I-Firefox Community Forum

I had to actually sign up fort a Mozilla account,the multiple hoops I had to jump through were ridicules, in order to ask a question of Firefox. I do not want my address bar to be my search engine. How do I disable the search engine in my address bar? And now I have to wait for an answer!!!!!!!! I used to love and trust Firefox. Not anymore.

I'm on Linux.

I've been using this method to setup a custom new tab page for Firefox for almost 4 years, and it has worked great: https://jamesnorth.net/knowledge-base/article/firefox-new-tab-page

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Navigate to /usr/lib/firefox.

Create autoconfig.cfg:

// var {classes:Cc,interfaces:Ci,utils:Cu} = Components;

/* set new tab page */ try {

 Cu.import("resource:///modules/AboutNewTab.jsm");  
 var newTabURL = "file:///home/james/ff/index.html";  
 AboutNewTab.newTabURL = newTabURL;  

} catch(e){Cu.reportError(e);} // report errors in the Browser Console

Create defaults/pref/autoconfig.js:

// pref("general.config.filename", "autoconfig.cfg"); pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); pref("general.config.sandbox_enabled", false);

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However, upon updating to Firefox 136, I only get a blank page. All of my autoconfig files still exist in /usr/lib/firefox.

When I create a new tab with Ctrl+T, it's a blank page. When I create a new window, it loads the local page I want it to load with the file path in the URL (which it never had before; the URL bar was blank in Firefox 135). So it seems to be partially working.

Any tips?

I deleted all the shortcuts from Firefox desktop browser's homepage and now I cannot add them back.

There are no blank shortcut icons on the page anymore. No setting to enable them. Shortcuts are enabled. Page is mostly blank, only has Firefox icon.

I tried to close and open Firefox as well as disabling and enabling the shortcut setting. Adding more rows did not do anything.

Before this issue occurred, I had one shortcut on the page that was linking to localhost. I opened the edit window to the shortcut and pasted the same address and saved changes. After that I removed the shortcut. All of the blank tiles immediately got removed from page and I had no way of adding more shortcuts.

The AccuWeather part of the Firefox homepage says I'm in Portland, Oregon, USA, but I'm not even in the same country. I tried to change it according to the directions I found earlier, but the only drop-down for my city was another city in the US but none in any other countries. So now I can't change my location. How do I change my location? It wasn't like this yesterday and I have no memory as to how it became "Portland, Oregon" since last night. I don't even have a VPN so it isn't that. How do I change it back to my area without using my exact location?

Hi everyone, I'm asking for help following the latest update (Firefox 143.0.1): the corners of the top site preview boxes have changed, as shown in the first screenshot. I was wondering if it's possible to permanently restore them to the same state as in the second screenshot, perhaps via userContent.css.

I set the about:config settings when I got the new computer early last year. It's been working fine. Suddenly, searches are popping up again to the urlbar.

browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar is still set to false. Keyword.enabled is still set to false.

I see a couple of site references to browser.fixup.alternate.enabled, but it doesn't exist.

How do I get FF back to proper search in the search bar?

hi

the element i really like / liked about Pocket were the curated stories that firefox publishes on its new tab page.

yes i used the "save to pocket" option but one can easily enough just visit the article and bookmark in the normal way.

NOTE: i think i wasn't appreciating the offline easy-to-read aspect to pocket (because i'd just read the article online and/or save to pocket) but it's too late now!

I've seen articles on multiple websites and reddit about pocket alternatives but people seem to only talk about pocket in terms of the capacity to save-to-read-later, tagging, book marking management, etc.

Btw, i've read the mozilla pocket FAQ support page (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pocket-recommendations-firefox-new-tab). It was updated mid march 2025 (when mozilla surely knew they were shutting down pocket) and ironically it recommends for more articles to visit pocket.

1) this FAQ really needs to be updated to reflect pocket ceasing

2) it could reflect what is happening with the "thought-provoking stories" feature within firefox browser

My questions:

1) will the "thought provoking stories" feature aka curated articles of interest continue in firefox in any capacity after pocket ceases?

i don't know given i believe they're sourced from pocket.

EDIT: i've just discovered about "pocket hits" (or "ten tabs" as reportedly it's being renamed to) email newsletter. I knew nothing about this. Might the content / curated articles replace those from pocket on the new tab page?

2) if not, can people suggest alternatives to pocket's curated articles (i'm less fussed about saving the articles because i've seen many recommendations on that)?

thanks,

Gary

I opened Firefox this morning and all of my pinned shortcuts have disappeared. Shortcuts are enabled in the settings. I checked the browser.newtabpage.pinned pref on the about:config and all of my pinned shortcuts are still there, but they're not appearing on the actual page itself. Are there any other settings that I'm not aware of?

Since version 148.0b2 (64-bit), it's once again not possible to enter search terms in the search box of a new tab; instead, the browser searches in the address bar. I've had all the settings I found in the forums configured correctly for over five years, and they haven't changed. - browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = False. Despite this, the search still occurs in the address bar. Now I'm back to the awful search in the address bar. How can I fix this? Please fix this bug as soon as possible.

Original: Set der Version 148.0b2 (64-Bit) ist es wieder nicht möglich die Suche im neuen Tap, im Suchfenster einzugeben, sonder es wird wieder im Adressfeld gesucht. Ich habe alle Einstellungen, die ich in den Foren gefunden habe schon über 5 Jahre so eingestelle, sie sind auch nicht geändert. - browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = False. Trotzdem wird die Suche im Adressfeld geführt.

Jetzt geht es aber wieder mit der Schrecklichen suchen in der Adresszeile los. Wie kann ich dies ändern? Bitte diesen Fehler (Bug) schnellst möglich beheben.

Why isn't there a simple means to remove/prevent searches for the address bar, using config doesn't work.

I've used Firefox for over twenty years, this annoyance will end that and force a move to Brave.

I have change my home page to DuckDuckGo, but when I click on a new tab, "+" I get Firefox. I tried blank and it is indeed blank, so how do I set new tab so it opens DuckDuckGo? (Read all help articles.)

Suddenly I cannot search from the search bar. It defaults to the address bar. why "fix" something that was not broken. Being forced to use the address bar is frustrating. If you go directly to the address bar, it tells you it cannot find that site.

Good morning One and All Why is the 'customise' facility, bottom right of tab, not available if the tab is blank? I have downloaded a personal photograph as my background but it is ruined by the Google search bar and the Firefox logo above it. Why can't these 2 items be moved either to the side, below or above?

My browser has been hacked by searchingswift.com, I've read all the article's I can find on getting rid of it with no luck. I've completely uninstalled everything including the mistake that brought it in (Coverseen miss pick file), but no luck.

Here's what I get after a complete reinstall and deleting any Firefox stuff I can find.

"https://searchingswift.com/?path=firefox/newtab&u=ee6fb4108559ab17&subid=11119&channel=1"

I'm getting ready to do a backup from a month ago, but I'm not sure if this will come back in with my Firefox sign in.

Windows 11 and New Firefox

A little over a week ago, I noticed icons for the shortcuts on the start page started showing wrong icons for some of them. For example, gmail and reddit show youtube icons and this behavior continues even for the favorites. X(Twitter) also has a generic icon instead of the normal one. Is there a way to force refresh on these or some way to correctly apply site icons?

The weather widget on my FireFox homepage, as well as the information when I type "weather" into the address bar shows me as in Montreal QC, Canada. But I am in New Hampshire, USA. When I try to type a different city name after clicking the 3 dots next to the widget and choosing change location the only cities that come up are Canadian cities.

I am not running any kind of VPN, and when I check my location with an IP lookup it shows me in the correct location, my locale settings in Windows are set the the US as well.

Thanks for any help!

Recently, when I open a new tab in Firefox (Windows) I started getting a drop-down box for Google instead of shield, lock, and sliders followed by the query/address bar. See attachment. I have no way to drag and drop this search query address. If I follow this by clicking on the search icon in the Google query field below, I get the normal Firefox address bar with the lock icon and the ability to save the query address by dragging and dropping the lock icon. How can I get back to the normal Firefox browsing address bar.

Previous solution: switch browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar to false does not work anymore.

Please help.

Regards, Victor