Firefox Community Forum

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?

Good morning One and All Why is the 'customise' facility, bottom right of tab, not available if the tab is blank? I have downloaded a personal photograph as my background but it is ruined by the Google search bar and the Firefox logo above it. Why can't these 2 items be moved either to the side, below or above?

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 has been asked before here, but it seems currently there is no solution:

Firefox's default behavior when using the mouse middle-click on an empty area of the tab bar area will create a new tab; I don't want this behavior. How can I disable it?

On the posts I found here, they mention using UserChrome.css, I enabled it and tried, doesn't work. custom styles are enabled but not disabling this feature.

I use DisplayFusion on my multi-monitor setup since years, and middle-clicking a window title bar or Chrome tab bar or Firefox tab bar will move the current window to a second monitor.

Currently with Firefox, middle-clicking the tab bar will move the window to the second monitor AND open a new tab. I use it a lot with YouTube, so when I move a playing video to the second monitor, I get an empty tab with audio in the background.

I recently moved from Chrome to Firefox, but this is driving me crazy.

My browser has been hacked by searchingswift.com, I've read all the article's I can find on getting rid of it with no luck. I've completely uninstalled everything including the mistake that brought it in (Coverseen miss pick file), but no luck.

Here's what I get after a complete reinstall and deleting any Firefox stuff I can find.

"https://searchingswift.com/?path=firefox/newtab&u=ee6fb4108559ab17&subid=11119&channel=1"

I'm getting ready to do a backup from a month ago, but I'm not sure if this will come back in with my Firefox sign in.

Windows 11 and New Firefox

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'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?

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 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?

hi

the element i really like / liked about Pocket were the curated stories that firefox publishes on its new tab page.

yes i used the "save to pocket" option but one can easily enough just visit the article and bookmark in the normal way.

NOTE: i think i wasn't appreciating the offline easy-to-read aspect to pocket (because i'd just read the article online and/or save to pocket) but it's too late now!

I've seen articles on multiple websites and reddit about pocket alternatives but people seem to only talk about pocket in terms of the capacity to save-to-read-later, tagging, book marking management, etc.

Btw, i've read the mozilla pocket FAQ support page (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pocket-recommendations-firefox-new-tab). It was updated mid march 2025 (when mozilla surely knew they were shutting down pocket) and ironically it recommends for more articles to visit pocket.

1) this FAQ really needs to be updated to reflect pocket ceasing

2) it could reflect what is happening with the "thought-provoking stories" feature within firefox browser

My questions:

1) will the "thought provoking stories" feature aka curated articles of interest continue in firefox in any capacity after pocket ceases?

i don't know given i believe they're sourced from pocket.

EDIT: i've just discovered about "pocket hits" (or "ten tabs" as reportedly it's being renamed to) email newsletter. I knew nothing about this. Might the content / curated articles replace those from pocket on the new tab page?

2) if not, can people suggest alternatives to pocket's curated articles (i'm less fussed about saving the articles because i've seen many recommendations on that)?

thanks,

Gary

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.

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?

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?

Firefox has shortcuts at the top of any new tab opened. These are usually your most visited pages. For most shortcuts, if you click the three dots you get a menu of: Pin Edit Open in a New Window Open in a New Private Window Dismiss Delete From History

This is the menu you get for almost all shortcuts EXCEPT for Amazon. For the Amazon shortcut you get: Pin Dismiss

That's it. No opportunity to edit it. And if you click on the shortcut, it doesn't take you to Amazon.com, instead it opens "Amazon.com Search" in the address bar. I don't want Search, I want to go to the Amazon home page but the shortcut doesn't take me to the Amazon homepage like it used to. Why is this broken now?

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