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Searchplugins in profile folder no longer recognized

TomRaabe
TomRaabe
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Firefox 40 (Ubuntu x64) no longer recognizes searchplugins in my profile folder. This behavior seems to be intentional, the pertaining bug being https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1109354. Search plugins “loaded from a distribution” supposedly still work, so how do I make my plugins “from distribution”? By the way, this sort of patronizing behavior (as with the new add-on signing) is really very annoying. Regards – Tom.

Firefox 40 (Ubuntu x64) no longer recognizes searchplugins in my profile folder. This behavior seems to be intentional, the pertaining bug being https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1109354. Search plugins “loaded from a distribution” supposedly still work, so how do I make my plugins “from distribution”? By the way, this sort of patronizing behavior (as with the new add-on signing) is really very annoying. Regards – Tom.

All Replies (5)

guigs
guigs
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I believe the distribution engines are those used in addons.mozilla.org. But honestly I do not know for sure. It is possible to manage search engines in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-search-bar-firefox#w_change-your...

TomRaabe
TomRaabe Question owner
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Thanks, but that’s not really a solution to my problem – not the only one I was having with FF 40. I’m downgrading to ESR now and I fear I’m going to have to find another browser by May 2016 (when support of FF 38 will end) :o(

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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Any search plugin which is in the /searchplugins/ folder in the Profile folder which has the same <ShortName> as a default search engine won't be recognized or used in Firefox. The default search plugin takes precedence over a user installed search plugin when the name is the same.

The "trick" is to open the XML file for each unrecognized search engine in the /searchplugins/ folder and edited the <ShortName> to be different. I added a hyphen, as in Google- and saved the search engine XML file as google-.xml back in the /searchplugins/ folder. When I started Firefox I could see the three search engines that had "gone missing" in Firefox 40.

Plus the default search engines were moved out of the /searchplugins/ folder to keep them safe from being hijacked.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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In Firefox 40+ the built-in default search engines are no longer in the "/browser/searchengines/" folder, but have moved to the "/browser/omni.ja" archive.

In Firefox you can inspect the built-in default search engines by pasting this resource URI in the location bar (modify the language code if applicable).

  • resource:///chrome/en-US/locale/browser/searchplugins/
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Just a note about customizing the ShortName in your modified plugins: I read in an article that you get 16 characters, so you can't get too verbose.