HI autoMotorbiker, Thank you for your question. I understand that there is an issue with searches in the url bar. I also understand that you are using http to connect to sites as a work around. Please check to make sure that you are not forcing https on a proxy, filter, etc.

Also in about:config you can set browser.urlbar.autoFill. double-click it and change its value to false.

Thanks for the reply.

I tried doing changing that setting in about:config and I restarted Firefox but the problem persisted.

I'm not forcing proxies or filters.

HTTPS also works fine. It only doesn't work when I do a search in the awesome bar or a search bar (located on the right of the awesomebar). For example, HTTPS Google search in "https://www.google.co.nz" works fine.

What is wrong with using secure search engines? If they are encrypted, then nobody intercepting the information can get a list of your searches.

Please try Safe Mode to make sure there is not an add on affecting your awesome bar Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode

Also you are saying if you type "https search for item" that sites with https do not work? Are they search results on the search engine page after the search or are they auto completed urls?

Could you test using an add-on search plugin?

The standard search plugins are stored in Firefox's program folder, while add-on search plugins are stored in your personal profile folder. I'm curious whether you will get a different result between the two.

You can add a search plugin from this page, for example:

https://startpage.com/eng/download-startpage-plugin.html

Sites with HTTPS do indeed work but for some reason, if I type anything on the {address bar / search bar} Firefox auto-completes the url to include an 's' at the end of 'http' so that it searches in HTTPS. This autocompleted url is the one that does not work. However, if I manually type in 'https://google.com', it works. Other websites with HTTPS that I manually type in also work.

Like I said, I tried changing that setting in about:config, as guigs2 suggested and I restarted Firefox but the problem persisted.

After that, I used an administrator account to do some computer maintenance.I installed & uninstalled programs using mainly ninite and revo uninstaller. I also deleted some files because I thought that they were taking too much space. I then shut the computer down.

When I opened it again, the firefox search bars and the awesome bar work again. I don't think that guigs2 's solution solved my problem because when I checked that setting (browser.urlbar.autoFill), its value was true instead of false. I think that my problem had more to do with my system than firefox in particular.

My problem is solved for now. I appreciate everyone's effort.

Well, my problem is back, but I think I know more about it.

Firefox was working well in the limited account that I was using. I then closed the window and opened it again. The problem appeared.

I was installing add-ons before closing Firefox and when I closed the window, I noticed that I had different add-ons. I then realized that when Firefox was working properly, it was using the default profile of the ADMINISTRATOR account'. I have no idea how I managed to use the profile of the administrator account in this limited account, but in that account, I had an Avira add-on installed and when Firefox was working, I clearly saw its red icon on the top-right of the Window when it was working. However, when I closed it, it used the limited account's profile so I couldn't see the Avira icon.

Also for some reason, I can't use a 'search plugin' such as tineye or deeperweb. I successfully installed both addons but they do not appear as options to be one of my search engines in the search bar.

I will try safe mode now ...

Problem persists in safe mode. It still displays "This Connection is Untrusted".

I tried something different this time. It said that the site "uses an invalid security certificate. " but I just selected "Add Exception" and put in "https://google.com". Now, searching using Google works, but since it said that the connection was untrusted, and I allowed this website, I'm thinking that this would damage Firefox's security.

Is there a better solution that I could try?

Hi autoMotorbiker, I don't recall you previously mentioning a certificate error. We should chase that down because generally speaking, Google has its security act together and shouldn't need an exception.

If you click the padlock in the address bar when you're on Google, More Information, View Certificate, what is listed under "Issued by"? I'm seeing "Google Internet Authority G2" there, and on the Details tab, the top level authority is GeoTrust Global CA. Do you see the same or someone else?

Oh right, sorry. 'If I enter anything in the awesome bar/ search bar, it shows "Looking up nameofwebsite.com" instead of "Waiting for nameofwebsite.com".' Then it shows this certificate error. I only allowed Google. Google works and displays what jscher200 said it should display.

However, Yahoo search from the search bar does not connect. It says in the 'Verified by' section 'not verified'. I don't know why but Bing Search, Ebay search and Amazon search works. However, Twitter Search doesn't work as usual but I noticed that it lacked the 'Add Exception' part that should be under the sub-heading 'I understand the risks'. Yahoo search has this part but Twitter search lacks it.

Also, Wikipedia search comes up with 'Server not found' instead of a certificate error.

I just noticed that I can't access wikipedia on any browser on my limited windows account. This may be the reason why wikipedia search doesn't work.

On one of those error pages, what explanation is given in the Technical Details section about the reason Firefox isn't satisfied with the certificate?

I can't think of a reason for Wikipedia to be blocked in one user account. The main address of the site does language detection and redirection. To see whether that might be a problem, do you find it still is blocked if you following a very direct link, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox?

Weird. Last time I tried Wikipedia, it came with a connection error. Now it doesn't and Wikipedia search now works. I think that simply restarting the computer fixed this Wikipedia problem. Now this is the status of Firefox:

• Google Search = Works
• Bing search = Works
• Amazon Search = Works
• Ebay Search = Works
• Wikipedia Search = Works
• Twitter Search = Certificate Error (Doesn't have the 'Add Exception' Option)
• Yahoo search = Certificate Error (Has the 'Add Exception' Option)

I previously added Google as an exception, but I discovered that Bing, Amazon, Ebay and Wikipedia now work too. I would like to find out if I can use these services securely because I'm worried that their encryption might be broken, etc.

I would also like to find out how to fix Yahoo and Twitter Search.

Is there like any settings under about:config that I could change or anything that I could look under the certificate that would help?

When I type 'asdf' (without quotes) in Yahoo search, it autocompletes to 'https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=asdf&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz35'. If I do the same with Twitter search, it autocompletes to 'https://twitter.com/search?q=asdf&partner=Firefox&source=desktop-search'.

I uploaded screenshots of the error pages: Yahoo https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2014-07-18-01-20-57-241fe8.png Twitter https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2014-07-18-01-22-52-b73c2d.png

Hmm, those URLs are correct (or should I say, when I use the search bar, I get the same URLs). It's hard to guess why you don't have the option to add an exception for Twitter.

Is the earlier pattern holding -- you can open https://search.yahoo.com/ and search there but not use the search box/address bar -- or do you get the certificate error both ways?

If you haven't already, could you try deleting the cert8.db file as described in this article: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/connection-untrusted-error-message#w....

The pattern holds. Both https://search.yahoo.com/ and https://twitter.com/ don't work. I also deleted the cert8.db file and restarted Firefox, but the problem unfortunately persisted.

I remember when I had this problem and created another limited account in Windows. Its version of Firefox also had this problem. I thought that only one account would have this problem, but the it seems like limited accounts all have it.

I have deleted that account recently so I don't know if the Google, Bing Amazon, Ebay and Wikipedia would work on other limited accounts.

I updated Firefox and the problem seems to have gone away.