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new tab about:home search does not work

  • 5 replies
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  • Last reply by cor-el

stevieray
stevieray
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I installed 18.0 today. I have it set up to open FF search page (about:home) when I open a new tab. This search page no longer functions; I can input search terms, but neither the search button nor enter does anything. It just sits there.

I tried the steps outlined here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/934580?esab=a&as=aaq It didn't help. I also tried addons disabled. No go.

I installed 18.0 today. I have it set up to open FF search page (about:home) when I open a new tab. This search page no longer functions; I can input search terms, but neither the search button nor enter does anything. It just sits there. I tried the steps outlined here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/934580?esab=a&as=aaq It didn't help. I also tried addons disabled. No go.

Modified by stevieray

Chosen solution

OK. Found the problem. It was Tab Mix Plus.

Options > Tabs > Tab Mix Plus Options > New Tabs > address: was reset during the upgrade to "home:newtab" while the browser.newtab.url was "about:home". Set them both to about:home and now it works fine.

(Note: I don't know why disabling addons didn't work... it should have disabled Tab Mix Plus and eliminated the conflict.)

EDIT. Yes, I restarted the browser. And I had tried both of those other steps before I asked for help... see the link in my original question.

Thanks for the help, cor-el.

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All Replies (5)

cor-el
cor-el
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Try to reset some preferences to the default with the SearchReset extension:

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

You need to close and restart Firefox to make the about:home page work properly.

If this didn't help then try this:

Reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref via the right-click context menu to the default on the about:config page and close and restart Firefox to restore the about:home page to its default.

  1. Open the about:config page via the location bar
  2. Type in the Filter bar: mstone
  3. Right-click the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone line and select: Reset
  4. Close and restart Firefox

If this didn't help then delete the delete the chromeappsstore.sqlite file in the Firefox Profile Folder and repeat the above.

Modified by cor-el

stevieray
stevieray Question owner
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Thanks for the reply, cor-el.

I just tried the search reset addon. No help.

I found that if I manually change browser.newtab.url from about:home to another search engine (like www.google.com or www.bing.com) it works just fine. Interesting.

cor-el
cor-el
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Did you restart Firefox after installing SearchReset?

Did you try the second suggestion and reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref on the about:config page and close and restart Firefox?

stevieray
stevieray Question owner
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Chosen Solution

OK. Found the problem. It was Tab Mix Plus.

Options > Tabs > Tab Mix Plus Options > New Tabs > address: was reset during the upgrade to "home:newtab" while the browser.newtab.url was "about:home". Set them both to about:home and now it works fine.

(Note: I don't know why disabling addons didn't work... it should have disabled Tab Mix Plus and eliminated the conflict.)

EDIT. Yes, I restarted the browser. And I had tried both of those other steps before I asked for help... see the link in my original question.

Thanks for the help, cor-el.

Modified by stevieray

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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If prefs were set incorrectly by an extension then starting in Safe mode wouldn't reset them to meaningful value (safe mode doesn't affect prefs).