Correction: it's not when the search start with 'firefox". Not sure when exactly it happens, but it bites me occasionally.

Hi Matt. If you wanna disable Search Suggestions, this might help.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-suggestions-firefox#w_enabling-or-disabling-search-suggestions

Thanks Yash, the search suggestions are great. But sometimes the search jumps to searching the firefox preferences instead of jumping to the search engine. To make it worse there's no way to go back to what i've entered, so i have to enter my searched term again.

Uh, If you search from the home tab, then I don't think there's a solution to stop that. Instead, you have to specifically open the Search engine's homepage. Example- google.com Then it won't jump to preferences. I'm hoping I got your question. (Sorry If I can't.)

Thanks for trying to understand. I'm searching from the urlbar, and sometimes it searches with about:preferences instead of the search engine. Not sure how to figure out why. Was hoping there's an option to disable.

The Preferences page (about:preferences) opens? This could happen if you activate the last icon on the search engines bar at the bottom of the drop-down. For example, this sequence would do that on Windows:

a

up arrow

Enter

But if you aren't hitting up arrow, possibly there is some other keystroke that could do it?

Oh yes, its probably that. Using voice input so sometimes hitting extra keys. At least I can watch for it now, thanks.

Would be more obvious if it changed the urlbar like the other "this time search with" options do.

I think the only indication would be if the highlight bar suddenly disappears from directly below the address bar, indicating that the focus has moved somewhere else. With the subtle coloring in the Proton redesign, that it is a bit harder to notice than the old vivid blue color.

That's a good hint, thanks. The little gear is highlighted too, but it's far away.

Hey there!

Please see the following link for more help:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1292155

Hope I helped!

Kind regards

Bithiah

Thanks Bithiah. Maybe the CSS option could help, but the rest don't apply.

Hey there!

No problem! If your problem is solved, please mark an answer as a solution to let others know this thread is finished. Thanks!

Kind regards,

Bithiah