Firefox Community Forum

In a few previous updates, FF keeps messing around with the New Tab layout, ruining its previous good look. I learned to revert it back to its former setting by disabling browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.newtabLayouts.variant-a and also browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.newtabLayouts.variant-b in about:config.

Now in Firefox 141, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.newtabLayouts.variant-a has completely disappeared, no more allowing the poor user to get the look he wants.

Why? Am I missing something? What is the use of making the product worse or less user friendly?

I had to actually sign up fort a Mozilla account,the multiple hoops I had to jump through were ridicules, in order to ask a question of Firefox. I do not want my address bar to be my search engine. How do I disable the search engine in my address bar? And now I have to wait for an answer!!!!!!!! I used to love and trust Firefox. Not anymore.

I deleted all the shortcuts from Firefox desktop browser's homepage and now I cannot add them back.

There are no blank shortcut icons on the page anymore. No setting to enable them. Shortcuts are enabled. Page is mostly blank, only has Firefox icon.

I tried to close and open Firefox as well as disabling and enabling the shortcut setting. Adding more rows did not do anything.

Before this issue occurred, I had one shortcut on the page that was linking to localhost. I opened the edit window to the shortcut and pasted the same address and saved changes. After that I removed the shortcut. All of the blank tiles immediately got removed from page and I had no way of adding more shortcuts.

The AccuWeather part of the Firefox homepage says I'm in Portland, Oregon, USA, but I'm not even in the same country. I tried to change it according to the directions I found earlier, but the only drop-down for my city was another city in the US but none in any other countries. So now I can't change my location. How do I change my location? It wasn't like this yesterday and I have no memory as to how it became "Portland, Oregon" since last night. I don't even have a VPN so it isn't that. How do I change it back to my area without using my exact location?

I'm on Linux.

I've been using this method to setup a custom new tab page for Firefox for almost 4 years, and it has worked great: https://jamesnorth.net/knowledge-base/article/firefox-new-tab-page

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Navigate to /usr/lib/firefox.

Create autoconfig.cfg:

// var {classes:Cc,interfaces:Ci,utils:Cu} = Components;

/* set new tab page */ try {

 Cu.import("resource:///modules/AboutNewTab.jsm");  
 var newTabURL = "file:///home/james/ff/index.html";  
 AboutNewTab.newTabURL = newTabURL;  

} catch(e){Cu.reportError(e);} // report errors in the Browser Console

Create defaults/pref/autoconfig.js:

// pref("general.config.filename", "autoconfig.cfg"); pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); pref("general.config.sandbox_enabled", false);

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However, upon updating to Firefox 136, I only get a blank page. All of my autoconfig files still exist in /usr/lib/firefox.

When I create a new tab with Ctrl+T, it's a blank page. When I create a new window, it loads the local page I want it to load with the file path in the URL (which it never had before; the URL bar was blank in Firefox 135). So it seems to be partially working.

Any tips?

I set the about:config settings when I got the new computer early last year. It's been working fine. Suddenly, searches are popping up again to the urlbar.

browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar is still set to false. Keyword.enabled is still set to false.

I see a couple of site references to browser.fixup.alternate.enabled, but it doesn't exist.

How do I get FF back to proper search in the search bar?

hi

the element i really like / liked about Pocket were the curated stories that firefox publishes on its new tab page.

yes i used the "save to pocket" option but one can easily enough just visit the article and bookmark in the normal way.

NOTE: i think i wasn't appreciating the offline easy-to-read aspect to pocket (because i'd just read the article online and/or save to pocket) but it's too late now!

I've seen articles on multiple websites and reddit about pocket alternatives but people seem to only talk about pocket in terms of the capacity to save-to-read-later, tagging, book marking management, etc.

Btw, i've read the mozilla pocket FAQ support page (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pocket-recommendations-firefox-new-tab). It was updated mid march 2025 (when mozilla surely knew they were shutting down pocket) and ironically it recommends for more articles to visit pocket.

1) this FAQ really needs to be updated to reflect pocket ceasing

2) it could reflect what is happening with the "thought-provoking stories" feature within firefox browser

My questions:

1) will the "thought provoking stories" feature aka curated articles of interest continue in firefox in any capacity after pocket ceases?

i don't know given i believe they're sourced from pocket.

EDIT: i've just discovered about "pocket hits" (or "ten tabs" as reportedly it's being renamed to) email newsletter. I knew nothing about this. Might the content / curated articles replace those from pocket on the new tab page?

2) if not, can people suggest alternatives to pocket's curated articles (i'm less fussed about saving the articles because i've seen many recommendations on that)?

thanks,

Gary

Hi everyone, I'm asking for help following the latest update (Firefox 143.0.1): the corners of the top site preview boxes have changed, as shown in the first screenshot. I was wondering if it's possible to permanently restore them to the same state as in the second screenshot, perhaps via userContent.css.

I opened Firefox this morning and all of my pinned shortcuts have disappeared. Shortcuts are enabled in the settings. I checked the browser.newtabpage.pinned pref on the about:config and all of my pinned shortcuts are still there, but they're not appearing on the actual page itself. Are there any other settings that I'm not aware of?

I have been an avid (make that RABID) Firefox user and advocate for more than a decade. I recently had to wipe my hard drive and am still going through the painful process of putting things back the way I like them.

Firefox is (was?) my preferred and default browser. I use other browsers only when forced to for work or when Firefox doesn't function with certain apps.

Now, the new version of Firefox does not allow me to set my own home page. I have a choice of Firefox or blank for new tabs. Yes, I can click on the Home icon to get to my preferred home page... but that's another step. Why?

It's only one day in, but honestly, I'm seriously thinking about moving to another browser that doesn't require me to MANUALLY click a home icon to get where I want. WTF?

Whatever you say, you've made it super difficult for this loyal user.

(

Since update yesterday, new tab is empty. Whatever I do, open new tab, open new window, go to `about:newtab` manually, it does not load anything. The view is totally blank. I can navigate to other pages fine as it should though. Only New Tab view is broken. Diagnostic mode does not work. I don't have plugins that would affect New Tab anyways.

Since version 148.0b2 (64-bit), it's once again not possible to enter search terms in the search box of a new tab; instead, the browser searches in the address bar. I've had all the settings I found in the forums configured correctly for over five years, and they haven't changed. - browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = False. Despite this, the search still occurs in the address bar. Now I'm back to the awful search in the address bar. How can I fix this? Please fix this bug as soon as possible.

Original: Set der Version 148.0b2 (64-Bit) ist es wieder nicht möglich die Suche im neuen Tap, im Suchfenster einzugeben, sonder es wird wieder im Adressfeld gesucht. Ich habe alle Einstellungen, die ich in den Foren gefunden habe schon über 5 Jahre so eingestelle, sie sind auch nicht geändert. - browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = False. Trotzdem wird die Suche im Adressfeld geführt.

Jetzt geht es aber wieder mit der Schrecklichen suchen in der Adresszeile los. Wie kann ich dies ändern? Bitte diesen Fehler (Bug) schnellst möglich beheben.

On your homepage there are 24 news articles... is it asking too much to have 12 of them from non-far-left news agencies instead of the 20 far-left and 4 neutral? Or maybe you don't care about the 50+ percent of right leaning customers. Need a Bud-Light lesson?

Why isn't there a simple means to remove/prevent searches for the address bar, using config doesn't work.

I've used Firefox for over twenty years, this annoyance will end that and force a move to Brave.

When I logged in this morning my FireFox screen had changed. The window for searches had disappeared and the "pocket" selections were all about India and its events. None of the previous options were there. What happened and how do I get back to where things were?

Robert Blackstock

Suddenly I cannot search from the search bar. It defaults to the address bar. why "fix" something that was not broken. Being forced to use the address bar is frustrating. If you go directly to the address bar, it tells you it cannot find that site.