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home page search doesnt work

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the search button doesnt work i have reset the fire fox and i have disabled all add ons and i dont know how to config so help please

the search button doesnt work i have reset the fire fox and i have disabled all add ons and i dont know how to config so help please

All Replies (13)

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Do the other two searches work: address bar (URL bar) and search bar (the one with the drop-down list to choose your search engine), or are those also broken?

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yes the other ones work but the home page search doesnt and i have reinstalled the program

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Thank you for clarifying that.

Does the Enter key work on that page?

When you did the full scale Firefox Reset that removes your extensions, did the page ever work, even the first time, and then stop working? Or it never even got started?

There is a smaller-scale reset add-on you could try that just repairs search providers:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/searchreset/


Some random Firefox problems can be caused by incompatible graphics drivers. To rule that out, could you try disabling Firefox's use of hardware graphics acceleration?

You usually need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

If you restart Firefox, is the issue resolved or improved?

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OK i all ready have it on acceleration and yes it did work the home page search i do have a them called lava loaded on here but even if i disable it it still doesn't work

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You can check if you still have the XML files of the default search engines including Google in the searchplugins folder in Firefox program folder.

  • (32 bit Windows) C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
  • (64 bit Windows) C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\

If not then you need to reinstall Firefox.

You can check for problems with preferences and try to rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js files and a possible user.js file to reset all prefs to the default values.

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where do i find xml files

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Okay, so the Enter key works, but the button does not work.

I can't think of a reason for that, but hopefully another volunteer will have more suggestions.

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ok thanks but the Enter key works the button on the home page doesnt

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If you use Inspect Element via the right-click context menu, do you see that the input id="searchSubmit" element get selected?

Current Firefox versions have a lot of built-in web developer tools including an Inspector and Style editor.


Reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref via the right-click context menu to the default on the about:config page and close and restart Firefox.

  1. Open the about:config page via the location bar
  2. Type in the Filter bar: mstone
  3. Right-click the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone line and select: Reset
  4. Close and restart Firefox

If this didn't help then delete the delete the chromeappsstore.sqlite file in the Firefox Profile Folder and repeat the above.

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I have done all of the above with no success including uninstalling and reinstalling. I finally deleted the account on my computer, set up a new account, reinstalled Firefox and had no problems initially. Within 12 hours the problem re-appeared - Search unable to be used with "enter" or using the search button. The location bar works. The bookmarks work. I re-applied the solutions offered above with no success. Logging off and relogging on does not change this. Restarting does not change this. Please advise me on the next step to use this product as I am a college student and the college website demands the use of Firefox (Windows 7, Toshiba)

Modified by silent25

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Hi silent25, if it works temporarily and then stops working, this may be related to (dysfunctional) changes being made by an add-on or external software.

If you check the following setting, does it say anything other than Google?

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the filter box, type or paste search and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Review browser.search.defaultenginename and right-click>Reset if needed.


As a short-term workaround, consider making Google (or your preferred search engine) your home page (help article) instead of using the built-in home page. If you ever need to access that page, you can type or paste about:home in the address bar (or bookmark that).

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I did the about:config suggestion but it kept resetting to "Babylon". How do I make it stay?

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Hi silent25, Babylon software has several components whose names may provide no hint as to their actual behavior. Try this:

Disable ALL nonessential or unrecognized add-ons on these two tabs:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Plugins category
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Extensions category

If in doubt, disable. Then, using one of the links provided on the Extensions list, restart Firefox.

You will need to update your default search engine one more time. As a shortcut, you can run the Search Reset extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/searchreset/

Finally, check for a user.js file as described in the following article: How to fix preferences that won't save.

Can you get free from it?

Note: There are many Babylon-specific threads on the forum, so if you would like additional ideas, try searching for Babylon.