I-Firefox Community Forum

There is a search bar in the middle of my screen (Firefox/DuckDuckGo) It does not work. If I type in it, the cursor moves to address bar. This is very annoying as I am looking at the search bar and watching what I type. Then the search bar fades out so I can't even try to type in it anymore. From what I have read on the forum, Firefox has disabled the "fix" for this problem. So essentially they have made the visible search bar useless and have fixed it so that those of us who prefer to use it are completely out of luck. What does Firefox get out of this? I'm feeling really manipulated and will probably just switch back to Chrome. From reading other questions, I get the feeling they are planning an ever better search bar (can't image what that could mean, all I want to do is search). But why destroy the old one before the new one is ready?

Why is the address bar now a search? This is annoying. How can I change this? I have already change about:config settings to false and nothing changes.

Thank you Rafal

Hallo Ich Spreche kein Englisch nur Deutsch - Ich habe seit einiger Zeit ein Problem, wenn ich einen meuen Tapp öffne komme ich wie gewohnt auf die FireFox Seite mit dem Google Suchfeld, wenn ich zum Beispiel in das Suchfeld Monstera eintipe Lande ich immer auf der Yahoo Seite. . Siehe nachfolgenden Link: https://de.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Monstera&hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-syn_launcham¶m2=9dUI1n2R0BLDxNuWfiP4aSFOTltNdSPoIx38%2BUf%2FiXrvPdoGmStdlfwLFZYDvqkAfvapUGDUlfVlBewW80EIyUr%2FsL%2B6E7sphFDlHyc9MgKJkZdnv%2BHAlYnNmFYhvoP666n25XuOWv2sNdW8LTl0ed79U3FBxDdDwESS2zTq7MplmsM64d5ifOY1gGVSACrO7oUVwz0Q6xN0p0HcFuihGvHl6o1wvCWTRhetcVW5mTc%3D¶m3=HpCyCT2cXaKG4CVDR00rqgObRQahimQNt2d5ZCR7Jy3IZoD3T11qaq2nywASZYgKs7Nov2iksjjR3%2F2QWiII6Us00JMQsgWelCh2xqUG22J0U1jSZgy29Nx6hJbvJxhO09UrrPrifdWwZ%2FK6RGUiPErlOzWN1cnTdWlcb0giNPrORW3TU4942RitciCf1Ex2C%2FU510yVW%2BSczbZLYlOESKcxP97Z8OMm14rdAu%2FgEAfm5r74rG9U9ShM2YpG9AR4mVsOA2d22%2FdQcBQQJbYxSA%3D%3D&type=f2%3A%3B.6850610d4680680b2811f3dcdca6be379af%3B5.ac48522a20946644e52a8ef8e64166f19c0ca9cd289925759ba5c0534a4ff17f5111f70ddaee787ec4b4d80 - Leider bin ich mit der Suche mit Yahoo nicht zufrieden, ich habe die Einstellungen von FireFox, mehrfach kontroliert, aber nichts gefunden weshalb ich immer bei Yahoo lande. - Ich bedanke mich schon im voraus für ihre hilfe. mit freundlichen Grüßem Albert Schankula

I have turned all search features off in settings and changed all relevant entries to False in About:config and it is still happening! Why did this change, I do not want this, I did not ask for this and I want it to be returned to how it worked before! NOW!

I've been using 2 search bars for quite some time.

I use the top bar for URLs and the bar mid screen for ad-hoc searches.

(I know I can use the top bar for both but I'm long since retired, quite set in my ways and would rather not have to change unless absolutely necessary😉)

I was able to restore the mid screen search bar functionality using an about:config setting from memory when I first noticed the search bar consolidation a few years back.

It's been working fine until the latest update.

Latest update lets me activate the mid screen bar with a mouse click but any attempt to then enter anything causes focus to move to the top bar so text input on the mid screen bar is no longer possible.

I've tested this on 2 Win 11 desktops and 1 Win 10 desktop and see the same 'issue' arising after the update.

Has that functionality been removed entirely with the latest update or is there an about:config setting that can restore it?

I would like the web search feature back, what is the point of having it available to look at but it does not work? The box is there... why is there not an option for me to continue to use it? You have done this in the past but there was a work around. What work around I found through AI does not work:

"To restore the search box in Firefox 148.0, type "about:config" in the address bar, accept the risk, and search for "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar." Set this preference to false to enable the search box again."

This is disappointing, maddening too. I have used your product for many years.

It's frustrating, no matter what you set, the search always jumps to the address field. I enter known addresses in the address field. I SEARCH in the SEARCH FIELD. And I want that in the future too. How do I make it possible, permanently, to be able to search in the search field??? The following doesn't work (anymore).

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste handoff and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference to switch the value from true to false

First, please explain the relationship among Firefox, Mozilla and DuckDuckGo. Second, how to make Firefox open when compuetr starts. Third, how to make DDGo the search engine. Finally, how to delete email contacts. I have been doing some, but others show a red triangle and say "cannot delete this". Thank you for helping me, someday,soon, I hope , to escape the greedy clutches of MS. Gail

I'm struggling to disable this behavior of firefox. When I type "something: text", it's opening a pop-up asking "Open link with System Handler?".

I would rather just search the internet for "something: text".

How can I do that?

I've tried to play with parameters like network.protocol-handler.expose.something network.protocol-handler.app.something network.protocol-handler.external.something network.protocol-handler.warn-external.something

but didn't manage to do it

2026-02-17

for about 8 years now, on and off, on hundreds of OS-es, clean installs of firefox etc. sometimes - not always - typing into the firefox search bar and pressing enter does nothing

i have bit-warden, u-block-origin and stylus installed (but they shouldn't be running on the 'new-tab-page' - is my firefox sync-profile containing some firefox-breaking-errors? (latest Win-11)