If you just started the browser, there would be nowhere for the forward, or backward, to go. So no arrow. If from the first page, you go to a second, then the back arrow shows up. If at some point, you press the back arrow, then the forward arrow shows up.

Not true. The Back button is always visible, even if you just started Firefox and there's no previous page to go back to. It's only the Forward button that appears and disappears.

I do not see it bouncing around. (I am in Fx 30 at the moment)

I see the back button there all the time,

• But greyed out if there is no back for it to go to
• With a forward button appearing within the location bar when there is a forward to go to.

Looks fairly functional to me.

You can use addons to make it look and behave more like earlier versions if you wish, for instance

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/
• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/firefox-2-theme-for-firefox-3x/

It doesn't always bounce. When the Forward button disappears/appears because you changed tabs, it doesn't bounce. When the Forward button disappears/appears because you went forward/back, it bounces.

I never said it wasn't functional. (If it were, I would have filed a bug.) I said it was annoying and inconsistent.

I'll take a look at those add-ons, thanks. It doesn't look like either of them solve this problem, but they might contain useful information about how to change the appearance of the toolbar.

The addons solve the problem because once you use them Firefox behaves much like older versions of Firefox, and can also be customised (using the New Button) much like older versions.

The buttons can be split off from the toolbars and back & forward and stop & reload may all be separated.

set the icons to small and both buttons will appear.

@John99 What I don't get is, why the new design won't allow for these changes out of the box (as before) and why we need add-ons to fix something that wasn't broken before this grand new design ?!

DigitalBlade,

That was a design decision which was made by the developers. No one here has the answer as to "why"; it is what it is. Cope with it or use an add-on to "fix it". Bottom line is that if a feature isn't needed on the "mobile" device version interface of Firefox, it was (or will be) removed. "Desktop" users will need to adapt to the new reality and "restore" the former defaults if that's what they want.

In current Firefox versions you can use this code in the userChrome.css file to have the disabled Forward button visible.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/userChrome.css

@namespace url("https://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* only needed once */

/* Forward button */
window:not([chromehidden~="toolbar"]) #urlbar-wrapper > #forward-button[disabled] {
  margin-left: 0px!important;
}

The customization files userChrome.css (user interface) and userContent.css (websites) are located in the chrome folder in the Firefox profile folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Editing_configuration

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

• Create the chrome folder (lowercase) in the <xxxxxxxx>.default profile folder if this folder doesn't exist
• Use a plain text editor like Notepad to create a (new) userChrome.css file in the chrome folder (file name is case sensitive)
• Paste the code in the userChrome.css file in the editor window
• Make sure that the userChrome.css file starts with the default @namespace line
• Make sure that you select "All files" and not "Text files" when you save the file via "Save file as" in the text editor as userChrome.css. Otherwise Windows may add a hidden .txt file extension and you end up with a not working userChrome.css.txt file

@the-edmeister

That still doesn't explain why there is no option to change this ! Or is that the new design philosophy to make a "customizable" software "non-customizable" ?...

Please tell me which add-on I can use that brings the pause button back.

Preferably one that ONLY brings the pause button back. I don't want to install who knows what code from who knows whom to fix something that is supposed to be a self-evident UI feature. Additionally it seems many add-ons have issues with this new release (if by mozillas choice or not, who knows these days...) and I don't want to break even more or install some spy-/adware...

Also: BAD decision (among many others). MANY agree with me, judging by the treasure trove of complaints.

What desktop users ACTUALLY NEED to do is COMPLAIN, make themselves heard and push the issue until it is back to COMMON SENSE again! Please don't tell me, you actually agree with every decision and have resigned to the point where instead of trying to get your functionality back you refer to hacks and halfassery...

I thought this is the Mozilla SUPPORT forum. So where the hell do I give feedback to the actual developers  ?!

Desktop and mobile platforms are so very different, that lazy and/or cost cutting programming/UI design should not be tolerated if it cripples functionality or ease of use. Not to mention that even (actually especially) on a mobile device a pause button is preferable to a secondary menu !! - so, moot argument!

Plus, they BOAST all the time how CUSTOMIZABLE and CONFIGURABLE this POS win 8 atrocities and Chrome ripoff design is. SO WHERE IS THE OPTION TO SIMPLY ENABLE THE PAUSE BUTTON AGAIN IF I SO WELL PLEASE ?!!!!

Considering that Firefox is supposed to be by the community I don't understand how anyone involved can with a straight face tell this lie that they NEVER need a PAUSE BUTTON on their downloads and that a mobile UI and functionality is 1:1 transferrable to desktop. ...as if they write their code on their retarded siriphone with a UI consisting of 3 buttons !!

If anyone is interested, I found a statement to the reason of this decision. Excuse the TL;DR but I had to comment on it. If you wanna read on, here ya go: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=857001#c3 (see Reply by Paolo Amadini)

In short, they apparently used datasets representing the amount of concurrent downloads per user to conclude that ergo a Pause button is not necessary. Why? Because according to this post the SOLE purpose of the pause button is to quote:"helped our users in selecting and prioritizing downloads". WTF?!!

This is either a deceptive LIE or whoever made this decision based on that assumption has the IQ of a POTATO!

Who are these people?! Have they ever used an electronic device or software before? Have they even finished some form of education after kindergarten ?

Since they went down this road: WHERE is the ACTUAL amount of use of the PAUSE BUTTON ?!

(or did they not include that into their NSA inspired spy mechanism...now we see what happens if we give these people information about how we use their software...ANOTHER REASON WHY NOT TO SUBMIT ANY DATA!)

In a satirical sidenote: I wager that if it were up to these geniuses soon DVD/BluRay Players, indeed all mediaplayers WON'T have a PAUSE BUTTON. After all, how many DVD's do you watch at the same time ?!!!

I don't know how representative or official this post is, but it may well be the reason why there are so many things so desperately wrong with UI design and feature decisions not only in Firefox's recent update but in most Software releases these days, including Operating Systems.

This whole decision is based on numerous mistakes and misuse of data / the wrong kind of data. Probably one reason why UIs should be designed by DESIGNERS and the USERS(!!!), not EXECS OR MATHEMATITIANS OR PROGRAMMERS (I'm a prgrammer too btw.) OR ARBITRARY AUTOMATED DATASET COLLECTION OR JANITORS OR...

Here is the ORIGINAL POST, in case it got "lost" or something:

:Paolo Amadini 2013-04-04 05:39:20 PDT

The absence of the pause button is an intentional design choice. It is based on one design guideline known as the 80-20-2 rule. We provide primary UI that is beneficial to 80% of our users, and secondary UI that benefits the other 20%. The 2% of users who require special functionality are better served by add-ons, advanced configuration preferences or keyboard shortcuts.

For this specific instance, we have real-world Telemetry data that informs us on how many concurrent downloads are run by our users:

1 download - 94.70% 2 downloads - 3.77% 3 downloads - 0.75% More than 3 - 0.78%

We used to consider pausing a download a primary functionality, that helped our users in selecting and prioritizing downloads. Data has proven we were mistaken, many of our users don't need this to be a primary functionality.

To help users like you, who are part of this 0.78%, we've provided a convenient way to pause, that is faster than using a mouse, using the space bar. You may also select multiple download items and use the space bar to pause them all.

@Cor-el

Is there something similar for the pause button?

also, I wonder why settings in FIREFOX have a folder/css called CHROME...

does this have anything to do with Googles influence on Mozilla? ..it certainly would explain why we users are being manhandled by the devs in a way that we actually become furious enough to switch to another browser... What's with the attidue of take it or leave it?! Why aren't there customization options that actually help the day by day user experience? ...or rather, why did they REMOVE the customization options of the forward and many other buttons ?!!

I don't get it. Why remove a functionality instead of just setting a default that can (and will) be changed by those who want to, as it was the case before...

by all means hide it in an advanced tab or something but FFS don't remove a perfectly well working feature !! (especially considering how many new features - often very unrelated to the purpose of the program - are being crammed into software these days...)

Firefox is not the first software package(many of them highly priced btw.) where I experienced this and it becomes more and more annoying and infuriating how developers treat us USERS and customers.

UI is very subjective, yet after decades of Computer Software I'm still looking for fully customizable UIs !

...seriously, brand recognition via UI is not really relevant for a free product, especially one that prides itself as being "customizable", "user friendly" and all the other marketing platitudes...

No, Mozilla and Netscape before have been using the term chrome for tens of years to reference to browser user interface parts as chrome and this has nothing to do with Google Chrome.

• http://www.nngroup.com/articles/browser-and-gui-chrome/

@cor-el interesting, that's the only thing you comment on...(;

Please note that I do apreciate you and others posting here, trying to help us and my anger is not towards you but the mere fact of the matter.

I'd rather know though if there is a way to get the download button back or have the download window appear separately instead of this tab/list concoction which I have to drag out of the Firefox window(is there a setting to make it pop up outside by default..dare I say as it used to be ?!)

What I also feel bad about is that through all this negativity about the UI the efforts of many to make better, more secure code are drowned.

But unfortunately for them the UI is what we use on a daily basis and NOBODY wants to relearn how to use his software and miss vital(at least to him/her) functionality or ease of use, everytime some dev has a grand epiphany.

Sadly that chrome thing being unrelated to google(one learns every day) doesn't change the fact that as a very long time user I (and most others complaining all over the net) feel the same condescending disdain coming from Mozilla as we're used to from big corporations (well, it actually is one now, isn't it).

This hurts moreso because Firefox is supposed to be a community project and an alternative both in security and flexibility.

Yet Mozilla behaves exactly like a company that cares only for market share and profit margins.

Add-ons often break after updates and may be discontinued by their devs. Then we'll be left with what mozilla deems worthy of us.

THAT'S why I don't want to hear another tip involving an add-on but the customization option out of the box.

The widely praised customizations(making good use of marketing lingo) in the "customize" window are a joke (even though it could've been something really good and useful!). Almost all functions,windows and menus are missing and not customizable and it's merely about dragging and dropping few icons into that fugly windows 8 ripoff right side menu...

Are there no "about:config" codes or css entries to bring back buttons like the download button or rearrange menus and buttons without the holy themerestorer add-on ?! ...where is the clear downloads button for instance? gone to the right click menu as well... ...so much ease of use and customization freedom is killing me!!

... sorry for the tl;dr.

I'm really annoyed at how much my daily routine has been made worse instead of the improvement a modernization is supposed to be.

TL;DR

The place to provide feedback to Mozilla and the developers is here: https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/feedback

Many of us are using Classic Theme Restorer (Customize Australis) {web link} Restore squared tabs, appmenu, add-ons bar, small button view and more on Australis UI (Windows/MacOSX/Linux + Fx 29+).

This will restore many of the things the last upgrade took away.