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My url-bar is not auto-completing; I have checked all the normal possibilities why.

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Two days ago, my url bar stopped autocompleting, i.e. won't finish websites when I fill them in. Nothing else seems to be affected; i.e. Firefox is still keeping track of history, bookmarks, etc.. I have downloaded and reinstalled the latest update (19.0.2), made sure that the url bar is supposed to be filling things in by checking the appropriate box on privacy preferences, etc. Nothing seems to work. Help!

Two days ago, my url bar stopped autocompleting, i.e. won't finish websites when I fill them in. Nothing else seems to be affected; i.e. Firefox is still keeping track of history, bookmarks, etc.. I have downloaded and reinstalled the latest update (19.0.2), made sure that the url bar is supposed to be filling things in by checking the appropriate box on privacy preferences, etc. Nothing seems to work. Help!

All Replies (10)

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The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

  1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
  3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
  4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.


Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

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What do you mean by Extensions? I'm particularly worried about losing my Zotero information.

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Extensions are addons you install on Firefox. You can reinstall them after a Reset, but it's likely they are causing the problem in Firefox.

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Thank you for helping me out! If I "reinstall" Zotero after I reset Firefox, will my library & bibliographic information be lost?

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Most likely not, but you can restore it.

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How? I really can't lose my library!

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Resetting Firefox makes a backup of all the data that was in your profile, you can restore from that. After you Reset we can walk you through restoring data.

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OK, I just reset Firefox, but when it started up again, I got this message:

"Could not initialize the application's security component. The most likely cause is problems with files in your application's profile directory. Please check that this directory has no read/write restrictions and your hard disk is not full or close to full. It is recommended that you exit the application and fix the problem. If you continue to use this session, you might see incorrect application behaviour when accessing security features."

There is also a warning bar below the url-bar that says: "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of Firefox's files is in use by another application. Some security software can cause this problem."

I don't have any security software, though. Thoughts?

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Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

Please report back to see if this helped you!

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Will it still be possible to restore my zotero library after I do this?