Firefox Randomly Causes Wrong Characters to Type In
I have been avidly using Firefox for 10+ years. However, I notice a trend that if I have several Firefox tabs open for quite a while, it starts typing in some wrong characters.
A list of character errors it makes is: é appears when typing slash beside shift on the right side. è appears when typing the apostrophe symbol beside enter. à appears when typing slash above enter ç appear when typing the right square bracket ^^ appears when typing the left square bracket (does not type anything 1st try, then enters that the 2nd try. Or if pressing it once, then backspace, it enters ^) / appears when typing key to the left of 1 at the top. É appears when typing a question mark. @ is working right now, although it usually does not work when this occurs.
Restarting the computer fixes it every time. This EXCLUSIVELY occurs times I have at least a few Firefox tabs open. I first came across this in Windows 7. In Windows 7, it made those character errors in Firefox but entered the correct characters when typed in apps like Word and Excel. It only occurred around once per month, I got by it by typing characters in Word then pasting them in Firefox until I got a chance to reboot. They pasted fine, just typing them gave the character errors.
With Windows 10 though, it is more than 10 times worse. I get these errors nearly every day. And in Windows 10, once the incorrect characters start getting typed in Firefox they also type that way in apps like Word too.
In msconfig.exe, I disabled all non-Microsoft services and disabled everything in the startup list, but it continues doing this.
Anyone have suggestions what to do? I honestly think the most likely explanation for this is Google bribing Microsoft to make it like this to drive people away from Firefox to use Chrome. That way Google can micromonitor us that much better.
Chosen solution
Do you have multiple keyboard layouts installed in Windows?
It is possible you accidentally changed the keyboard layout by using a key sequence to rotate the keyboard layout or otherwise changed the layout. It is usually best to disable the rotate layout feature and instead set a specific keyboard shortcut for each layout. Windows remembers the keyboard layout setting per application.
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027670/windows-10-add-and-switch-input-and-display-language-preferences#v1h=tab01
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/manage-the-input-and-display-language-settings-in-windows-10-12a10cb4-8626-9b77-0ccb-5013e0c7c7a2
All Replies (15)
About how long before the trouble begins?
Type about:support in the address bar and press Enter. Under the main banner, press the button; Copy Text To Clipboard.. Now in the Reply Box on the forum page, do a right-click in the box and select Paste.
If the data is too big, do not worry. It's the top part we need to look at.
This will show us your system details. No Personal Information Is Collected.
Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link}
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?
Start your Computer in safe mode with network support. Then start Firefox. Try Secure websites. Is the problem still there?
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Linux+Safe+Mode Starting Any Computer In Safe Mode; Free Online Encyclopedia
To answer how long before the trouble begins, it varies significantly. Like with Windows 7 it only occurred around once per month, but I upgraded to Windows 10 last month and itès gotten exponentially worse. Now it tends to occur within hours of having several tabs open, getting it multiple times every day. Like right now doing wrong characters with 4 tabs open.
In Windows 10, it sometimes fixes itself without having to reboot.
Application Basics
Name: Firefox Version: 83.0 Build ID: 20201112153044 Distribution ID: Update Channel: release User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:83.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/83.0 OS: Windows_NT 10.0 19042 Launcher Process: Enabled Multiprocess Windows: 1/1 Fission Windows: 0/1 Disabled by default Remote Processes: 9 Enterprise Policies: Inactive Google Location Service Key: Found Google Safebrowsing Key: Found Mozilla Location Service Key: Found Safe Mode: false
Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days
Firefox Features
Name: DoH Roll-Out Version: 2.0.0 ID: doh-rollout@mozilla.org
Name: Firefox Screenshots Version: 39.0.0 ID: screenshots@mozilla.org
Name: Form Autofill Version: 1.0 ID: formautofill@mozilla.org
Name: Web Compatibility Interventions Version: 16.0.0 ID: webcompat@mozilla.org
Name: WebCompat Reporter Version: 1.4.0 ID: webcompat-reporter@mozilla.org
Remote Processes
Type: Web Content Count: 5 / 8
Type: Extension Count: 1
Type: Privileged About Count: 1
Type: Preallocated Count: 1
Type: GPU Count: 1
Add-ons
Name: Amazon.co.uk Type: extension Version: 1.3 Enabled: true ID: amazon@search.mozilla.org
Name: Bing Type: extension Version: 1.2 Enabled: true ID: bing@search.mozilla.org
Name: ColorZilla Type: extension Version: 3.3 Enabled: true ID: {6AC85730-7D0F-4de0-B3FA-21142DD85326}
Name: DuckDuckGo Type: extension Version: 1.1 Enabled: true ID: ddg@search.mozilla.org
Name: eBay Type: extension Version: 1.2 Enabled: true ID: ebay@search.mozilla.org
Name: Google Type: extension Version: 1.1 Enabled: true ID: google@search.mozilla.org
Name: Wikipedia (en) Type: extension Version: 1.1 Enabled: true ID: wikipedia@search.mozilla.org
Security Software
Type: Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Type:
Type: Windows Firewall
Graphics
Features Compositing: WebRender Asynchronous Pan/Zoom: wheel input enabled; scrollbar drag enabled; keyboard enabled; autoscroll enabled; smooth pinch-zoom enabled WebGL 1 Driver WSI Info: EGL_VENDOR: Google Inc. 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I pasted that Copy Text to Clipboard, it said it has to be reviewed before posting. Perhaps because it was at the limit for length.
@FredMcD, by secure websites, are you referring to https If so, yes it still has that error because sometimes got them in places like email logins where it wouldnèt enter @ correctly.
Okay, right now I am in Firefox safe mode, but it still types stuff like these when entering keyboard symbols è é ç ^^ à
And entering them like that in Word and Excel.
Modified by crossr74
I tried testing it in Windows safe mode, but issue there is that in safe mode my internet card won't connect to network.
Could add though, I've experienced this for many years on 3 different computers.
Modified by crossr74
Are you using a direct wire to the internet or WiFi?
WiFi right now, although it also occurred when I had this same computer plugged into router. And occurred with other computers plugged into modem (Windows 7).
Modified by crossr74
Turn it off and unplug it. Wait 30 seconds.
I can already tell the modem isn't relevant to this because last month I had an issue with modem briefly disconnecting 5-15 times per day. In the process of fixing that I did factory reset on the modem, eventually figured out it was an issue with house's underground internet line coming from the hub. New line installed fixed that. But doing things like modem factory reset made no difference on this character issue.
I've had this modem for 2 years, but this was also occurring on previous modem.
One of the times it was giving me the character errors, I ran a typing test. Attached is the results it gave me where it didn't sense me typing the ones highlighted yellow.
I already tried replacing the keyboard last week, made no difference.
I called for more help.
Chosen Solution
Do you have multiple keyboard layouts installed in Windows?
It is possible you accidentally changed the keyboard layout by using a key sequence to rotate the keyboard layout or otherwise changed the layout. It is usually best to disable the rotate layout feature and instead set a specific keyboard shortcut for each layout. Windows remembers the keyboard layout setting per application.
You figured it out cor-el!!! Thank you very much. I live in Canada, which is officially bilingual, so by pressing window and space bar at the same time, I see that Windows automatically put in 3 keyboard layouts when installing Windows: US (US Keyboard) CAFR (Canadian French Keyboard) CMS (Canadian Multilingual Stand...)
Even though I only speak English.
By default it uses US keyboard, but testing this out by manually changing it to CAFR or CFS initiates the character issue.
As for how it randomly initiates this character issue, in settings; time and language; language; keyboard; it was automatically set as USE LANGUAGE LIST (RECOMMENDED). So Windows was randomly making errors deciding which language layout to use.
Again, thank you.
Modified by crossr74