The search bar in the middle of the default homepage is controlled by the search engine which is selected in the Search Bar. Try changing the "engine' that you have selected in the Search Bar.

Also, the search function in the Location Bar is also controlled by the selected engine in the Search Bar, as of sometime last week.

Thanks for the reply, ed.

As I said, other search engines continue to work normally from the Nightly Search Bar. It's only the Startpage engine that stopped working correctly a couple days ago. Instead of doing a search it just sends me to the Startpage home page. I don't use the Location Bar for searching, only the Search Bar.

A second computer that has not had the latest Nightly updates nor the Delta junk installed continues to function normally when using the Startpage engine from the Search Bar.

Try to use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/searchreset/

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).

Thanks for the reply, Cor.

I guess I forgot to mention that in addition to Reset Nightly I also tried SearchReset but that didn't work either.

My best guess is that the long URLs these search engines in the Search Bar use to perform their searches, such as this one for a Google search, "https://www.google.com/search?q=search&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-nightly," are probably stored someplace in the browser or in a file in the program folder or in the registry, etc., and the URL for Startpage searches got messed up somehow; it now only points to the Startpage home page. I haven't found any information on where they are stored or how to fix it. Of course it may be something else.  ??

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

If not then you need to reinstall Firefox.

Try to delete the search.json file and a possible search.sqlite file in the Firefox profile folder to reset the installed search engines to the default.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the searchplugins folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

You can 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.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences

Thanks, Cor.

First off, I have two searchplugins folders and each has an xml file for the default search engines only. When I add a new search engine from the Mozilla site it does not create an xml file for the new engine.

So on to the other suggestions...

Where are those two searchplugins folders located?

If you install a new search engine then this will be installed in the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

default xml files: 1. Nightly/browser/searchplugins 2. Nightly/metro/searchplugins

As you say, the newly installed search engine xml files are in the profile searchplugs folder. They all work normally except Startpage.

At this point I'm going to give up and forget about Startpage for the time being. Something must have changed in the new Nightly builds that is preventing a direct Startpage search from the Search Bar. As I noted earlier, Startpage still works fine on a second computer running an older version of Nightly.

Thanks for all the help!

So, you do not have a searchplugins folder in the main Firefox program folder (i.e. not in the browser folder)?

I assume that StartPage is a user installed search engine and thus is located in the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

The Startpage search engine is working normally again after a couple more Nightly updates.

Case closed.