Hmm, it seems to be working normally for me. I'm testing on Windows 7, if that makes a difference.

How are you entering the second term after the first? For example, are you backspacing out the first word? Usually as the existing word gets shorter and shorter you would start getting suggestions again.

Oh sorry to mention that this only happens on a Mac. My Linux and Windows machines don't have this problem.

I'm curious whether Firefox is sending your partially typed search string to Google normally as you backspace out the text that doesn't match anything. I'm not sure how you can see that, though. Sometimes Mac users report the connections being made by Firefox as they can see them using a program called Little Snitch. I don't know whether that is free and whether it works with HTTPS connections, so that might not be helpful in this case.

Actually, a closer look at your second screen shot shows a thick line, as though that section is there but not visible for some reason. Firefox does have different style rules for the panel in different OSes, so it could be a native/built-in problem. But we should rule out other possible causes: do you use any custom style rules or extensions that might affect the appearance of the search bar drop-panel?

jscher2000 said

Actually, a closer look at your second screen shot shows a thick line, as though that section is there but not visible for some reason.

This is correct, it's just resized so small that I can't see any results. If I press down, it will actually go to the first suggestion. It doesn't just go down to zero height. If I search for something with only two results first, then search for something with more you can see my newly attached image that the height changed to show only two suggestions.

jscher2000 said

do you use any custom style rules or extensions that might affect the appearance of the search bar drop-panel?

I don't have any custom style. I have almost the most minimalistic setup where I have two add-ons (Zotero and Ad-block plus) and none of the advanced settings have been changed. I have actually recently resetted my browser using the reset button along with my firefox account deleted so I can start fresh, due to some certificate problem I was having.

In fact this problem has been around for more than a year. Back then I thought it's a problem that it will be fixed if given enough time.

My further analysis: I realised that this problem will only occur within my Retina display. If I plug in an external display (1920x1080) and open up firefox, this problem won't actually occur. If I drag that same window back to my retina display and perform the same step, the problem will arise again and it persists when I drag the window back to external monitor.

According to a random website, the Retina display on a MacBook may have either of these resolutions:

2880x1800 2560x1600

Either of those is higher than full HD, so there are some special style rules but I don't see one related to the height of that suggestion area, only for higher resolution icons.

The suggestion area is a "flex" element, so it can shrink under vertical height pressure from other elements on the panel, but yours is nearly blank. Are you hiding the other search engine icons? Does it make any difference if you allow one to show (e.g., Bing) by "checking" on the Search panel of the Preferences page? Or you could add one from this site or another site that supports a custom search engine plugin.

jscher2000 said

Are you hiding the other search engine icons? Does it make any difference if you allow one to show (e.g., Bing) by "checking" on the Search panel of the Preferences page? Or you could add one from this site or another site that supports a custom search engine plugin.

That's interesting, if I add just one extra search engine, any one will do, it does fix the problem. If I then remove them back and have only Google, the problem will arise again.

I don't know whether this really does fix the problem though, since I really don't like having other buttons as they can be accessed accidentally, which I do sometimes due to quick clicking or keyboard shortcuts.

Thank you for testing that. I agree it isn't a solution, but it points to a computation issue that probably arises from no one testing that scenario. I'll try to search to see whether a bug has been filed; often I don't get the magic combination of wording, however...

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

jscher2000 said

often I don't get the magic combination of wording, however...

Yeah, I have the same problem...I've been searching around for this for very long and found nothing, but I don't even know what to search for that's correct. I will have a look at bugzilla as well.

If you have, in the end, posted the bug, I guess I can mark this question as solved.

Thank you very much for this, by the way.

Since I cannot replicate this on Windows, you may want to file the bug so you can answer any questions that come up.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi

jscher2000 said

Since I cannot replicate this on Windows, you may want to file the bug so you can answer any questions that come up. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi

I've logged the issue. Shall I wait until the issue is fixed before closing this?

It's up to you. It's not "solved" yet as far as I'm concerned.

Bug #1277605 – Search suggestion box permanently 0 height after searching for something with no results on retina display