Hi TJC2018, when you mention the Firefox search page, do you mean the "new tab" page that appears if you press Command+t? If it's a different page, could you describe it in more detail?

Could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In its Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the option/alt key when starting Firefox. (On Mac, hold down the Shift key instead of the option/alt key.)

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• (menu bar) Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

This doesn't solve my problem. With the homepage for firefox the url bar shows: https://search.mapseasy.net/is

Since that default search has appeared this problem has occurred. Again if I go to a website and try to click on a link I simply get redirected to this FF start page with this maps easy. At this point FF is useless as a browser.

Ok now help button / add-ons disabled does work and I can use links. i can't stand the maps easy but I'll deal with it.

That search.easymaps.net is a browser hijacker, malware that you will of course want to get rid of.

Go to the Firefox menu (≡) => Add-ons => Extensions

( Mac  : Command + Shift + A)

and look for any other unfamiliar or suspicious looking extensions.

When you find any : remove them.

Do the same here : for Windows => Control Panel for Mac and Linux => System Preferences

However : most malware will be 'hiding' somewhere , so let's run malware scans, that are listed in this article :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware?cache=no

Run most or all of the listed malware scanners. They all work differently - what one program doesn't pick up, the other might.

Take a look at this article please : http://www.2-remove-virus.com/remove-search-mapseasy-net/

Especially for Mac : https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

And : https://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-mac-os-x-virus/

Hi TJC2018, thank you for testing. McCoy has the steps to clean up the Maps Easy problem. After removing the add-on, you might also need to update your home page setting. This article should help with that last step: How to set the home page.

Yup everything back to normal. Thanks.