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After resetting firefox, I can no longer search from the address bar

DownrangeFuture
DownrangeFuture
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Like the title says I can't search from the address bar "awesome bar" anymore. I just get a 404 error when I try. Searching just lists tons of people getting the "just update keyword.url" answer that's no longer valid. And hasn't been for several years.

I got a browser hijack somewhere. Not sure where, and nothing was installed on my computer so I reset firefox and lost all my search engines. IE was fixed with an uninstall/reinstall. Chrome hates my face and no longer runs. (And google's help is... well if I wanted to be insulted...) I've reinstalled several times. No dice. I've now reset firefox three times. It's just not working. I've ran several virus scanners, ran several malware programs, and even asked my IT department. (They don't care cause IE works and their stupid "virus scan" was clean. I mean it took 30 seconds. What the hell did it actually scan?)

Surely there's a keyword or something that I'm missing that needs to be reset so I can get my address bar searching again.

Like the title says I can't search from the address bar "awesome bar" anymore. I just get a 404 error when I try. Searching just lists tons of people getting the "just update keyword.url" answer that's no longer valid. And hasn't been for several years. I got a browser hijack somewhere. Not sure where, and nothing was installed on my computer so I reset firefox and lost all my search engines. IE was fixed with an uninstall/reinstall. Chrome hates my face and no longer runs. (And google's help is... well if I wanted to be insulted...) I've reinstalled several times. No dice. I've now reset firefox three times. It's just not working. I've ran several virus scanners, ran several malware programs, and even asked my IT department. (They don't care cause IE works and their stupid "virus scan" was clean. I mean it took 30 seconds. What the hell did it actually scan?) Surely there's a keyword or something that I'm missing that needs to be reset so I can get my address bar searching again.

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Current Firefox versions use the default search engine that is set in the search bar as well for searching via the location bar and on the about:home page.

You can use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

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).

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extension (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

You can check the connection settings.

If you do not need to use a proxy to connect to internet then try to select "No Proxy" if "Use the system proxy settings" or one of the others do not work properly.

See "Firefox connection settings":

DownrangeFuture
DownrangeFuture Question owner
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I followed your suggestions (obviously from the common responses, but somewhat helpful nonetheless) and now my search works as long as I don't search for a single word. For instance "random" throws a 404 error, and "random search" gives your typical search page.

Safe mode doesn't change things one way or another.