My enter key does not work in the address bar unless I enable suggestions
When I uncheck the boxes for the address bar in my preferences so that it doesn't suggest anything, it stops my Enter key from working. I can still navigate to pages if I type them completely and manually click the Go button, but I can't use Ctrl+Enter to append the www. and .com to the URL automatically. This wasn't a problem until I made a brand new FF profile today to try using fewer extensions in preparation for FF57 and Extensionpocaplyse when all the useful extensions for FF are going away.
It seems that when I uncheck each individual box, the Enter key continues to work, but if all three are unchecked, it stops working. I noticed that by unchecking all three boxes, it also changes browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled to false automatically. If I re-enable that preference, it automatically checks those other boxes as well. I don't want my URL bar to do anything other than act as a dumb text box to type an address. I tried the suggestion of leaving these boxes checked and then setting browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to zero, which almost (ALMOST!) resolves the issue. It still pops up a useless "Search with" drop-down when typing the URL. I am not typing in the search box, so I don't understand why it's suggesting that I search the web when typing a URL.
Does anyone know how to fix this problem properly in the newest versions of FF?
Thanks!
PS: FF UX monkeys, please stop trying to help me. I know what I want to do with my browser more than you do.
All Replies (6)
I know a partial workaround, but not a fix.
Do you use search engine suggestions in the search bar?
If you don't want search suggestions anywhere, here's the workaround:
- Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
- Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
- Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
- Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it
In the left column, click Search. Then on the right side, click both "Provide search suggestions" AND "Show search suggestions in address bar results" THEN uncheck ONLY the upper level checkbox for "Provide search suggestions".
Success?
j3rk said
This wasn't a problem until I made a brand new FF profile today to try using fewer extensions in preparation for FF57 and Extensionpocaplyse when all the useful extensions for FF are going away.
Definitely not all of them are going away.
If there are any in particular you need help replacing, you can always start a new thread, or check the active similar discussions on the Firefox subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/
Thanks jscher2000 for the suggestion, but it didn't seem to make a difference. Also, I don't mind the search results in the search box, I just don't want to see the box pop up under the URL bar where I am not searching but navigating to a specific URL.
And sadly, the most important extension to me is Classic Theme Restorer, which is definitely going away. I can't stand having my tabs above my URL & bookmark bars, even though logically it seems to make sense to have a "separate" URL bar per tab. That's pretty much the primary reason for not jumping ship to a different browser, they all have different logic than my brain wants.
j3rk said
it didn't seem to make a difference. Also, I don't mind the search results in the search box, I just don't want to see the box pop up under the URL bar where I am not searching but navigating to a specific URL.
Perhaps it is easier through about:config.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste URLB and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click as needed to set:
- browser.urlbar.suggest.bookmark => false
- browser.urlbar.suggest.history => false
- browser.urlbar.suggest.openpage => false
- browser.urlbar.suggest.searches => true
With that, browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled should show as true.
When I type a domain, I notice there is a search suggestion for the domain, which is a bit bizarre. I'm going to look into a custom style rule to hide that. (I already use a custom style rule to hide the top row of the drop-down. It's part of a larger project that probably wouldn't hold any other interest for you: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/gm/url-bar-tweaks.html)
And sadly, the most important extension to me is Classic Theme Restorer, which is definitely going away. I can't stand having my tabs above my URL & bookmark bars, even though logically it seems to make sense to have a "separate" URL bar per tab.
Don't panic. People have been moving the tab bar to the "bottom" for years without an extension by using a custom style rule in a userChrome.css file. You're going to be okay.
Among many other sources of replacements for CTR tweaks is the author: https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx (I haven't dug through this is any detail)
Maybe set browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 0 (zero) if you do not want the drop-down list to open.
I've tried setting maxRichResults to zero. The problem with that method is it still shows the search suggestions box as soon as I start typing, it just doesn't populate it. So an empty box appears. For now I've just gone back to my working profile and I'll just stop updating FF when 57 rolls around. Eventually I'll do a diff on the preferences files between profiles and see if I can figure out what I am doing wrong.
Thanks for trying to help.