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Can you help me regain the ability to use the search option on the start page?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by cfern1

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Am unable to search from the start page. Every time there is an upgrade, once again, I loose the ability to search. I enter something, and nothing happens. The top google bar works, but the large bar in the center of the page doesn't. Have had to work around this problem for the last 4 upgrades, eventually getting the search option to work again, but now, with version 21, have not been able to fix. Have even uninstalled twice, finally went back to V20 and, even though I could search previously in V20, I can no longer do so with the V20 download I just installed. I tried to not install V 21 because I expected this to happen, but, someone accidentally accepted the upgrade request, and here we go again. I am not a computer technician, and I don't feel I should have to jump through these hoops every time Mozilla makes another update, which, as we know, happens frequently.

Am unable to search from the start page. Every time there is an upgrade, once again, I loose the ability to search. I enter something, and nothing happens. The top google bar works, but the large bar in the center of the page doesn't. Have had to work around this problem for the last 4 upgrades, eventually getting the search option to work again, but now, with version 21, have not been able to fix. Have even uninstalled twice, finally went back to V20 and, even though I could search previously in V20, I can no longer do so with the V20 download I just installed. I tried to not install V 21 because I expected this to happen, but, someone accidentally accepted the upgrade request, and here we go again. I am not a computer technician, and I don't feel I should have to jump through these hoops every time Mozilla makes another update, which, as we know, happens frequently.

All Replies (4)

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Try to use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

Current Firefox versions use the default search engine (pref: browser.search.defaultenginename) to set the search engine that is used on the about:home page.

Check the browser.search.defaultenginename pref on the about:config page and make sure that it is set to the default value Google.

  • browser.search.defaultenginename

Currently selected search engine:

  • browser.search.selectedEngine
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Tried your suggestions. Default reset to Google. (I had changed it to Yahoo as my preference). Nothing changed.. still can not search from start page. Then, downloaded the add on search reset, which didn't help either. I did notice yesterday that for a couple of times, after turning off private browsing, the search page worked. When turning private browsing off again, I lost the ability to search. Is there any correlation to the private browsing and start page search?

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Private Browsing mode doesn't use the disk cache and the cookies from a regular session.
Extensions also may behave differently.

Clear the cache and the cookies from websites that cause problems.

"Clear the Cache":

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"

"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window or otherwise make changes.
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Ok, I've tried every option you've suggested. It seems the only time the search works on the start page is when there is a message beneath the search for the Stop Watching Us campaign. There is no rhyme or reason behind this message appearing. Sometimes it's there with all add-ons disabled some times it's there with no add-ons disabled. Sometimes it's there, and without changing anything, I close down the browser, reopen and it's gone. All add-ons are up to date, all extensions are up to date. So, what's next?