Firefox Community Forum

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.

This is the 3rd time I have had to post this. I am getting very frustrated. I DO NOT want the search engine within my address bar. Nothing anyone from you "community" helped to disable the search engine in my address bar. Opera, Edge, Chrome, the user can disable the search engine in the address bar. Why is Firefox so different? And difficult?

Following a recent Firefox update, 1.48.0 I think, the search box in the middle of the page no longer works, any attempt to type there ends up in the address bar. I have tried setting "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar" to false and other suggested fixes on the internet but it made no difference. I am running Windows 11 Pro, fully updated. Hope you can help Regards Keith

Issue Summary: My website (mass-doc.com) displays blank thumbnails in Firefox's New Tab "Recent Activity" section, while other websites (Claude.ai, Ahrefs, FamilySearch, Fox News, Xfinity) display their OG images correctly in the same section. Environment: Extensions Installed: uBlock Origin, FireShot (both tested disabled with no change)

Evidence That OG Images Are Correctly Configured:

Google Search Console "Insights" section correctly displays my OG images Social media preview tools show images correctly Images load directly when URL is accessed in browser Image specifications meet requirements: 1200×675 pixels, 132KB file size, JPEG format

Example OG Meta Tags (verified correct):

There is a perfectly functional search bar in the middle of my homepage. why do I have to search with the anything but "awesomebar"? I have made so many changes to about:config true to false false to true firefox will probably never work again properly. There should be a check box somewhere in settings to toggle this on and off. Newer is not always better

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.

not really a request for help since release 147.0.3 searches handoff to awesome and can't be changed by using about:config dropping back to 145.0.2 allows prevention

Hello. i noticed that my shortcuts are missing. i went to settings to check if it's enabled (check mark) and it is in fact enabled. tried to reset my computer and the shortcuts are still not there. on the main firefox page there is actually no shortcut icons on there...at all. all of the options in settings work with the exception (of course) the shortcuts. i would like to know why this is happening...thx

How do I get searches (my default is Google) to STOP going to the address bar? This started out of the blue and it is making me crazy. I don't want to be asked which search to use, and I don't want it to search in the address bar. I want it in the search box. Thanks.

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.

Really annoying with latest update there is no add short cut box on the home page anymore. I use this lots to save time now I have to go into browser history and find the link. All there is now is Recent activity and suggested sights that are picked for me. I don't want this on my browser!!

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 would like to remove the search options from the address bar because I preferred the old setup with a separate search window (and the address bar was just unable to perform searches). How can I set this up?

Version 148 recently installed as auto update and problem seems contemperaneous to that.

My Home page is set to show only the Firefox "search the web" as an entry box in the screen centre, but will no longer allow any input: instead the awesomebar (aka address bar) shows on the tool bars at top of screen and accepts/displays the entry. I wish to revert to the simpler display.

I thought the solution lay within the advanced preferences that can be accessed (via app:config) and the value of the awesome bar changed. However tthe awesomebar preference is the only one shown for which there is no setting at all. Edit brings nothing up. There is a delete bin symbol available.

Can anybody explain what is going on and how to rectify this situation, please?

Hello,

I have a situation - which I had previously researched and resolved - that has come back to haunt me.

I use an ultra-widescreen monitor and searching/browsing obviously necessitates a center-screen search box which, up until now, Firefox has provided cleanly and with simplicity. However, I see that (once again) despite cursor placement in the center-screen box the search text is being entered in the address bar which is wholly impractical for me since I have to look about 60 degrees left and upwards to see what I am typing.

I say "again" because when this happened previously I was able to make a config change and resolve it but despite that still being in effect - the ".handoffToAwesomebar" is still set to FALSE - search text now has moved back to the address bar.

A brief search of this community yielded no answers. Is there any other known fix or has this now be thrust upon us permanently and thou shalt adapt?

Thanks in advance....

I am reopening the question from 2020 as the solution described no longer seems to apply. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1284577

I am running Windows 11. Firefox 144.0 (64-bit)

When entering search terms into the search bar in the centre of the page, the information typed appears in the address bar, even after following the fix described in 1284577.

Treating the address bar as the search bar appears to be the default. While the user can additionally deselect the search engine in the address bar, that is an unnecessary and undesired additional step for every search (the primary reason I am using Firefox)

Is there a way to permanently set the default for what I enter into the search bar to remain in the search bar and not to be managed by the address bar? Thanks, Rich

EVERY SINGLE TIME FIREFOX UPDATES THEY OPEN A NEW TAB AND ADVERTISE FEATURES AND GARBAGE I DO NOT CARE ABOUT.

DESPITE EVERY SETTING IMAGINABLE, IT STILL DOES IT. EVERY TIME.

WHY? WHY DO YOU NOT RESPECT YOUR USER'S REQUESTS AND CONTINUE TO DO THIS?

WE ALL REMEMBER THE TIME YOU SHOVED ADVERTISEMENTS INTO IT.

I"D RATHER PAY FOR FIREFOX THAN HAVE THIS RIDICULOUS GARBAGE HAPPEN EVERY TIME YOU UPDATE THE APPLICATION.

MAKE A SETTING FOR THIS OR SOMETHING THAT YOU WON'T JUST IGNORE OR OVERRIDE THE NEXT TIME YOU WANT TO SPAM YOUR ENTIRE USER BASE