Remove focus from search bar when ESC is pressed

[M-Kuzovic]

Firefox browser navigation issue. Quality of life improvement.

If I press Tab or CTRL+E and focus on search bar or buttons in the browser window, I am unable to exit focus (deselect Search Bar or buttons by pressing ESC. I believe pressing ESC to deselect Search Bar and return focus to the webpage should be the default behavior.

This causes problems in extension like Vimium (webpage navigation via keyboard) because when I am not in the webpage focus (when address bar, buttons (blue border around button) or search bar is selected) I am not able to use Vimium shortcuts to navigate the page. I checked and verified that I have not overwritten any Firefox native keyboard shortcuts with extensions.

I would like to be able to press ESC to return deselect search bar and return focus to the webpage.

[jscher2000]

For now, you could consider using the F6 function key to switch between the address bar and the page.

[KERR]

@M-Kuzovic  OMG can't believe someone else not only noticed this but also logged an idea here! It's been annoying me on and off lately.

I tested Chrome and Edge and they behave nicely, it's just Firefox where you get stuck in the address bar.

FYI I use Alt+D to select the address bar - same behaviour.

@jscher2000While the F6 method does return focus back to the webpage, it loses your "place" on the page (eg if you TAB to a link on the page, hit F6 to focus address bar, F6 again to go back to page, the link you selected before is forgotten)

Again, Chrome and Edge work fine.

[tuure]

@jscher2000

F6 is reserved for monitor brightness control on my system.

[Tubbe]

Are there any good reasons as to why this hasn't been implemented yet? All other browsers have this functionality, and it is super unintuitive and cumbersome that you can't just press escape to unfocus the search bar.

[abdullahm]

Please implement this, it is the standard in all browsers

[abdullahm]

Please implement this. I wish to use firefox as a daily browser but these little things here and there keeps me from having a good experience

[Mccranky]

It's not just the address bar, but also any sort of forms on the webpage. Details like this really matter. Please implement this!

[Jon]

This has been delivered in Nightly and should land in Firefox 133 - work tracked here.

Thanks all for sharing your feedback and ideas to improve the Firefox experience.

Keep it coming 🙌

[RobinZhang]

Hello, everyone. I have found a workaround. On my Mac, I use Cmd+Alt+I to activate the developer mode, and then I can press it once more to exit the address bar.

[monoblaine]

v133 was released today; and for those who experienced a sudden disappointment like me, the fix for this problem is for some reason hidden behind a flag: Go to `about:config` and switch on the `browser.urlbar.focusContentDocumentOnEsc` setting.

Feel so grateful to those who worked on this bug. It's perfectly implemented: The previously focused element on the page gets re-focused on ESC.