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Search bar/Address bar Not Working

ritanichols75
ritanichols75
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Starting yesterday, I noticed my search/address bar no longer works right. When I type a search term or web address into the bar and hit the enter key, nothing happens. Nothing happens when I click the "go" arrow on the righthand edge of the bar either.

When I first click on the bar, a menu pops up below it and one of the options is "search with Google". If I click this option, it puts @google at the beginning of the bar, and search works just fine. But this extra step is irritating, and it doesn't work to take me directly to a website. For example to get to Pinterest, instead of typing pinterest.com in the bar and going directly there, I have to type "@google pinterest", and click on the first search result.

I read some past topics addressing this question, and have tried clearing my cache, refreshing Firefox, and restarting Firefox in SafeMode. None of these have helped (and even in SafeMode I still had the same problem). Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

Starting yesterday, I noticed my search/address bar no longer works right. When I type a search term or web address into the bar and hit the enter key, nothing happens. Nothing happens when I click the "go" arrow on the righthand edge of the bar either. When I first click on the bar, a menu pops up below it and one of the options is "search with Google". If I click this option, it puts @google at the beginning of the bar, and search works just fine. But this extra step is irritating, and it doesn't work to take me directly to a website. For example to get to Pinterest, instead of typing pinterest.com in the bar and going directly there, I have to type "@google pinterest", and click on the first search result. I read some past topics addressing this question, and have tried clearing my cache, refreshing Firefox, and restarting Firefox in SafeMode. None of these have helped (and even in SafeMode I still had the same problem). Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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When you type a few letters, does Firefox generate any matches from your history in the drop-down?

Have you noticed any problems saving new bookmarks?

If history and bookmarks aren't working correctly, it can indicate a locked or corrupted file. The best first step is a normal shutdown and restart of Firefox and Windows, to free up locked files. However, if problems continue, please let us know what you get when you run the "Verify Integrity" function. That's here:

Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

Near the bottom, there is a section titled Places Database -- that's the file which stores history and bookmarks. Click the button labeled Verify Integrity. There may be a 10-15 second delay before results appear.

If all is well, the report that appears below the button should start with: 

> Task: checkIntegrity
+ The places.sqlite database is sane
+ The favicons.sqlite database is sane

Does yours say that, or something else? You can select and copy the report, and then paste it into a reply for review and comment.

ritanichols75
ritanichols75 Question owner
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The problem seems to have gone away on its own after a few days. Before it went away, Firefox was generating search suggestions when I started typing in the address bar, but I think they were predictive rather than from my history. I don't think there were any problems saving new bookmarks, but I don't save new bookmarks that often so I'm not sure if I tried it.

I'm still mystified as to what the problem was, but if it comes back I'll try your suggestions.