Chromium Backspace Issue: Data Loss and Frustration - Seeking Collaborative Solution

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I’m writing to raise awareness of a persistent and deeply frustrating bug that affects Home Assistant’s web UI in Chromium-based browsers: the backspace key’s behavior.

Instead of deleting a character within text input fields, the backspace key triggers a “back page” action, leading to the potential loss of unsaved work. This can be particularly devastating when working on lengthy automations or complex configurations.

To be clear, Home Assistant is the only web application I’ve encountered with this specific backspace behavior.

This issue has been present for at least five years, and despite its impact, it remains largely unaddressed. Search results often yield minimal information, with users frequently advised to “just deal with it” or switch to Firefox.

I understand that Home Assistant is a community-driven, open-source project, and I deeply appreciate the dedication of the developers and contributors. However, the potential for data loss due to this bug is a serious concern.

I’ll also add that I’m not a programmer, and I’m unable to contribute directly to a code-based solution. I previously avoided this issue by using Firefox, but recently switched to Edge (a Chromium-based browser) and have encountered this problem firsthand.

Instead of demanding a fix, I’d like to propose a collaborative approach:

Increased Visibility: Can we bring more attention to this issue by creating a dedicated issue on GitHub or a more prominent forum thread?
Community Investigation: Are there developers in the community with expertise in Chromium-based browser behavior who might be able to investigate the root cause?
Workaround Exploration: While a permanent fix is ideal, are there any temporary workarounds that could mitigate the risk of data loss?
Documentation: At the very least, could we add a warning to the documentation, to warn users of this issue?
My goal is to work with the community to find a solution to this issue. I believe that by collaborating, we can improve the user experience for everyone.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Are there any developers willing to contribute to a solution? I’m eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

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The backspace key navigates back in history in all web browsers - if your cursor is not focused in a text input field.

This is not a HA problem. This is how web browsers work.

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Thank you for your response, but I believe there’s a misunderstanding of the issue. While it’s true that the backspace key navigates back in browser history when the cursor is not focused in a text input field, that’s not what’s happening here.

The problem occurs precisely when I’m actively typing within a text field. Imagine I’m entering a title for an automation or editing a configuration in a text box. I make a typo, and instinctively, as a touch typist, I press the backspace key. Instead of deleting the incorrect character within the text field, the browser navigates back a page, resulting in the loss of all my unsaved work.

This is not the standard behavior of web browsers. In virtually every other web application, the backspace key functions correctly within text fields, regardless of whether you’re a touch typist or not. The focus is clearly within the text input area, yet Home Assistant triggers a browser history navigation, which is the problem.

The issue is that Home Assistant is triggering a browser back page action, while the focus is clearly within a text input. This is not normal browser behavior

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In FF, this behavior has been changed for quite some time that backspace does not navigate back in history anymore.

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yeah I knew that Home Assistant works in Firefox properly … didnt realize that the backspace doesnt go back a page when you are not in a text field … I always use my mouse back button to go back on a page and when I use backspace its always in a text field and it always works like it should but … because Firefox changed their policies I decided to look around … and when I tried Edge I ran into the HA bug again when in the “assist” window, typed in a command wrong, hit backspace and it closed the home assistant tab

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Just test it here in Chrome but backspace (on keyboard) is working normal?
Versie 133.0.6943.141 (Officiële build) (64-bits) on Linux mint 22

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working normal? ok try this, in chrome go to the assist button in the upper right of home assistant … in the window type in some text and hit backspace as if you mistyped … does it get rid of the mistyped text or does it close the assist window and posibly home assistants page? I dont have chrome on my server so I cant test Chromium based on linux to see if it shows the same issues. I guess I could install it to try but … if I remember … chrome is a pain to install

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Yes and nothing more.

Google Chrome - The Fast & Secure Web Browser Built to be Yours just download Chrome and install it, nothing complicated.

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ok maybe that’s why this is not as “noted”. I installed Chromium on my Linux server and sure enough its working as normal. So now that narrows it down. This bug only seems to effect Chromium based browsers in Windows and doesn’t affect Linux users. … lol Yet another reason to switch to Linux.

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Chrome eliminated backspace = back navigation about 8 years ago. Mozilla followed suit about 4 years ago. Vivaldi, my chromium-based browser of choice, added it back as a keyboard shortcut but is easy to remove in Settings. In Edge, also chromium-based, there is a flag setting but it should be disabled by default. Do you have this setting enabled? If not maybe some other hotkey script is intercepting your backspace key.

1 Like
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ok things are getting weird. I never changed any browser settings so I don’t think that is the issue but … basically I was reminded of this because of a post I saw last month and I replied to it but then decided to post here since the post was older.

The weird thing is:

Computer 1 Windows 11 Pro
Vivaldi, Chrome, Edge all react badly as stated in the post

Computer 2 Windows 11 Pro
Chrome, Edge react badly

Computer 3 Windows 11 Pro
Edge WORKS!

Computer 4 Xubuntu 22.04
Chromium Works as discovered thanks to Sandalman

Computer 5 Xubuntu 24.04
Chromium works

Computer 6 Android 14 asop_rpi5
Chrome works

what’s messing with my head is the fact that 2 windows systems are having the same issues but one isnt … the one has nothing on it runs an app that runs an internet radio station lol so I can have my music collection when I drive.

so it seems this issue has to do with something that 2 of my computers have installed / configured but not the 3rd one and since again … this isn’t a problem that only I have since I saw it mentioned here about a month ago so… something they had is also causing this issue… but… to be honest… the main computer that has this issue has tons on it so narrowing it down would be tough… the second computer doesn’t have as much on it but … it’s a weird Chinese board and it was difficult to find all the drivers for the system so i don’t want to format and start over to see if I can determine what is messing with Home Assistant’s Chromium browser interface

Edit: the 3rd Windows system does only have Edge installed and the other two do have Google Chrome installed so that may be the problem… maybe once chrome has been installed it messes with home assistant and in turn messes with any chromium based browser installed after it.

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FYI: since Edge uses the same engine as Chrome, I guess the behavior will be the same, no?

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This event is not something that can be controlled from HA.
The go back event is something that happens in th browsers own code.
Generally it happens when you are not in focus of a text input field and sometimes you can have extensions/plugins installed that can momentary take focus, which will then trigger the back event, when you hit backspace at the same moment.