My search function (when I start typing or <control>f) stopped working.
I checked and my "Search for text when I start typing" is still checked, but neither that nor control-f are working. When I search for text, the blank box appears at the bottom left of the page but the letters do not type into it. With control-f, the box appears, the letters get typed in, but it does not function, it does no search.
All Replies (3)
Hello,
Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that turns off some settings, disables most add-ons (extensions and themes).
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:
- Click the menu button
, click Help 
and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
- On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.
To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.
Note that your System Details List shows multiple Flash plugins. Shockwave Flash 15.0 r0 Shockwave Flash 13.0 r0
You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.
You can check the Flash player installation folder for multiple Flash player plugins and remove older version(s) of the plugin (NPSWF32) and possibly (re)install the latest Flash player.
- (32 bit Windows) C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\
- (64 bit Windows) C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\
Your System Details list shows that you have a user.js file in the profile folder to initialize prefs each time Firefox starts.
The user.js file is only present if you or other software has created this file and normally it wouldn't be there. You can check its content with a plain text editor (right-click: Open with) if you didn't create this file yourself.
The user.js file is read each time Firefox is started and initializes preferences to the value specified in this file, so preferences set via user.js can only be changed temporarily for the current session.
Hi Folks.
Thank you, CoryMH and cor-el. Well, after spending the last couple of hours trying to find the things you said I should find and that were not there, I ended up really frustrated. I mean it seemed like you were quoting some things you say, various Flashes, a file called user.js, and I could not find them.
I ran through the plug-in tests, etc. To tell the truth, there was just too much I didn't understand... but... one thing it suggested I do was to download and install the latest Flash so I did that, and restarted the machine. Then Microsoft spent some time updating Windows, then one of my spybots demanded to be updated, and then I ran a scan, and it found 95 bad guys which are now eliminated... and guess what -- the problem with the search function is working again! So thanks again for setting me on the right course.