topic Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS) in Discussions

Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 09:42:20 GMT

The Firefox 109 Release Notes inform us that:

>On macOS, Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel now scrolls the page instead of zooming. This avoids accidental zooming and matches the behavior of other web browsers on macOS.

To revert to the previous behavior (zoom in/zoom up), users need to go to about:config and set mousewheel.with_meta.action to 3.

Most users don't read the release notes, know about about:config, or even join support forums. This change should've been applied only to new profiles.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

jscher2000 — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:18:25 GMT

For anyone stumbling across this thread who needs more help with changing the setting, here's the article on using about:config: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/about-config-editor-firefox

Have there been cases where changes to default preference values are only effective in new profiles? Or to put that another way, are there cases where existing profiles are customized during an update to preserve old default preference values? The currently effective default value of a non-customized preference isn't written to the prefs.js file; it is inherited from the program files. So preserving an old default would seem to involve checking whether the user has customized the preference and, if not, manually creating a custom preference set to the old default, and then manually recording that this has been done so it doesn't get repeated at every update (otherwise, the user would not be able to switch to the new default).

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

norswap — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 14:23:25 GMT

Seconded, had to find out the hard way. It's a super useful feature too, and as I Firefox user, I'd rather have consistency on Firefox accross OS than accross browser on Mac.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

ryo0301 — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 16:52:36 GMT

I now understand why Firefox users are decreasing!

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

mats852 — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 15:27:57 GMT

One of the main features that's missing on Safari. Can't live without that. Thanks for the solution!

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

JTBlanchard — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 18:02:11 GMT

This change affected my existing profile. Over two weeks of frustration before searches finally brought me to this thread.

Considering that this makes the action of a scrolling with a modifier key the same as scrolling without it, I'm not sure that this is helpful unless this was known to cause significant confusion for new users.

I am nonetheless grateful that the option to change the behavior remains.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

sinistersnare — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:39:47 GMT

It was super hard to find that 1) this change happened (I thought I was going crazy!) 2) how to change it back (What an absolutely arcane way to revert back to old functionality).

If you are gonna change behavior in a breaking way, at least offer a better way to teach people who to revert to the way they liked it.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

FreshCucumber — Sun, 19 Feb 2023 01:56:43 GMT

This change has been extremely frustrating for me, I thought I was going crazy until I stumbled over this post.

Terrible choice to change the Firefox default behavior in this case in my opinion, at the very least this should be in the actual settings, not hidden in about:config. And just to be clear, this is a terrible on Apple's part too.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

NotAProgrammer — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 04:05:33 GMT

GREEEAAATTT! 😞 Another update, another feature taken away.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:47:46 GMT

This feature isn't the default behavior anymore, but it wasn't taken away. You just have to follow the provided instructions: open about:config and set mousewheel.with_meta.action to 3.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

kolarto — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 20:48:41 GMT

This feels stupid. My guess is more people would want firefox to be consistent across OSes instead compared to other browsers.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

Kantum — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 22:14:40 GMT

Just why?!

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

Chrisgarside — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 13:52:46 GMT

I cannot understand why a developer would make it default for this feature to be disabled when it is so convenient and useful

Furthermore to do this without any prompt. I have wasted an hour today figuring out how to get it back. I have questioned my sanity over it, but I was sure something wasn't right when it didn't work. It is something I have become accustomed to doing automatically (Using the CMD key+ scroll to zoom in/ out)

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

Fulluphigh — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 02:35:09 GMT

Not only is it complete nonsense, but the workaround with about:config resets itself every time you update?

How the hell do you expect to convince users to keep their browser up to date when you literally punish them with insane bull**bleep** like that.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

uunxx — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 16:45:09 GMT

So Firefox gets features removed to be less competitive with other browsers? How can you accidentally zoom by pressing cmd? People press random buttons while using track pad or mouse wheel? I just bought my first mac and got frustrated by Firefox not working CORRECTLY. If they insist on me using the other browsers, I may do it, no problem.

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

Chrisgarside — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 17:10:50 GMT

Command and scroll up seems to be working now for zooming. I don't remember why it stopped working before

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

steynista — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 14:47:18 GMT

En**bleep**tification has reached Firefox 😭 cmd + mouswheel only stopped working for zoom on my mac after last update (146)

Re: Ctrl or Cmd + trackpad or mouse wheel on Firefox 109 (macOS)

steynista — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:28:39 GMT

Changing bleeping about:config does **bleep** all – they killed it