Hi mlbirk, I'm sorry to hear about this problem.

There was a search problem with Firefox 78.0 that was fixed in Firefox 78.0.1. Can you quickly double-check your version? It should be listed near the top of the Troubleshooting Information page. To open that, either

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the first table on the page, look for the Version row.

Also, does any other kind of navigation work, for example:

• Address bar in new tab (Ctrl+t) or new window (Ctrl+n)
• Search box in the new tab page
• Bookmarked site

I just found that if I type the complete address ie. (http/www.sitename.com) that the bar will then work. Is there a way to return to not needing to type in the whole address?

The current version is 78.0.1 (64-bit) The issue is apparent with all new tabs, new windows. I can use the search box to get a link to the url ie. search for Amazon and click on the Amazon link. I just found that if I type the complete address ie. (http/www.amazon.com) that the bar will then work. Is there a way to return to not needing to type in the whole address?

Hi mlbirk, I'm not sure exactly what is broken, but it sounds similar to the Firefox 78.0 bug. I need to research whether there are particular files you might need to remove to fix this problem.

hello

mlbirk,

follow the steps and instructions to resolved your problem:

1. Restart your computer. Sometimes problems can be fixed by simply restarting your computer and then starting Firefox again.
2. Clear your cookies and cache. ...
3. Restart Firefox in Safe Mode. ...
4. Reinstall Firefox.
5. Refresh Firefox

1. Clear all cookies, site data and cache

• Click the ≡ menu button top right and select Options.
• Select the Privacy & Security panel and go to the Cookies and Site Data section.
• Click the Clear Data… button. The Clear Data dialog will appear. ...
• Click Clear.

2) Restart Firefox in Safe Mode. ...

• Click the ≡ menu button top right and select Help
• Restart with Add-ons Disabled Firefox will start up with the Firefox Safe Mode dialog.
• Note: You can also start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the shift key while starting Firefox.

3)  Reinstall Firefox. 

1. Download and save the installer for the latest official version of Firefox from mozilla.org.
2. Exit Firefox (if open): Click the Firefox menu Fx57Menu and select Exit.
3. Uninstall Firefox from your computer.
4. Delete the Firefox program folder, which is located in one of these locations by default:

• C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

1. Reinstall Firefox using the installer you downloaded earlier - see How to download and install Firefox on Windows for instructions.

1. Now start Firefox and check to see if your problem has been fixed. If it hasn't, continue with the next troubleshooting method.

for more information visit the below link:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems

i hope resolved your problem then reply back to me.

thank you

Hi mlbirk, could you check this preference:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste modern and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If the browser.search.modernConfig preference has a value of true, double-click it to switch it to false

Then try a regular exit and restart of Firefox to see whether it makes any difference.

If that was already false, then there may be a storage problem. This site offers a diagnostic tool:

https://firefox-storage-test.glitch.me/

• In a regular window, it should report Good for all 4 categories
• In a private window, it should report Good Good Bad Bad

Thank you for your assistance. I checked the browser.search.modernconfig nd it is set to "false" currently. I checked the link that you provided and it does show "good" for all categories.

I will try the suggestion listed prior however, the issue actually presented itself after I restarted my computer this morning. I shut it down and the restarted it. I have tried "refreshing" Firefox to no avail.

I am concerned about losing all of my saved passwords and auto-fill information if I were to uninstall and then reinstall Firefox. There doesn't seem to be a way to download the information stored that I am aware of.

I have tried all of the following and it has not fixed the issue. I fear losing saved passwords and autofill if I uninstall and reinstall Firefox. Is there a way to save that information and get it back upon a reinstall?

follow the steps and instructions to resolved your problem:

   Restart your computer. Sometimes problems can be fixed by simply restarting your computer and then starting Firefox again.
   Clear your cookies and cache. ...
   Restart Firefox in Safe Mode. ...
   Reinstall Firefox.
   Refresh Firefox 

   Clear all cookies, site data and cache 

   Click the ≡ menu button top right and select Options.
   Select the Privacy & Security panel and go to the Cookies and Site Data section.
   Click the Clear Data… button. The Clear Data dialog will appear. ...
   Click Clear. 

2) Restart Firefox in Safe Mode. ...

   Click the ≡ menu button top right and select Help
   Restart with Add-ons Disabled Firefox will start up with the Firefox Safe Mode dialog.
   Note: You can also start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the shift key while starting Firefox.

Hi mlbirk, thank you for testing that. Does this make any difference:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to test the address bar.

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Make a mental note of the currently active profile, it has This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted. below its name.

Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like July2020, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Launch profile in new browser button.

Firefox should open a new window that looks like a brand new, uncustomized installation. (Your existing Firefox window(s) should not be affected.) Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system so we can get a clean test.

Does the address bar work any better in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, you can close the extra window without affecting your regular Firefox profile. (July2020 will remain available for future testing.)

IMPORTANT: Creating a new profile probably changed your default. If your regular profile has a Set as Default Profile button after this test, click that to make sure your next startup doesn't yield a surprise.

jscher2000 Thank you for your suggestion. The step you outlined did work and the July2020 profile browser worked just fine. The address bar works as it should.

I actually now have 5 different profiles;

Profile: default-1478534000593 This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted.

Profile: default-release

Profile: Default User

Profile: MLbirk

Profile: July2020

When I follow your instructions to open each of the other profiles in a new browser all seems to work just fine. So now my question is whether or not I can set one of the other profiles as the default? If so will I still retain my autofill and saved password information under the new profile?

Do all profiles still have your previous personal data ?

You may have to transfer some personal data from the "Old Firefox Data" folder (a refresh moves the profile to this folder) on the desktop to the current profile folder to recover specific data.

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• favicons: favicons.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
  Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data