings when you update Firefox. If that happens then you more likely have a problem with your security software or other cleanup software that restores settings.
It you want to be more sure that a pref doesn't change then you can use the user.js file to initialize this pref on each start by copying its line from the prefs.js file to it.
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Pressing Backspace key will navigate you to the previous page. Make sure that your cursor is in the typing field of the form when you are trying to delete texts. Then pressing backspace key will delete the texts.
You can disable this action of the Backspace key by setting browser.backspace_action to 2 on the about:config page
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
Thank you but neither of these responses answer my question. As Raiyad Raad states ensuring the cursor is in the field before backspacing may make sense but this isn't always the case and doesn't fully fix the problem. Often I am typing and the cursor is 'in the field' and the browser still navigates back.
The fact that Mozilla made a key that so frequently used for correcting errors a key that that also navigates the page backwards is misguided in it's logic and proves to be nothing but problematic because it does more harm than good. The navigate backward should be changed to something like CTRL+Backspace.
Finally , The solution stated by user 'cor-el' was already stated in my initial question so this does little to help me. What is needed is a permanent solution that won't be undone each time Firefox updates itself.
Chosen Solution
You shouldn't lose pref settings when you update Firefox. If that happens then you more likely have a problem with your security software or other cleanup software that restores settings.
It you want to be more sure that a pref doesn't change then you can use the user.js file to initialize this pref on each start by copying its line from the prefs.js file to it.