Bug 262542 – history.back() does not restore scroll position

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: INVALID
• Component: History

[Christian Taylor]

When navigating back to a long page using `history.back()` or `history.go(-1)` the browser returns to the page and resets the scroll position to `0`.
However, performing the same navigation using the browser's "back" button restores the scroll position on the previous page.
I would expect `history.back()` to behave the same as clicking the back button and restore the previous page's scroll position.

[Simon Fraser (smfr)]

Do you have an example of a page that shows this bug?

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/116408614>

[Christian Taylor]

Ah, I put together a demo and found an explanation.

My link markup looked like this:

`<a href="/previous" onclick="history.back()">Back</a>`

I realized `back()` is asynchronous so the `href` is being followed as though the link were clicked.

If I change the `onclick` to `event.preventDefault();history.back()` things work as I would expect.

I was thrown off because `onclick="history.back()"` works in FireFox without needing the `preventDefault()`.

I think this report can be closed. Thanks for letting me rubber duck this issue.

[Simon Fraser (smfr)]

Thank you for checking.