Firefox Macos Catalina

I reproduced the issue on macOS 10.15 Catalina Release using Firefox 69.0.3, latest Nightly 71.0a1 (2019-10-13), Firefox 70 Beta 14 and Firefox Nightly 71.0a1 - 2019-10-07/08 (when macOS 10.15 Catalina was released): links are skipped over instead of receiving focus by pressing TAB key (with 'Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls' option checked). Apple’s latest Mac update, macOS Catalina, was released earlier this week, and with it came a flurry of complications both minor and major. For one, this update is the first for Apple to drop 32. Open finder and right click on the Firefox app, choose 'Show Package Contents' Open the Contents folder and then open the MacOs folder. Right click on 'Firefox Software Update' and choose 'Open' In the next dialog you will be asked if you're sure that you want to open it, press 'Open' again. Blue Cat Audio has not yet announced official support for macOS 10.15 Catalina, but all of their products are testing well and don’t appear to have issues. Go to their Mac OS 10.15 Catalina Status Update page for more information. Make sure your other software and devices are also supported before upgrading. Mac OS 10.15 Catalina Status Update.

In order to allow for full keyboard navigation of all focusable interactive elements in macOS Safari and Firefox, you'll need to make sure the following keyboard settings are adjusted.

By default, Apple computers have an operating system (OS) level setting that limits the Tab key to 'Text boxes and lists only'. This can be confusing, if not frustrating, for those unaware of this setting and expect keyboard focus to be similar to navigating on a Windows machine.

'All Controls' in macOS

Enable 'All Controls' in macOS Settings

In the macOS settings, the 'All Controls' setting must be enabled for all focusable interactive elements (for instance, links) to be keyboard accessible via the Tab key alone. Enable this feature by going to:

System Preferences
Keyboard
Shortcuts (tab)
macOS Catalina: Select 'Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls' (check box). macOS pre-Catalina: Select 'All controls' (radio button). Alternatively, in any macOS version, press Control + F7 (if you're on a laptop you may also need to press the fn key).

After updating this setting you will need to quit and restart your browsers to have the update take effect.

Enable All Controls via Terminal

Run the following command in Terminal to enable keyboard control at the macOS level. This command can be helpful if your organization uses a config script for new employee machines!

Browser settings to enable full keyboard navigation

Highlight each item in Safari

Additionally for Safari, you can enable the 'highlighting of each item' setting in order to use the Tab key to navigate page controls. Enable this feature by going to Safari's:

Preferences
Advanced (tab)
Check 'Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage' (checkbox)

With these changed settings in place you should now be able to use the Tab key to navigate around web pages as expected.

Highlight each item in Chrome

Just like in Safari, a similar setting is available in Chrome. Verify that this feature is enabled by going to Chrome's:

Settings
Appearance
Check 'Pressing Tab on a webpage highlights links, as well as form fields' (switch)

Highlight each item in Firefox

Unlike Safari and Chrome, Firefox does not have an option in the settings page for enabling full keyboard control. However, when the 'All Controls' setting is enabled in macOS, Firefox may still not send focus to links using the tab key. There is a way to enable keyboard focus of links using advanced configuration options.

Note: When accessibility.tabfocus is set, some forms created with non-semantic HTML elements can behave oddly. For example, the GitHub Gist code editor. If non-semantic HTML elements are inexplicably inaccessible, try resetting this option.

To enable

Open a new tab and go to about:config
Right Click and select New > Integer
Enter the preference name accessibility.tabfocus. Click OK.
Enter the number 7. Click OK.

Firefox For Mac Os Catalina

To reset

Firefox Mac Catalina Crash

Open a new tab and go to about:config
Find the accessibility.tabfocus preference row. (tip: use search field at top of page)
Right Click on the row and select Reset
Restart Firefox

This post was last updated on by Erin Olmon.

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