A bug in the Vivaldi browser disables the back and forward buttons if you open a new window

An unusual bug has been discovered in the Vivaldi browser. The annoyance is causing the back button to become unusable, but only if you open a new window.

If you’re the kind of person who opens multiple browser windows to keep things organized, you may have already noticed this problem. Don’t worry, it’s not just you. I read it when a user reported the bug on reddit and others replying to the thread echoed that they were able to reproduce the issue as described.

The complaint was that Vivaldi’s back button turned gray in a background window, when the user opened a new window after clicking a link on their secondary monitor. Since I use Vivaldi as my secondary browser, I was intrigued by this and wanted to check if it happens on my computer. You can try it too. Open Vivaldi, visit a couple of web pages in the same tab. Now open a second window. Go back to the first window and you will see that the back button is not clickable.

While that confirms that the bug exists, it’s not really limited to multiple monitors like the user said. I was able to reproduce this problem with a single monitor. And it’s not just the back button that’s affected, the bug disables the forward, rewind, and fast-forward buttons. The reload and home buttons appear to be unaffected by the issue, although a couple of users on the Vivaldi community forums claim otherwise. I also noticed that the problem is not specific to scenarios where you open a new window, but also when you switch between two windows, you have to click inside the window; otherwise it may appear to be normal.

This can be a minor hindrance because it doesn’t actually restrict your browsing session. It’s more of a glitch than a broken feature. The good news is that you can access previously visited pages with the help of keyboard shortcuts or right-clicking on buttons. Let me explain, if you use the hotkeys to go back or forward (backspace or Alt + left arrow, Alt + right arrow, etc.), Vivaldi will go back or forward to the corresponding page. When you do this, the buttons will be used again. Alternatively, you can just open a new tab in the first window and close it to reactivate the navigation buttons. It’s really strange, isn’t it?

The problem with these solutions is that the navigation buttons in the other window are disabled, so it’s like an endless loop. A user in the forum thread I linked above says that their reload button also became unusable, but I don’t have this problem.

The bug exists in Vivaldi 5.0.2497.35, which is the latest version available on the stable channel. What’s even more unusual is that these issues were reported over a month ago, well before the holiday season, but have yet to be addressed. Even the most recent Snapshot build, 5.1.2526.3, which was released two weeks after said user reports, has the same bug.

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