54

How do I disable the Ctrl + Q shortcut in Firefox without using the keyconfig extension?

5
  • 7
    i hate developer, who develop ctrl+q(very rare used) with ctr+w(freq. used). Thanx for your request! May 16, 2017 at 11:39
  • 1
    Disable Ctrl+Q systemwide May 29, 2017 at 3:58
  • Duplicate on SuperUser Jun 16, 2021 at 5:46
  • Not sure why this website doesn't let me add an answer, this question isn't that old. The simplest solution is to just install xbindkeys and map CTRL+Q to /dev/null, or echo "" or something. It will trap and kill the combo before it ever has a chance to ruin your private-session pr0ning by sloppy left-hand typing. No more lost links... The only caveat is that it'll trap it for all other programs, too. In my arrogant opinion, a welcomed feature. edit: I just saw user31389's answer. My life is changed.
    – Brandon
    Jun 29, 2021 at 4:32
  • Now it's easy to turn it off by setting the option "browser.quitShortcut.disabled" to "true" inside the "about:config" page
    – Vladan
    Feb 2, 2023 at 8:04

6 Answers 6

44

You should obtain a similar result, easier, enabling the hidden config option (about:config).

  1. In Firefox's address bar, type about:config and accept the warning that it will give. Now it appears in front of you a long list of config options. Filter it typing the keyword quit in the filter bar (up top). After that the filter acts you will have only few lines. Click on browser.showQuitWarning and set it true by clicking on it.

  2. You can use this filter again with the keyword warnon and see if the options "warn when close tabs" and similar are set to true.

  3. In the Firefox's Options/Preferences (or Edit/preferences it depends from system and version), go to the Tabs section and check the option "Warn me when closing multiple tabs". This will prevent you to close a window with multiple tab.

You will not completely disable Ctrl-Q but at least you will make it harmless.

11
  • 10
    Unfortunately, for me (on Ubuntu 14.10 with Firefox 33.0), setting the key "browser.showQuitWarning" to "true" does absolutely nothing. :-( So I had to install the above mentioned extension just to disable keyboard shortcut. What a world we live in.
    – okolnost
    Nov 22, 2014 at 13:43
  • 2
    It just worked for me with 14.04.
    – arhuaco
    Jun 4, 2015 at 16:22
  • 2
    @okolnost @axd @user905686 it won't work if you have firefox set to show your windows/tabs from last time. In General preferences under When Firefox starts - change that to home page or blank page. See support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1127960 for the reason why. You can restore the last session manually from the history menu when starting firefox.
    – Matthew
    Jan 11, 2018 at 6:59
  • 2
    @DylanHunt in about:config you can find the field browser.tabs.warnOnClose. The default value is true... After so many years the layout of the interface is changed many times, but some internal variable not...
    – Hastur
    Feb 23, 2018 at 13:42
  • 1
    This stopped working for me recently. Odd.
    – NotSimon
    Jul 25, 2018 at 22:14
22

There is now an extension just for that:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/disable-ctrl-q-shortcut/

2020 update:

The original extension has now disappeared from the addons store. Similar addons (see comments) have come and gone. One of the last remaining extensions (link) does not work on Linux due to: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1325692

4
13

You can just add a custom shortcut for Ctrl + Q. In Ubuntu it is available directly in settings(How to). It will be captured by the OS and hence no app including Firefox would detect it.

P.S. I have mapped it to play an 'Oops' sound.

Step 1. Install sox package & its mp3 support library-

sudo apt-get install sox libsox-fmt-all

Step 2. Add the following line in the custom shortcut prompt-

play ~/Music/Oops.mp3

P.S. For windows users: you can use AutoHotKey. It has inbuilt function to play a beep sound. Use it in the script like this-

^Q::
    SoundBeep, 1000, 500

The '^' above stands for Ctrl

4
  • 2
    thank you. this was far simpler than some of the other solutions, which wanted to intercept the keystrokes and pass them on based on what application I was in. While I can see why I might sometimes want to do that, this was a far easier solution for my case, and one I would not have thought of.
    – user428026
    Dec 27, 2017 at 4:36
  • You're welcome! I figured this solution for the same reason :) Jan 7, 2018 at 13:12
  • 1
    I must say, with all the existent 'disable-ctrl-Q' extensions not working due to some bugs in mozilla or due to the version incompatibility; this answer is the best. Now I have a lovely 'Badum tsss!' sound every time I press ctrl-Q :)
    – mike239x
    Mar 4, 2018 at 0:52
  • 1
    The link to add a custom shortcut doesn't explain it any more for Ubuntu 20.04+. But I just used the settings->keyboard shortcuts and there I changed the setting for "hide Window" to CTRL+Q
    – rubo77
    Feb 18, 2021 at 1:54
11

Since Firefox 87 you can just set browser.quitShortcut.disabled to true in about:config. If this preference is not present, just create a new boolean preference with this name and set it to true.

Relevant bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52821

1
  • 1
    note, that this will take effect only after restarting firefox for some reason.
    – Jakuje
    Jun 29, 2021 at 10:05
4

Ctrl + Q isn't a Firefox specific shortcut, it's system wide on Ubuntu if you don't mind disabling it everywhere follow this answer.
Basically, you create a new shortcut and assign /bin/false as command.
No restarting is needed.

2
  • No restarting is needed. only quitting.))
    – vstepaniuk
    Jan 25, 2019 at 23:56
  • I think this is not a global shortcut any more since Ubuntu 20.04
    – rubo77
    Feb 18, 2021 at 1:55
0

On Ubuntu: Hide window instead

In your global Ubuntu-Settings: settings->keyboard shortcuts change the setting for "hide Window" to CTRL+Q

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .