How to deactivate search within address bar?
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
Ñemoĩporã poravopyre
Hello
You can test, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar.
1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox 2 - Enter a search term browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar You can double-click on the preference to set the value to false
Emoñe’ẽ ko mbohavái ejeregua reheve 👍 0Opaite Mbohovái (6)
Ñemoĩporã poravopyre
Hello
You can test, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar.
1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox 2 - Enter a search term browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar You can double-click on the preference to set the value to false
(For the record) The browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference has been removed in Firefox version 148 to be released Feb 24, 2026 so the above solution will no longer work.
This doesn't work. None of the instructions I've put forth work. Is there actually a method to STOP using the address bar to search? I stopped using Chrome because you can't disable split view. Now there's no way to disable this annoying issue in Firefox? Why do choices like this have to be so difficult or impossible? Is there a browser that lets you set it up the way you want it?
AliceWyman said
(For the record) The browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference has been removed in Firefox version 148 to be released Feb 24, 2026 so the above solution will no longer work.
Was this information helpful? Yes, I was driving myself nuts looking for a setting that has apparently been removed.
Was the decision to completely remove a feature helpful? Absolutely not. The URLbar is for URLs. SEARCHbars are for search queries. The EverythingIsAwesomebar is a silly innovation that I would comfortably prefer to do without.
It looks like this preference will be restored in a future version of Firefox (150 Nightly, and possibly version 149, currently in Beta). See the related bug report: Bug 2017049 - Newtab search handoff can't be disabled anymore
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