How can I remove this awful "Search for anything you want" screen that keeps preventing me from returning to my launcher's home screen?
I'm a long-time user of Firefox for Android. I love it. However, something very frustrating has been going on recently.
I have a Galaxy S5 Active ( Physical home button ) and lately, nearly every time I press the home button, I get this extremely irritating screen which displays "Search quickly for anything you want". Sometimes I press the home button over and over and it won't go away. I will press home after reading an SMS, and there it is. It is driving me insane, and there have been times where I have really wanted my phone to work "right now" and that screen pops up and gets in my way.
This didn't used to exist for me. I really, REALLY don't want to switch to a different browser, but I can't find any info on how to deal with / suppress this new search screen.
Any way to do this? Or can this issue be addressed if not? I wondered if it had something to do with having an actual home button, as opposed to a capacitive one.
Thanks for reading.
All Replies (4)
For the Samsung S5
- Android settings
- Select 'Default applications'
- Find Firefox and press clear
This will clear the default for long pressing the home button.
Thank you for the reply. I wanted to wait awhile in order to ensure that this corrected the issue. For a brief while, it did! However, it did not take long before the screen began once again hijacking my home button presses. This occurs even with Firefox removed from default applications ( triple-checked ).
This never happened before version 35.
you could also try an app like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hk.sld.SwipeLaunchDisabler as a workaround...
UPDATE-
The issue seems to be with the KitKat 4.4.4 Update from AT&T ( Unaware if this is a global 4.4.4 update issue or carrier-specific ).
Many people were having this same issue, except with Google Now. I long ago disabled the Google app, so Firefox Search took it's place. The Swipe Launch Disabler prevented the search screen, but the home button interruptions continued. It simply did nothing, as the Disabler intercepted the button press, but did not bring up the home screen. A user in one of the other forums mentioned removing the battery and doing a cold reset. As I had rebooted the phone before with no success I was skeptical, but went ahead and pulled the battery for a few minutes and restarted. That was about 24 hours ago, and so far I've yet to have any issues!
I suspect that due to the OTA update, something was a little messed up and required the cold restart to correct itself... Who knows...
Thanks for the posted suggestions.
P.S. -> I take back calling Firefox Search "awful" :)