Action buttons unresponsive when coming back from node preview

I was able to reproduce this—once. On subsequent tries the problem didn't occur. That's odd.

Hi, I’m able to reproduce this issue across multiple browsers and in a fresh Drupal 10.3.2 installation, following the steps mentioned in the issue summary. Here’s what I found:

1. The issue occurs consistently in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari in both node edit and node add scenarios.
2. No JavaScript errors or network issues were observed in developer tools, and there are no relevant entries in the "Recent log messages".

I’ve attached recordings showing the issue occurring in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. If there are any further steps we should take or additional information needed, kindly please let me know.

Thanks!

No JavaScript errors or network issues were observed in developer tools

That got me wondering... If I turn off Javascript in Firefox and then visit the node form, click "Preview", then use the browser's back button, the action buttons retain their functionality.

On a whim, I've also tried turning off CSS and JS aggregation. Doing so doesn't seem to fix anything. Doesn't hurt to try.

We have some clients reporting this issue, saying the form was broken.

If you refresh, the form should keep your input and allow you to save.

However, if you change your input after previewing/clicking browser back button, then refresh, those will be lost.

Autocomplete entity reference fields keep their values after refresh, but text input does not.

Changes are made on on 11.x (our main development branch) first, and are then back ported as needed according to our policies.

Confirmed via manual testing this is still an issue.

Testing this again, it also happens with the Save button and isn't specific to nodes (try blocks for example). I think this is browser behaviour more than anything. Preview gives you a link to go back under the toolbar which should be used.

Also changing anything in the form (e.g clicking into the body and typing) will allow submission after using the back button in the browser.

Not sure there's anything we can do on the Drupal side to fix this.

This is a UX issue. I'm still hopeful that something can be improved.

I did not know that you could modify the body or another field and then click save, that is working for me.

Is it possible to put an alert on the preview page when you click back?

Is it possible to check on the entity form if you've used the browser navigation to get here (I've never looked into this). There might be some indicator we could check.

The "Back to content editing" link should be a supplement, not a replacement for the browser's back button.

Modifying content to re-enable the Save button is of little help as it requires the user to save something other than what they've previewed.

In any case, expecting an end-user to navigate these nuances is at best impractical.