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.

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'm trying to add the world cup tracker to my home screen, but when i click the link, it just puts me in my new tab page with no changes. When I click the pencil edit icon, widgets are not an option for me. Is there a place I need to enable them?

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?

Even when I open a new tab in Firefox, the focus remains on the address bar. I'd like to know how to fix this. When I open a new tab, the address bar gets the focus, which I find inconvenient. Is there a way or setting to prevent the address bar from getting the focus and instead focus on the search box in the middle? I've searched online and tried the "settings in about:config" suggested in the search results, but it didn't solve the problem. Is it impossible? Firefox 153.0.3 64it

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.

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.

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?

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 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

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

---

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);

---

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?

Firefox uses firefox icon instead of website icon. Can change it thru properties/change icon but every time i make a shortcut i have to change it if i want the right one.

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.

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?

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?

When I click on the search box in the middle of the New Tab page and start typing, the focus automatically jumps to the Address Bar (Awesomebar). I want the typing to stay within the central search field.

In about:config, I have set browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar to false. However, this did not fix the problem — the input is still being redirected to the top address bar.