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I did a refresh because Firefox was getting very slow. Now I have no search capabilites.

  • 4 ردود
  • 1 has this problem
  • 9 views
  • آخر ردّ كتبه cor-el

paulgraz
paulgraz
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Firefox ver 38 (now upgraded to 39) on Windows 7 Pro - it was getting very slow, so I did an plug in check - updated all out of date plugs ins. No help. Then I did a refresh - and that's when the big problems started: -Search window does nothing. I can't even set a search provider. -No more ability to highlight text, right click, and choose "Search google for..." That option doesn't appear on the menu. -In New Tab page, the search field does nothing. -Some right click menus are HUGE and yet are missing basic options like "copy" -Often, ctrl-c and ctrl-v wont work either. -Choosing "Open link in new tab" or "open link in new window" no longer work.

I've never had a refresh make such a mess before. Help!

Firefox ver 38 (now upgraded to 39) on Windows 7 Pro - it was getting very slow, so I did an plug in check - updated all out of date plugs ins. No help. Then I did a refresh - and that's when the big problems started: -Search window does nothing. I can't even set a search provider. -No more ability to highlight text, right click, and choose "Search google for..." That option doesn't appear on the menu. -In New Tab page, the search field does nothing. -Some right click menus are HUGE and yet are missing basic options like "copy" -Often, ctrl-c and ctrl-v wont work either. -Choosing "Open link in new tab" or "open link in new window" no longer work. I've never had a refresh make such a mess before. Help!

All Replies (4)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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hi paulgraz, this is likely happening because something on your system has overwritten all the default search providers in firefox. in order to recover please download and reinstall firefox from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

since this is a behaviour often caused by adware on a system, please also run a full scan of your system with different security tools like the free version of malwarebytes and adwcleaner.

Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

paulgraz
paulgraz صاحب السؤال
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Thanks Phillip. I've been scanning and cleaning with malwarebytes weekly. I'll try adwcleaner too.

Do I have to uninstall my existing FF first - or just run the install?

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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It'll be enough to run the installer on top of your current installation.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You can check if you have the XML files of the default search engines including Google in the browser\searchplugins folder in the Firefox program folder.

If not then you need to reinstall Firefox.

Try to delete the search.json file and possible search-metadata.json and search.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.