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Unable to restore or install Firefox search bar

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  • Last reply by Andonso1

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I was running Firefox 61.0 or 61.1 and all of sudden the search bar just right of the url bar disappeared.

I didn't think anything about it and let it go for a while thinking it could be easily restored.

The search bar I'm referring to is the one with various search engines available from a drop down menu that can be customized. It was configured with approx a dozen search engines, google being the default search engine. some of the search engines besides google were, amazon, ebay, Wikipedia, encyclopedias, yahoo, YouTube, etc.

I tried restoring this search bar via firefox customize without any success. I also tried disabling some of the add-on in case one of the add-ons was effecting the search bar.

Eventually after uninstalling Firefox and deleting any path files I rebooted and re-installed Firefox (fresh) and now am at version 60.0.2. IIRC the previous version 61.x was installed from a beta download.

However after a fresh installation I'm still unable to find the user configurable search bar. The re-installation did save my bookmarks but none of the previously installed add-ons were preserved.

I was running Firefox 61.0 or 61.1 and all of sudden the search bar just right of the url bar disappeared. I didn't think anything about it and let it go for a while thinking it could be easily restored. The search bar I'm referring to is the one with various search engines available from a drop down menu that can be customized. It was configured with approx a dozen search engines, google being the default search engine. some of the search engines besides google were, amazon, ebay, Wikipedia, encyclopedias, yahoo, YouTube, etc. I tried restoring this search bar via firefox customize without any success. I also tried disabling some of the add-on in case one of the add-ons was effecting the search bar. Eventually after uninstalling Firefox and deleting any path files I rebooted and re-installed Firefox (fresh) and now am at version 60.0.2. IIRC the previous version 61.x was installed from a beta download. However after a fresh installation I'm still unable to find the user configurable search bar. The re-installation did save my bookmarks but none of the previously installed add-ons were preserved.

Modified by Andonso1

Chosen solution

Type about:preferences#search in the URL bar and hit Enter.

Select the option that says Add search bar in toolbar,

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Chosen Solution

Type about:preferences#search in the URL bar and hit Enter.

Select the option that says Add search bar in toolbar,

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Well, that worked and the Firefox Search is now back. I previous performed a google search but didn't see that option from my search results.

Odd that a fresh install doesn't enable the search bar. I guess that's something to remember when installing Firefox, that the search bar may or may not be enabled.

Modified by Andonso1