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After updating to latest mozilla, address bar does not work when entering in any website.

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  • 11 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I just updated firefox and now the address bar will not direct to a website or direct to any previous website. Through shortcuts I can navigate to google's webpage and then look up websites from there but firefox direct URL entry does not work. I have tried restarting in safe mode but that does not allow me to enter anything and I have tried a clean reinstallation which changed nothing.

I just updated firefox and now the address bar will not direct to a website or direct to any previous website. Through shortcuts I can navigate to google's webpage and then look up websites from there but firefox direct URL entry does not work. I have tried restarting in safe mode but that does not allow me to enter anything and I have tried a clean reinstallation which changed nothing.

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use 38 for the moment

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Try to open a new window to see if the location/address bar work in that window.

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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If as suspected this is the issue reported in Bug 1180419

  1. There are workarounds or solutions.
    UPDATE 8th July Please look at Firefox 39 address bar not working /questions/1070999#answer-750702
  2. There is something you could do to help us in investigating this.

UPDATE 8th July Developer now have the required information

Sorry if this looks rather daunting.

If you need further help with any of this just say so. And of course if you just want fixes and not to help us; that is ok too; but you may need to wait a while longer as we try to figure out the best solutions, or get a fix into Firefox itself.


Quick Fix If you create a new additional Firefox profile you should find Firefox will work from that profile. There are additional steps that will be needed later to get Firefox back to normal. To save space instead of writing the steps in full here please look at the linked articles

At this time only follow the instructions in the first two section: Starting the Profile Manager and Creating a profile Maybe a suitable name for the profile would be test-2015. Please do not try any of the other steps such as renaming or deleting any profile without first of all asking again here.

When you next start Firefox you will get an option to choose which profile to use.

Does Firefox work ok from the new profile ?

  • NO (Or You failed to create the new profile)
    => Please post back, we will try some other method of helping you.
    OR skip to XX
  • YES => Please continue with these instructions.

We will try

  1. To ensure data and settings are preserved and safely backed up.
  2. A more focussed fix.
  3. To obtain some useful information to help everyone
  4. To get Firefox back to normal.

One. Please backup your Firefox Profile. Follow these instructions: Note. This refers to the original profile, usually called Default. Not the newly created profile.

You need to put this somewhere safe, outside of Firefox's profile or program paths. A folder, on the Desktop, or in My Documents are suitable locations.


Two: Another fix By now you will be used to finding your profile folder. Navigate to the profile folder by your chosen method. Look for the file named places.sqlite. Make sure this is the original profile, not the backup or the new one, and that Firefox is closed. Rename the file places.sqlite as places.sqlite.original01

This becomes yet another backup, but easily reinstated, and at the same time is disabled, and forces Firefox to create a new file. For others this has worked as a fix.

At this point Firefox should be working and fairly similar to what it was before. The only lost information should be the last set of bookmarks added. If you are lucky that may be only one bookmark. Please let us know what happened.


Three Help us by providing the error log. This is the probably the easiest part.

First we need a broken Firefox. If yours is not fixed then use that. If it is fixed then we will not try to undo all your hard work ! Instead we will try to break the test profile, and use that.

To break the test profile (Do the following whilst Firefox is closed)

  1. Take copy of places.sqlite.original01 and place that in the test profile.
  2. Rename the test profile's places.sqlite to places.sqlite.small (it is likely to be the smallest file, and probably never be needed again)
  3. Rename what is now the test profile'splaces.sqlite.original01 to places.sqlite

OK now start Firefox with the test profile. It should be broken.

  1. Open Firefox's error console
    Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+J
    OR Menu {Three bar icon) -> Developer {Spanner icon) -> Browser Console
  2. Initially try with clicking the coloured tabs and selecting for JS -> <s>warnings (edit ERRORS) and Net -> warnings ERRORS. Then key in a URL and try to go to it. The console should log errors.

If you get this for please post back we can check exactly what information the developers want. At this moment the main thing is just knowing you can see the error console and that it reacts when you attempt to load or reload a page.


Four What is not working or need fixing now ? Hopefully you lost only one or a few bookmarks. We could make attempts to recover them or they may not even be important to you. For instance

  1. Clearing the places.sqlite in the test profile
  2. Importing the HTML file made in stage one
    See also Import Bookmarks from an HTML file
  3. May result in a set of bookmarks including the folder Recently Bookmarked that may contain the missing bookmarks.

BUG Notes Bug 1180419 - After upgrading to Firefox 39, could not launch URL from Address bar. Enter key won't work.

  • Ordinarily we suggest it is inappropriate to comment in bugs as explained in etiquette
  • You can follow the bug progress from the link above.
  • If you are more interested you may register and CC yourself to follow by email.
  • And/OR you may wish to answer direct questions from those in the bug yourself i.e. providing error reports. We will happily pass on the information though if it is less bother.

Edit I probably should have asked for the errors not the warnings

Modified by John99

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