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change size of search bar in firefox 39 its too small

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by John99

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I did NOT want to go to 39, yeah yeah yeah all about security blah blah, don't care, but went ahead as having some other issues... so now besides other not so pleasant changes/differences, I have a teensy tinsy search bar, and really really hate it and need it bigger, my eyes are Not so good, so bigger is way better for me. Cannot find in the myriad of articles where/how to fix this for this newer version of firefox, please tell me if you have found a way/workaround. Thanks!

I did NOT want to go to 39, yeah yeah yeah all about security blah blah, don't care, but went ahead as having some other issues... so now besides other not so pleasant changes/differences, I have a teensy tinsy search bar, and really really hate it and need it bigger, my eyes are Not so good, so bigger is way better for me. Cannot find in the myriad of articles where/how to fix this for this newer version of firefox, please tell me if you have found a way/workaround. Thanks!

All Replies (5)

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Hello,

If you go to your customizing page:

Either type in about:customizing, or go to > Customize You can click and drag the right side of the address bar to shrink the search bar.

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It won't drag I tried multiple times and I am trying to increase size not shrink.; the only thing halfway is to take out all the stuff to the right side of it, and then it stretches some that way. I feel there has to be a real solution.

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If you are talking about the one on the top in the tool bar put the mouse pointer in the space between that and the address bar and holding the left button drag. You could even put it on the bookmarks toolbar and have it full screen width. See also:

Note the address bar is longer by default and you may search from that.

There are also other pages to search from the newtab page and the homepage both have search bars.

There re other options see for instance:

Look at this before and after:

You are probably also aware of:

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The stretching of the search bar is a three-step operation:

(1) Use Customize to locate the Search Bar immediately to the right of the Address bar and exit Customize.

(2) Hover your mouse over the space between the Address Bar and Search bar, and a double-headed arrow should appear. Click and drag to the left to take some length from the Address Bar and add it to the Search Bar.

(3) Use Customize to move the Search Bar back to where you like to have it and exit Customize.


In some cases, it may be necessary to use the "Restore Defaults" button at the bottom of the Customize pane.

In more extreme cases, if the toolbar layout is just broken, the cause could be a corrupted settings file. Because that file is hard to edit, the usual suggestion is to rename it and customize from scratch. (Some information will be remembered because it is stored in a different file, but you would need to turn the Menu Bar and Bookmarks Toolbar back on, for example, if you like to have those displayed.)

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. Does the Search Bar look normal again?

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Have you got something else, some icon between the two bars instead of a flexible space ?

Note. If you have roughly default setup. Mainly you have nothing between the two bars. Just drag to resize. No need to go into customise at all. But as I said you can just use the address bar and search from that.

Your addons are not listed maybe something else is interfering. Or you have heavily customised the toolbar already.

Modified by John99