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URL Bar now shows my top sites instead of personal history.

  • 9 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Is there an option in about:config that makes the url bar not show my top sites? I know that disabling top sites or changing browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.topsites to false will make the url bar act like in the past, but i don't want to disable my top sites. When i open a new tab, i want the page to show my custom top sites and the url bar show suggestions based on my history.

Is there an option in about:config that makes the url bar not show my top sites? I know that disabling top sites or changing browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.topsites to false will make the url bar act like in the past, but i don't want to disable my top sites. When i open a new tab, i want the page to show my custom top sites and the url bar show suggestions based on my history.

Chosen solution

Hello Miguel Simões,

This is a temporary fix (so I'm told), but I am optimistically hoping that they will give us the opportunity to permanently disable this new feature.

Would you do this please :

Type in the address bar about:config and press Enter. (ignore the warning)

Type in the search bar and look for the preference :

browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus

and set its value to false

Do the same with these preferences :

browser.urlbar.update1

browser.urlbar.update1.interventions

browser.urlbar.update1.searchTips

Then close and restart Firefox.

(if it's only the Top Sites suggestions that you want to get rid of :
setting the value of first preference to "false" will do that)

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (9)

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Chosen Solution

Hello Miguel Simões,

This is a temporary fix (so I'm told), but I am optimistically hoping that they will give us the opportunity to permanently disable this new feature.

Would you do this please :

Type in the address bar about:config and press Enter. (ignore the warning)

Type in the search bar and look for the preference :

browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus

and set its value to false

Do the same with these preferences :

browser.urlbar.update1

browser.urlbar.update1.interventions

browser.urlbar.update1.searchTips

Then close and restart Firefox.

(if it's only the Top Sites suggestions that you want to get rid of :
setting the value of first preference to "false" will do that)

Modified by McCoy

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McCoy thank you for your reply. Unfortunately the browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus option will remove the drop down menu completely. I want the top sites gone but i want to keep the suggestions based on my history, as it was on FF 74

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Miguel Simões said

McCoy thank you for your reply. Unfortunately the browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus option will remove the drop down menu completely. I want the top sites gone but i want to keep the suggestions based on my history, as it was on FF 74

I think you may need to add code to a user Chrome.css file, which I know nothing about, but some other contributors do.

I'm sure that one of them will come to your rescue.

Sorry for the confusion.

Modified by McCoy

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Nope, no arrow. It's either the list of my top sites or no list at all if i change browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus to false

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Miguel Simões said

Nope, no arrow.
It's either the list of my top sites or no list at all if i change
browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus to false

    I edited my previous post .....

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Miguel Simões said

Nope, no arrow.

That's weird; I changed the values of all four preferences, and when I hover over an empty space on the address bar, I get that arrow .....

Oh well, never mind - I'm sure that someone else will see this and come to your rescue.

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McCoy, sorry.. i didn't test to see if an arrow appeared with all those modified entries. You are right, an arrow does appear.

Changing the browser.urlbar.update1 value to false is the only thing needed to bring back the old list that i wanted. I can keep the browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus option turned on so i don't need to click the arrow.. thanks a lot. Unfortunately, the url bar also goes back to the version that doesn't get bigger when in focus. It would be awesome to have the new design with the old list.. but anyway, i shouldn't complain, i have what i wanted. Thanks.

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Good for you to have figured it out - well done !

I'm glad I could help.

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Note that it also makes a difference what items are enabled in "Options/Preferences -> Home" for the new tab page to determine what the suggestions to include.

The location bar drop-down list can show history items, bookmarked pages, pages opened in tabs, and search suggestions. You can set what suggestions show when you enter an URL in the location/address bar bar.

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security
    Address Bar: When using the location bar, suggest:
    History
    Bookmarks
    Open tabs

You can type '^' to initiate a history search. See Changing results on the fly: