In order to better assist you with your issue please provide us with a screenshot. If you need help to create a screenshot, please see How do I create a screenshot of my problem?

Once you've done this, attach the saved screenshot file to your forum post by clicking the Browse... button below the Post your reply box. This will help us to visualize the problem.

Thank you!

Here's a screenshot of my browser with the url bar.

I used it like this for months, until a friend of mine showed me his Firefox, which had the normal adress bar.

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

• On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
• On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
• On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
• Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help other users who have the same problem.

Please report back soon.

Please remember to also scan for viruses or malware on your system.
I recommend using Hitman Pro.

The problem wasn't solved by going into safe mode nor by disabling all themes. I already scanned for viruses and spyware.

I can't think of why that space would be there...

Did you edit out the part of the URL after the ? when you created the screen shot, or is the box actually ending there and not using the rest of the space to the right?

It ends right there. No editing was done to the picture. It's weird because back then it came with an update and I thought it was a new feature. After the reinstall it was back to normal, but after 2 days it was there again.

When i click on the blank space on the left, I can begin to type the URL, but only indentured. So it is clickable and identified as adress bar, I guess? But the typing only begins a bit more to the right.

A lot can happen in two days... to see whether it's related to settings or might be related to problems in Firefox's program files, could you do a two-minute experiment?

Create a new Firefox profile

A new profile will have your system-installed plugins (e.g., Flash) and extensions (e.g., security suite toolbars), but no themes, other extensions, or other customizations. It also should have completely fresh settings databases and a fresh cache folder.

Exit Firefox and start up in the Profile Manager using Start > search box (or Run):

firefox.exe -P

Any time you want to switch profiles, exit Firefox and return to this dialog.

You'll click the Create Profile button. I recommend using the default location suggested, and to avoid data loss, not re-using any existing folder. Then start Firefox in the new profile you created.

Does the bar work any better in a fresh profile?

When returning to the Profile Manager, you might be tempted to use the Delete Profile button. But... it's a bit too easy to accidentally delete your "real" profile, so I recommend resisting the temptation. If you do want to clean up later, I suggest making a backup of all your profiles first in case something were to go wrong.

Creating a fresh profile made the adress bar return to normal again! So a theme, extension or a customization is causing it?

Hi PizzaPino, it must be something in the old profile that isn't turned off in Safe Mode. Hmmm... what would that be?

Sometimes inexplicable UI problems are caused by corruption in the file that stores toolbar customizations and window sizes and positions. You can rename the file and customize from scratch.

Return to your old profile, then open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename localstore.rdf to something like localstore.old

Restart Firefox. Any improvement?

No improvement. I see my add-on bar turning up again, though it was turned off before. But the bar isn't to normal.

Could you disable some of the lesser used plugins by setting them to "Never Activate". You can keep Adobe Acrobat, the two Java plugins, and Shockwave Flash set to either Always Activate or Ask to Activate, whichever they are now.

You can open the Add-ons page using either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins.

Any difference? You might want to exit and restart Firefox after making the change.

You may have hit the Shift key by accident while cutting text in the location bar via Ctrl+X.

You can flip the bidi text direction from right-to-left to left-to-right with Shift+Ctrl+X.

@jscher2000: It made no difference. At the end i even disabled all of them and it still made no difference.

@cor-el: Pressing your key combination made my adress bar begin completely at the right side, pressing it again made me go back to how it is at the moment.

Just grab it w your pointer and drag / stretchnit up into place. Sounds like you have set it to enter text from right to left also. Ezine all your settings

Hi PizzaPino, I'm at a loss to know what is causing it. Could you try an experiment and copy the prefs.js file from your problem profile to the new one that was working, and see whether that breaks it? While working in your problem profile:

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

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Select and copy the prefs.js file

Click "Profiles" in the Windows Explorer address bar to navigate up a level, the click into the other profile and paste the prefs.js file, replacing the one that Firefox created there.

You can exit and start up in the profile manager as you did previously to see whether the problem is transferred through the prefs.js file.

@malcontente: as cor_el already suggested and tested by me, this is not the case. I wish there was something to grab, but there isn't.

@jscher2000: Copying the prefs.js file to the other profile also transferred the problem to it. So the problem basically lies inside of the prefs.js file?

Hi PizzaPino, that's good to know. Yes, the problem must be some setting in that file.

Do you want to paste the contents into a reply? You can delete out all the printer stuff, since that is not likely to be relevant. To maintain the line breaks, you can place <pre> before and </pre> after the file contents before posting.

Without the printer tags:

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Did you also move the extensions folder to the new profile?

The most likely cause is probably an extension or theme causing this issue.

You can try to reset all extensions.* prefs related to installed extensions via the right-click context menu to the default value.