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knotjoe

Navigation Button Solution for (some) iPhones

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Notorious FTF thread nav buttons work just fine on my 2015 MBP (OS X El Capitan 10.11.6) and 2015 iPhone 6 (12.4.8) with one press taking it to the next page.  With my new iPhone SE (13.6.1), no dice. 😖

Here’s what does work and it’s only one extra screen action to get to the next page. It’s similar to the cut/copy/paste press & menu option on text, but when you do it over a “potentially functional” navigation button it gives you different pop-up menu options.  See below...

SEnav1.jpg.33bee6784def6f26596e2909574a9179.jpg

SEnav2.thumb.jpg.df586fbec413eebb33bff6f62453c204.jpg

This is much easier to do than going back to the topic list and selecting the next page number to read.  Also give ability to flip back & forth between pages easily because tabs stay open on iPhone, something we do on occasion when crafting a comment or response.   

So give it a shot if you are encountering nav button issues, gents.  Can’t speak for any other devices or OS capabilities, but I suspect most of them have features of similar nature and may provide a simple workaround.  The FTF nav buttons probably work on many if not all systems/devices, just not always on one direct click.  We may have to use hover (or click, click&hold, etc) to get a menu pop-up for opening in a new tab depending on device.

One caveat is that you will open many extra tabs in the background using this technique, but FTF tabs are rather polite and don’t try to stay live and drain battery like some ad heavy background tabs do elsewhere on the web.  One can clear individually with the corner X’s or just hold tab key (lower corner of screen) and clear all at once when done browsing.

Test your stuff and report back here to help others if you are inclined, never hurts to list device and current OS while doing so.

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I don't use a phone to do any surfing/site visiting, so this is interesting information.  Thank you for figuring it out and sharing.

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Nice knotjoe! It works. You can also just press and hold the page number you want and the window for a new tab will open. Mine says open in background but that's the same as a new tab. Thanks.

 

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i have an iphone 11

i just have to tap on the "NEXT" button in the upper right hand corner and it goes to the next page without having to go to the "open in new tab" which can be done but not necessary

i can also tap on the "PREV" button in the upper left hand corner and it goes back to previous pages

i can also tap on the ">>" button next to "NEXT" and it takes me to the last page of the particular thread. same with the "<<" button next to "PREV" and it takes me back to the first page of the thread

i can also use the same buttons at the bottom of the page to do the same thing as the buttons at the top of the page

the only thing missing on the my iphone version are the page numbers like the desktop version has

pages.jpg

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Yes, this works on Android phones also.  I think that the navigation problems have little to do with a phones OS, but more likely the culprit is the mobile network type (TLE, 4G, 5G) to which the phone is connected at the moment.  See @knotjoe's first screen shot in the top left where his ATT network is LTE technology, a precursor to 4G.  The older LTE technology cannot handle the same capacity of the newer mobile network technologies (even if the phone's OS can), and hence, some operational abilities are reduce. At least, that is what I notice on my Android phone, and that is what I understand when my son tries to explain it to me.  When connected to an LTE network, I need to do what @knotjoe describes.  When connected to a non-LTE network, everything works properly.    This is my experience, anyway.  

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i just shut of the "wi-fi" setting on my iphone and now on "LTE" and there was no difference in using all of the buttons mentioned

my cell phone carrier is Consumer Cellular. probably doesnt make any difference

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@flytire, I'm not really sure either, that's just how I understood it when my son tried to explain it to me.  I know it happens sometimes on my Android phone, usually when the LTE signal is present, so I just use the long press to open in a new tab when it does.  Its not really an issue for me.     

 

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signal strength may also slow down the LTE connection

the first photo show only 1 bar and its the weakest/slowest of the 4 bars

when i'm at home and with "wi-fi" turned off, my iphone shows 2 bars

maybe @knotjoe should try "wi-fi" at home if he has a connection or somewhere there is a connection to "wi-fi" to see if the buttons work without going to a new tab

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11 hours ago, flytire said:

i just shut of the "wi-fi" setting on my iphone and now on "LTE" and there was no difference in using all of the buttons mentioned

my cell phone carrier is Consumer Cellular. probably doesnt make any difference

Yeah, same here and it's the first thing I did when I bought the new phone just to see if the connection is the difference.  It's appears to be the iPhoneSE, the MBP and iPhone6 described in opening post still work without the process described above.  Apple phones differ a surprising bit in how they do things. Some of this might be a quirk in the latest Safari and may very well correct itself or be different in the next software update.

Now, I do know what niveker speaks of because I have several hotspots (cellular) and some MVNO's do have quirks with them which can alter website appearance and function quite a bit.  For awhile, I had to drop MTU on MBP settings from 1500/auto to 1492 or some lower number to even get the connection to work in this part of the country with ST hotspot.

With any tech gadgets, I'm always looking for a bag of tricks to deal with whatever strangeness comes up next.  And there's always something.🙄  

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12 hours ago, niveker said:

@flytire, I'm not really sure either, that's just how I understood it when my son tried to explain it to me.  I know it happens sometimes on my Android phone, usually when the LTE signal is present, so I just use the long press to open in a new tab when it does.  

Yeah.  I just briefly had a spell where the iPhoneSE worked perfectly well on the nav buttons without the extra menu move. 
 

The new SE seems to handle same signal strength much differently than the old iPhone6 or any cell hotspots do. The bar reading looks same, but this new phone/OS definitely prefers a bit more in signal quality.  Looks like a combination of both phone & signal now.

Thanks for the input and suggestions, guys.  It explains what I’m seeing on the various combinations and why the devices may differ on same signal.

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I just discovered another discovery. I still can't navigate from page to page with any of the navigation buttons except by holding down the page number and opening another page in the background. The new discovery is once I'm on the new page opened in the background I can cycle through all the different pages just by tapping the page number. Don't ask me why. 

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