Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Followup - how to delete default search options in search window

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by EdHarrison

more options

This morning I received a response to a question posted yesterday. However, the response was to a link that did not provide a successful result. I'll try to restate the problem more clearly. Problem: when I click on the address bar to initiate a search, seven choices appear in a drop down menu, none of which I want. These choices include options that are NOT resolved by going to Settings, Options, Search and unchecking a search engine choice. As mentioned before, these also are not in my bookmarks or my search history, or in Extensions, so I'm stumped as to where to go to get rid of them.

Please see screenshots, attached. One screen shot is of my choices in Settings, Options, Search. In this shot, the only search engine I've chosen is DuckDuckGo. The other screen shot is of the drop down choices that appear in my search bar. Please notice that the drop down choices include, for example, Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. None of these sites appear under Settings, Options, Search. Please help. Thank you.

This morning I received a response to a question posted yesterday. However, the response was to a link that did not provide a successful result. I'll try to restate the problem more clearly. Problem: when I click on the address bar to initiate a search, seven choices appear in a drop down menu, none of which I want. These choices include options that are NOT resolved by going to Settings, Options, Search and unchecking a search engine choice. As mentioned before, these also are not in my bookmarks or my search history, or in Extensions, so I'm stumped as to where to go to get rid of them. Please see screenshots, attached. One screen shot is of my choices in Settings, Options, Search. In this shot, the only search engine I've chosen is DuckDuckGo. The other screen shot is of the drop down choices that appear in my search bar. Please notice that the drop down choices include, for example, Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. None of these sites appear under Settings, Options, Search. Please help. Thank you.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Hi EdHarrison, when you click in the address bar in Firefox 75+, before you type any text for Firefox to match, Firefox shows a list of Top Sites from the Firefox Home / new tab page. That list starts off with some default content but is customizable..

Do you want to get rid of/clean up the current contents of this list, or get rid of this list appearing at all?


Option #1: Curating the Top Sites list

You can unpin, dismiss, add, and rearrange the URLs through the Top Sites section of the new tab page. If you remove the default items, Firefox should fill it with sites from your history. More info: Customize your Firefox New Tab page.

To access that section, you may need to:

Note: The frequent sites under Top Sites do not exactly match the classic address bar list of frequently visited URLs for some reason. If you type a space in the address bar, Firefox will display the classic list.


Option #2: Suppressing the automatic drop-down

There is a checkbox for this on the Options page, Privacy & Security panel, "Address Bar" section:

<center></center>

Does that get you to a good place?

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

Hi EdHarrison, when you click in the address bar in Firefox 75+, before you type any text for Firefox to match, Firefox shows a list of Top Sites from the Firefox Home / new tab page. That list starts off with some default content but is customizable..

Do you want to get rid of/clean up the current contents of this list, or get rid of this list appearing at all?


Option #1: Curating the Top Sites list

You can unpin, dismiss, add, and rearrange the URLs through the Top Sites section of the new tab page. If you remove the default items, Firefox should fill it with sites from your history. More info: Customize your Firefox New Tab page.

To access that section, you may need to:

Note: The frequent sites under Top Sites do not exactly match the classic address bar list of frequently visited URLs for some reason. If you type a space in the address bar, Firefox will display the classic list.


Option #2: Suppressing the automatic drop-down

There is a checkbox for this on the Options page, Privacy & Security panel, "Address Bar" section:

<center></center>

Does that get you to a good place?

more options

Great answer, jscher... clear, concise and it worked! Unchecking the Top Sites box is all that was needed. Thanks.