This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Searchplugins in profile folder no longer recognized

TomRaabe
TomRaabe
more options

Firefox 40 (Ubuntu x64) no longer recognizes searchplugins in my profile folder. This behavior seems to be intentional, the pertaining bug being https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1109354. Search plugins “loaded from a distribution” supposedly still work, so how do I make my plugins “from distribution”? By the way, this sort of patronizing behavior (as with the new add-on signing) is really very annoying. Regards – Tom.

Firefox 40 (Ubuntu x64) no longer recognizes searchplugins in my profile folder. This behavior seems to be intentional, the pertaining bug being https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1109354. Search plugins “loaded from a distribution” supposedly still work, so how do I make my plugins “from distribution”? By the way, this sort of patronizing behavior (as with the new add-on signing) is really very annoying. Regards – Tom.

All Replies (5)

guigs
guigs
more options

I believe the distribution engines are those used in addons.mozilla.org. But honestly I do not know for sure. It is possible to manage search engines in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-search-bar-firefox#w_change-your...

TomRaabe
TomRaabe Question owner
more options

Thanks, but that’s not really a solution to my problem – not the only one I was having with FF 40. I’m downgrading to ESR now and I fear I’m going to have to find another browser by May 2016 (when support of FF 38 will end) :o(

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
more options

Any search plugin which is in the /searchplugins/ folder in the Profile folder which has the same <ShortName> as a default search engine won't be recognized or used in Firefox. The default search plugin takes precedence over a user installed search plugin when the name is the same.

The "trick" is to open the XML file for each unrecognized search engine in the /searchplugins/ folder and edited the <ShortName> to be different. I added a hyphen, as in Google- and saved the search engine XML file as google-.xml back in the /searchplugins/ folder. When I started Firefox I could see the three search engines that had "gone missing" in Firefox 40.

Plus the default search engines were moved out of the /searchplugins/ folder to keep them safe from being hijacked.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

In Firefox 40+ the built-in default search engines are no longer in the "/browser/searchengines/" folder, but have moved to the "/browser/omni.ja" archive.

In Firefox you can inspect the built-in default search engines by pasting this resource URI in the location bar (modify the language code if applicable).

  • resource:///chrome/en-US/locale/browser/searchplugins/
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Just a note about customizing the ShortName in your modified plugins: I read in an article that you get 16 characters, so you can't get too verbose.