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search bar does not operate after refresh

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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My Mozilla search bar and the search bar in the tool bar line does not operate. I have to put in web address to get somewhere and can not search from other sites with search box in tool bar line. Just mozilla toolbar there. Plug Ins are up to date.

My Mozilla search bar and the search bar in the tool bar line does not operate. I have to put in web address to get somewhere and can not search from other sites with search box in tool bar line. Just mozilla toolbar there. Plug Ins are up to date.

All Replies (5)

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What search engine is selected if you check that in Options/Preferences > Search?

Do you still see all default search engines?


Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window
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Hi, Thanks for the reply. Under Options/Search I do not see any search engines and if i try to hit restore, nothing happens. Should I add more search engines? I can search internet from yahoo.com homepage though.

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You can check if you have the XML files of the default search engines including Google in the \browser\searchplugins folder in the Firefox program folder.

If not then you need to reinstall Firefox.


Try to delete the search.json file and possible search-metadata.json and search.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

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Yes! It worked just downloading a new version over the refresh . Not sure why but after 2hrs and 2 cups of coffee, I am happy. Did not know I could just do that without your help, checked options now and everything is great. Thanks again, very much.