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Firefox forces https for google

  • 12 replies
  • 62 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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When I type http://www.google.co.uk firefox rewrites it as https://www.google.co.uk (this is problem for me as on my network https are blocked by default for content filtering purposes).

Until a few days ago this was not the case, but I seem to have visited the https version of the site once, and now no matter what I do firefox redirects there. Well actually sometimes it doesn't; sometimes I load the browser and http google loads fine, but then the next time it's oddly trying https again and nothing can shift it. I don't understand why it seems to sporadically use http and https.

I'm using Firefox 23.0 and Ubuntu 12.04.

I've tried a number of things so far: 1) setting browser.urlbar.autoFill false, browser.urlbar.autoFill.typed false, browser.formfill.saveHttpsForms false 2) clearing *everything* from history 3) reseting firefox and safe mode 4) deleting all the profile data in .mozzilla folder and creating a new profile.

How can I fix this so that firefox just loads http google?

When I type http://www.google.co.uk firefox rewrites it as https://www.google.co.uk (this is problem for me as on my network https are blocked by default for content filtering purposes). Until a few days ago this was not the case, but I seem to have visited the https version of the site once, and now no matter what I do firefox redirects there. Well actually sometimes it doesn't; sometimes I load the browser and http google loads fine, but then the next time it's oddly trying https again and nothing can shift it. I don't understand why it seems to sporadically use http and https. I'm using Firefox 23.0 and Ubuntu 12.04. I've tried a number of things so far: 1) setting browser.urlbar.autoFill false, browser.urlbar.autoFill.typed false, browser.formfill.saveHttpsForms false 2) clearing *everything* from history 3) reseting firefox and safe mode 4) deleting all the profile data in .mozzilla folder and creating a new profile. How can I fix this so that firefox just loads http google?

All Replies (12)

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Firefox or other browsers can't change that. Google always uses https now, because it's more secure. http://www.google.co.uk redirects to https://www.google.co.uk. HTTPS must get allowed in your network or you have to use something like http://www.bing.com.

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What since 5 days ago?

Then why does firefox load http google sporadically just fine for me now? If I restart the browser enough times, I seem to get http google just fine. Right now I have it open in the other tab. It's just that it seems to do the redirect to https 90% of the time too.

Surely it's not a coincidence that this was working just fine (i.e. http google without redirect) up until a few days ago when I visted the https site? Also I noticed in "about:config" that despite removing the https_everywhere extension (and removing its folder from .mozilla) some references to it remain such as "extensions.https_everywhere.4sevens true", but "extensions.https_everywhere.Google Search default string" hmm....

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as long as you're logged into an account, google will always provide a secure connection.

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@philipp I'm not logged in.

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does it work when you clear all cookies and try to access nosslsearch.google.com?

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@philipp: Strangely not. If I type that it still redirects me to `https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=cr&ei=8PA1Ur6MI-K47Aal24HQDg'

It's the inconsistency that I find so strange. Why does http google load fine on some sessions (and then seems to work fine if I open tabs to google or anything else in that session). But then when I close firefox and open it later I'm back to constantly being redirected to https no matter what I do.

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Similar recent thread: Google search plugin redirects to https. It wasn't solved. The user investigated a redirect script solution but the rule didn't work and the helper in that forum suggested redirecting to google.com instead (Script to prevent Google redirect to https - Userscripts.org). So, also, not solved there.

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@jscher2000 yes that looks very similar indeed to my problem, especially how it didn't seem to happen everytime but often enough to be very annoying. The man difference is I believe that user was using the search plugin bar, whereas I am typing http://www.google.co.uk directly into the url bar and getting the redirect.

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I have this same issue and I thought it was a FF bug. But my issue gets worse. Everytime I am on http-google and click on a search result, then hit my back button (or mouse back or keyboard backspace) I get a blank page with just the Google header. When I refresh the page I get my search results back and I am now in HTTPS-google.

I can confirm that the 302 & 304 redirect took place. So am I to understand that this is not FF doing this behavior and it's Google redirecting me. I am not logged in to any google products and I am refusing all cookies, just as a FYI.

If this is Google redirecting, how can I tell the browser to ignore that redirect.

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Thanks for the help, I found that this thread in bugs has been the only help so far.


https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=908446 [Bug 908446] Google search pages blank with use of back button

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In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:

  • all extensions are disabled
  • default theme is used (no persona)
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored
  • default toolbar layout is used (localstore-safe.rdf)
  • Javascript JIT compilers are disabled (javascript.options.*jit)
  • hardware acceleration is disabled
  • plugins are not affected
  • preferences are not affected

You can try to disable the JavaScript JIT compile by setting the javascript.options.*jit prefs to false on the about:config page.

  • javascript.options.baselinejit.chrome
  • javascript.options.baselinejit.content