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Firefox and Thunderbird are suddenly not accepting keyboard input

  • 3 replies
  • 36 have this problem
  • 109 views
  • Last reply by sea7kenp

qlum
qlum
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Keyboard shortcuts still work just input in any kind of input field fails so I can still use ctrl+C / CTRL+V to somewhat use firefox and Thunderbird But all input fields are completely unresponsive to keyboard input

The problem suddenly arose while I was browsing.

I have the same issue on all program's based on the Gecko engine and I confirmed them so far in Firefox, waterfox, instantbird, thunderbird and fossamail. However chromium / windows / basically everythign n

To fix it I tried the following: Restarting firefox Restarting firefox in savemode Rebooting Changing the keyboard layout in windows Using a different keyboard Again rebooting Pressing F7 to check for caret mode which was disabled pressing winkey + F9 (Whatever that does)

I am running windows 8.1(x64)

Keyboard shortcuts still work just input in any kind of input field fails so I can still use ctrl+C / CTRL+V to somewhat use firefox and Thunderbird But all input fields are completely unresponsive to keyboard input The problem suddenly arose while I was browsing. I have the same issue on all program's based on the Gecko engine and I confirmed them so far in Firefox, waterfox, instantbird, thunderbird and fossamail. However chromium / windows / basically everythign n To fix it I tried the following: Restarting firefox Restarting firefox in savemode Rebooting Changing the keyboard layout in windows Using a different keyboard Again rebooting Pressing F7 to check for caret mode which was disabled pressing winkey + F9 (Whatever that does) I am running windows 8.1(x64)

Chosen solution

Solved, Changing the keyboard layout again and rebooting fixed it. I tried using the on screen keyboard which worked so I changed the keyboard layout again and rebooted and now it works just fine. I still wonder what caused a Gecko wide issue like this?

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qlum
qlum Question owner
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Chosen Solution

Solved, Changing the keyboard layout again and rebooting fixed it. I tried using the on screen keyboard which worked so I changed the keyboard layout again and rebooted and now it works just fine. I still wonder what caused a Gecko wide issue like this?

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Just a note if it happens again:

Some have reported that pressing F9 and the Windows key simultaneously one or more times has worked to fix issues with the keyboard not working.

sea7kenp
sea7kenp
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I wish to say that this isn't Windows only, as I had where hitting a key on keyboard would randomly give other keys, but only on Firefox - Lubuntu 15.04. (Since I have a battery operated wireless keyboard, I assumed the batteries were out. So troubleshooting was delayed).

Rebooting worked fine for me.