Hmmm...i didn't reproduce the same problem.
May i know the OS and service packs which you are using...i try to reproduce the 
whole scenario.

Windows XP Pro
Version 2002 
Service Pack 2

Oh, one more thing. If I came straight to gmail, then the back function is disabled.

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The back button does behave oddly in gmail.

If you open an email, open another, and so on then try and use the back button 
nothing will happen till you go back far enough for the loading gmail page.

seems to be fixed?

Works for me okay on 2.0.181.1

this is no longer working for me
i am now using 3.0.183.1 (Official Build 17570)

i entered some site
entered gmail.com
logged it (make sure you are logged out first...)
opened a message and hit back

after pressing back a useless entry was added to my history page and that back attempt did basically nothing...

I really think Issue 2801, Issue 9649 and  Issue 13255  are all duplicates of this bug. 
Same exact symptoms, same exact behaviour. If it was fixed at one time, then it has 
shown up again as a regression in the 3.x builds.

It's a very inconsistent bug - sometimes the button goes back sometimes it doesn't...

seems to work with safari
but broken in chrome 3.0.192.0 (Developer Build 19907)

This is working for me on a recent trunk build (3.0.193.0 (Developer Build 20147)).

mark, this is still not fixed using 3.0.193.0 (Developer Build 20230)

sometimes it is functioning fine, but most of the times it does not

1. i log off the google acocunt
2. visit sime site and then navigate to gmail.com
3. log-in
4. open a some message in the inbox

the URL should be something like
https://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=g79erdktl08l&shva=1#inbox/1225ca5334efa8cf

press back once- nothing happens except the omnibox which will change to be something 
like
https://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=g79erdktl08l&shva=1#

press back again- nothing happens except the omnibox which will change to be something 
like
https://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=g79erdktl08l&shva=1

press back again- the inbox will finally show.
there will be some redirection in the way but the final omnibox string will now be 
something like
https://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=g79erdktl08l&shva=1#inbox

On my 3.0.192.1 (Official Build 20012), the procedure described by you works as 
expected.
1. gmail.com
2. Sign off
3. gmx.de
4. gmail.com
5. Sign in
6. (Inbox) First message
7. Back button -> Inbox
8. (Inbox) Second message
9. Back button -> Inbox

The back button actions take a while to load the inbox, but the inbox is being shown 
and the URL in the inbox is correct (https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox).

you should try more than once
sometimes it works for me too
usually, it doesn't

i can confirm it is still broken with chrome 3.0.194.0 (Developer Build 20455)

anothre test using 3.0.194.0 (Developer Build 20455)
starting url (viewing a messgage): 
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/1226808f7ac464bb

every line represent the line in the omnibox after another back click, i waited a few 
seconds between every back click

http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox
*finally reached the inbox - it showed the loading page and then the inbox*

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Safari seems to have similar problems, though the behavior on both browsers is a bit 
unpredicatable. I've repro'd a couple of times on a public Gmail account, but then 
after a few times seeing the bug, everything works fine.

Assigning to Dimitri to look for an owner.

Anantha, can you help with a reduction-finding?

I'm not sure Anantha's team will be able to make much progress here because the Gmail 
case is (a) so complicated and (b) not reliable.

Maybe we need to get help from someone on the Gmail team.

See Issue 2801 for an always-reproducible example. Should be the same problem.

Issue 2801 may not be same issue as navigation history doesn't get recorded.

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b/1963879 appears to be the same issue.

3.0.193.1 here, same issue.

It appears to be caused by navigation that is initiated by a javascript event as 
opposed to clicking on a regular link.

 Issue 19478  has been merged into this issue.

Similar thing happens to me... When I click on some message on gtalk (when i get
popup notification with short preview of message), I am redirected to gmail site with
complete message, but when i click on "inbox" from there nothing happens, and it is
supposed to send me to the inbox...

Only way to get directly in the inbox is to click "inbox" in gtalk context menu...

Pete Higgins and I have noticed this problem as well. Chrome and Chromium seem to be 'dropping' history 
entries when pages are navigated to via JavaScript. This is a very basic example where the issue shows up 
sporadically. I've personally seen it happen in the latest Chrome 3 under Windows on 2 machines.

http://benalman.com/code/test/js-back-button-test.html

- Ben

Karen will be handling WebKit issues.  I am moving myself off of being an 
owner of this issue.  She may want to handle these differently so I am 
setting the status as untriaged.

If from inbox one opens an email, and clicking the back button fails to return to the 
inbox, highlight the URL and append 'inbox' (minus quotes) after the # character.  
Subsequently other opened emails behave correctly and allow the back button to return 
the user to the previously viewed page.  This was tested on XP sp3 and Chrome 
3.0.195.21.

This seems to be lot better in 4.0.219.3 (Ubuntu build 27181).  I have not yet seen 
back button not work correctly in latest...but would have to play around more to say 
for sure this is not an issue anymore.

has anyone been able to reproduce this on PC or Mac?

@Karen,
Yes I can reproduce this on Chrome 3 stable (PC). The test page that Ben left above is 
a great demonstration of this bug:
http://benalman.com/code/test/jquery-bbq/back-button-test/

paul, when i tried that example all the entries did show up in my history. i'm using the 
mac version. does it break consistently for you?

Karen, it breaks inconsistently and sporadically, but it certainly does break. I've seen it happen on multiple 
machines, but cannot detect anything that causes the problem to happen. The problem definitely exists. All I can 
suggest is to have different people try my test page on different machines, and ask them to report any 
inconsistent behavior.

I have also tried the back-button-test page and it seems to work correctly for me on 
windows (4.0.213.1) and Linux (4.0.219.4 (Ubuntu build 27360)).

I know I had seen issues with gmail back button before, but I have not seen it in past 
week or so.  I have not idea what changed but it seems to be working pretty good for 
me now.

More info...I think I can reproduce the back-button-test by:

1) Copy the test URL: http://benalman.com/code/test/jquery-bbq/back-button-test
2) Open new tab
3) Paste the URL
4) Click the "Add ten history entries" link as fast as you can.  You can check the 
history and notice the all entries are not added.
5) If you still can't reproduce, close the tab and redo all the steps.

It seems like there might be a race condition maybe.  It seems like history gets 
added correctly if you wait little while after visiting the page.  Depending on how 
long you wait...I have seen history being added starting from 5 or 8...seems like I 
need to wait like 6 seconds after page is done loading and then links will be added 
correctly.

I can also confirm this issue on XP (Chrome 3.0.195.25), Vista/Win7 (both 3.0.195.25 and 4.0.221.6). It 
is definitely sporadic; very unreliable, however it happens very frequently. gke appears to have a good 
way of reproducing... it seems more likely to happen right after loading the benalman page (does not 
appear to require a fresh tab, simply refresh the page with no hash value and click the button straight 
away). When I do this none of the hashes except #10, the last one, gets a history entry. Clicking back 
takes me straight back to the no hash page. Immediately after reaching #10 clicking the button again 
does add all 10 entries to the history.

The only reason I can think of that a bug like this can happen sporadically is for there to be some 
sort of multi threading synchronization issue; some resource(s) is/are not being locked correctly.

Best of luck to the developers!

 Issue 23900  has been merged into this issue.

This has been happening for most of the time that I've been using Chrome and GMAIL 
(ie - the back button not functioning as expected)...quite annoying and very 
surprising considering I see Google as the top for usability in web sites.

I am using Windows 7, Chrome 3.0.109. I mainly notice the issue when I

1)Open up an email via Inbox
2)Click back
Outcome: Nothing happens

Please fix it, other than this annoying issue, Chrome and Gmail are fantastic. Hope 
my post helps Google resolve this issue

I am not sure what to do here this is working for me seamlessly each time i try it....

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Does Milestone-X indicate that the this issue is not fixed to a milestone and until it gets assigned to 
an actual milestone it's completion date is indefinite? I was so excited when it had been scheduled for 
version 4 release.

This is the one major issue I've experienced with this browser and given how many developers are using 
GWT, it just seems silly that this browser will continue to be unlikely to support history within GWT 
apps.

milestone X just means that it won't get done in the current milestone (mstone 4 for 
which the deadline was last friday). When we sit to plan mstone 5, we will move bugs 
back from X. :)

I have found in internet explorer 7 the issue is ... open email in gmail.  click 
back button, and nothing happens.  till you get back out to the page you were on 
before you signed on to email.  I have also found a somewhat annoying solution.  I 
notice the address in the address bar will show the inbox but the web page does not 
change.  I select the f5 refesh button and ... walla... the page is now back to the 
inbox. 
It appears the issue is a refresh page issue .. not sure as I am not a software 
developer or designer.  I am a hardware, os specialist.  MCSA.
I hope this helps you guys