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On google.ca, enter key does not trigger the google search action. I have to manually click the search button

  • 9 replies
  • 23 have this problem
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  • Last reply by patriot76

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Hi there. Recently I upgraded to Firefox 4.0.1. I don't recall if the issue occurred prior to this upgrade, but as of right now, if I go to my homepage of www.google.ca and type in a search criteria and hit the enter key, what used to happen of course, is that it would trigger the actual search and the page would refresh with any matching results.

This no longer happens. If I click the button labelled "Google Search" the search works. It's just the enter key that doesn't seem to register.

On a side note, F5 no longer refreshes my page, and I'm sure this worked previously. Now I have to click the Go/Stop/Reload button to the right of the address bar.

Hi there. Recently I upgraded to Firefox 4.0.1. I don't recall if the issue occurred prior to this upgrade, but as of right now, if I go to my homepage of www.google.ca and type in a search criteria and hit the enter key, what used to happen of course, is that it would trigger the actual search and the page would refresh with any matching results. This no longer happens. If I click the button labelled "Google Search" the search works. It's just the enter key that doesn't seem to register. On a side note, F5 no longer refreshes my page, and I'm sure this worked previously. Now I have to click the Go/Stop/Reload button to the right of the address bar.

All Replies (9)

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Do you have AVG Safe Search installed? It blocks the use of the Enter key after typing in a search.

Disable it by clicking the Firefox button, go to Add-ons, then Extensions. You should be able to find it in there.

If the problem persists, try running Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode. If it functions properly in that configuration, then one of your add-ons is the culprit.

Modified by Xircal

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Xircal, thx for the reply. I had checked in this location and I do not have AVG Safe Search installed that I can see. I will try your suggestion about safe mode and report back with the results.

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I shut down and brought my Windows XP computer back up in safe mode, and saw the same result. Enter key did not launch google query, but the Google Search button could be clicked. Any other suggestions?

Addtionally, does the firefox forum community have something like a "My questions" link? otherwise I have to go to my email to find a link to my question.

Thx.

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The link is called "My Contributions" in https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions. But if you've subscribed to the email option, you'll get one whenever somebody responds.

If you use Webmail, right click the tab after you log in and choose "Pin as app tab". It should turn a different colour when an email arrives. You can also install this add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/webmail-notifier/

This has nothing to do with solving your problem though.

Try creating a new Profile. See Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data. If that works, you can retrieve data like passwords, bookmarks etc., and move them to the new profile. See Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

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Thx again. And yes, I do get the emails.

With regards to the enter key issue on google, I noticed something interesting. When I go to the main google page (www.google.ca) and insert my cursor into the editable field, as stated the enter key doesn't trigger the query. So, I click google search button and get my results. If after this I change the keywords of the query, say for example I change "enter key doesn't work" to "enter key on google doesn't work" and hit enter, it works from this page. So it only seems to be the main load of google, but after a search returns, I can change it and from here enter works. strange.

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Did you try the profile route?

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The new Profile would be for? Accessing my questions on this support page? I can do that at some point, but it's not a significant issue at the moment. My bigger frustration was with the enter key on the google site's main page.

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See: What information is stored in my Profile?

By creating a new one, you're effectively running Firefox as if you've never had installed on your system before. If that solves the problem, then something in the old Profile is what's causing it.

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A Firefox extension called XULRunner 1.9.1 is a form of malware masquerading as XULRunner that redirects Google search links to different Web sites. I found this listed in my add-ons, removed it and all is well.