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Address bar doesn't search history

BWPanda
BWPanda
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My wife's Firefox isn't showing search results from her history when typing in the address bar. In fact, nothing is being displayed when typing in the address bar. You can still search via Google by hitting Enter, but the autocomplete doesn't show/work.

I've tried:

  • Checking the settings (confirming they're enabled, disabling them, restarting FF, enabling them, restarting FF)
  • Restarting with add-ons disabled
  • Exporting and re-importing bookmarks
  • Renaming 'places.sqlite' and restarting
  • Creating a new FF profile, signing into FF Sync to import her bookmarks, etc.

Nothing works. The address bar autocomplete simply doesn't work. Advice much appreciated!

My wife's Firefox isn't showing search results from her history when typing in the address bar. In fact, nothing is being displayed when typing in the address bar. You can still search via Google by hitting Enter, but the autocomplete doesn't show/work. I've tried: * Checking the settings (confirming they're enabled, disabling them, restarting FF, enabling them, restarting FF) * Restarting with add-ons disabled * Exporting and re-importing bookmarks * Renaming 'places.sqlite' and restarting * Creating a new FF profile, signing into FF Sync to import her bookmarks, etc. Nothing works. The address bar autocomplete simply doesn't work. Advice much appreciated!

Modified by BWPanda

Chosen solution

Ok, I figured it out.

I setup a new profile, confirmed autocomplete worked. I then copied `places.sqlite` from the main profile to the new one and checked again - still worked (restarted FF in-between). I did this for everything that FF Sync was syncing (e.g. bookmarks, extensions, passwords, etc.). I manually copied these things from the main profile to the new, checking after each one to see if the autocomplete still worked or not. It did, until I copied `prefs.js`, then it stopped working. So I had found the suspect.

Then I opened `prefs.js` and searched for 'bar' (since I'd read somewhere before in my previous research into this issue about a setting with 'bar' in the name that had something to do with this). For each setting, I reset the value in the main profile (via `about:config`) and then checked to see if the autocomplete worked or not. It started working after I reset the value for the `browser.urlbar.maxRichResults` setting (the current value that caused the issue was `0`, the default value that works is `10`). I'm not sure how/why this got set to `0`, and I can't find this setting in the UI, but at least I found the issue and it's working properly again.

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All Replies (6)

crankygoat
crankygoat
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Wow, people work hard to get that effect every time Firefox updates. They have to use userscripts to do so, edit them almost every update, and make sure a special about:config preference is toggled on.

Had you tested with an empty profile? Syncing may possibly be importing a problematic thing from the old profile into the new profile.

(Also, would this be the Windows 10 machine with the Firefox problem? Just checking to be sure.)

BWPanda
BWPanda Question owner
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I hadn't tested with an empty profile before, but I just created a new profile and the address bar does indeed work as expected in that case. So it does seem that something in the synced data is causing the issue...

Yes, the problem is on my wife's Windows 10 machine running Firefox (I'm just posting these comments from my Linux machine running Brave).

crankygoat
crankygoat
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I don't do Sync, so i don't know all what it syncs between profiles, but you should be able to import bookmarks and passwords without problems.

If importing bookmarks does cause the issue, you can export them as html from the old profile, and import that into the new profile.

BWPanda
BWPanda Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

Ok, I figured it out.

I setup a new profile, confirmed autocomplete worked. I then copied `places.sqlite` from the main profile to the new one and checked again - still worked (restarted FF in-between). I did this for everything that FF Sync was syncing (e.g. bookmarks, extensions, passwords, etc.). I manually copied these things from the main profile to the new, checking after each one to see if the autocomplete still worked or not. It did, until I copied `prefs.js`, then it stopped working. So I had found the suspect.

Then I opened `prefs.js` and searched for 'bar' (since I'd read somewhere before in my previous research into this issue about a setting with 'bar' in the name that had something to do with this). For each setting, I reset the value in the main profile (via `about:config`) and then checked to see if the autocomplete worked or not. It started working after I reset the value for the `browser.urlbar.maxRichResults` setting (the current value that caused the issue was `0`, the default value that works is `10`). I'm not sure how/why this got set to `0`, and I can't find this setting in the UI, but at least I found the issue and it's working properly again.

crankygoat
crankygoat
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Nice detective work!

Thanks for reporting your solution and marking it.

somename5733
somename5733
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I switched off search suggestions and increased browser.urlbar.maxRichResults and it worked out, thanks!