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IE9 Browser Back button not working ?

It has become a common nuisance to have problems backing out of websites by hitting the back button (or your mouse back button, ALT+Left Arrow, Backspace, etc.) in IE9, and sometimes IE8. It is often related to interstitial google ads/tracking pages in the browser's history.

If this is a persistent behavior for all sites, it may be linked to spyware, or rogue Browser Add-ons. You should scan your computer for spyware, make sure your anti-virus software is active/current, and disable all Add-ons (temproraily) to troubleshoot.

More often, this behavior only happens with some sites, and it is related to interstitial page ads and other intermediate pages added in the back queue. In such cases, you can sometimes hit the back button multiple times to wade through them and eventually get to the previous site's URL. To identify this issue, right-click on the back arrow in your browser and note the list of links, look for known ad-serving/tracking/analytics domains, such as "view.atdmt.com", or "g.doubleclick.net". Note that the list is ordered in reverse chronological order, with the top-most links being the most recent.

To correct this annoyance, you can add the offending ad pages to your browser's "Restricted Sites" under:

Intenret Explorer > Tools > Internet Options > "Security" tab > "Restricted Sites" > add:
view.atdmt.com (you can also add *.g.doubleclick.net, bid.g.doubleclick.net, or whatever offending pages you'd like to skip in your browser history)

Another option that seems to help under Internet Explorer is:
1) Navigate to Settings > Manage Add Ons > Tracking Protection
2) Right click and enable "Personalized List"
3) Choose "Settings for this list" (or double-click your "Personalized List")
4) Choose "Automatically Block" radio button and click Ok


Alternatively, you can add a "Tracking protection list" to resolve the issue as well. Note this list is somewhat aggressive, in that it adds a number of subdomains and brakes many ads as a side-effect:
Navigate to http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/browser/p3p/, and choose the "Block third-party Google site tracking" button.


Notes: Restricting *.g.doubleclick.net (or variations of it, such as https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net) may have a negative impact on displaying Google AdSense ads.
Restricting some sites may cause a warning message while displaying pages: "Add-on for this website failed to run. Check security settings for conflict".
Domains you'd like to skip can also be added to the Windows hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) with a local IP, one domain per line as follows: 127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net


  User Reviews/Comments:
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by lambch0p - 2012-11-08 03:34
Tracking protection lists are what you need for IE9.

Go here:

http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/browser/p3p/

And select the big blue 'Block third-party Google site tracking' square.

This puts a tracking protection list into IE that stops the Google Ads from making your back button go Wonky.

Mick
by anonymous - 2013-02-06 14:18
Top Tip!
Worked a treat, thanks.
by anonymous - 2013-04-24 16:07
Thanks for posting about TPLs, Mick!
by St8kout - 2013-04-27 12:16
Outstanding tip using http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/browser/p3p/

That was driving me nuts while trying to shop on Amazon and elsewhere, or even using Google search. Sometimes it would lose all my history and the back button would go dark after clicking a few links. I even reinstalled Win 7 only to have it start up again.
by anonymous - 2013-08-15 15:05
How ironic. I couldn't back out of this page.
by anonymous - 2013-10-05 13:56
Worked instantly, thanks for the link!
by darthalie - 2013-12-10 01:22
Having to double-click ALL the time to get back from any page was driving me mad!!! Thank you so much for the information on this page. It worked instantly!!! :)
by christine - 2014-03-15 21:32
the link for posted on these comments worked a treat THANK YOU
by anonymous - 2014-11-28 22:37
Finally after hours of searching! Bravo. Fixed my back button problem
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