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Why all of a sudden is my spell check no longer is working ?

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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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I just noticed a few days ago that when I misspell a word & get the red squiggly line under the word as usual, on You Tube & a couple other sites when I right click I don't get the drop down with the correct spelling. Also when I try to copy (it seems to work), but when I right click & hit "paste" it doesn't work. I have Windows 8.1, Firefox 39.0 recently installed. Is there a reason this is happening & can it be corrected? Thank You PT

I just noticed a few days ago that when I misspell a word & get the red squiggly line under the word as usual, on You Tube & a couple other sites when I right click I don't get the drop down with the correct spelling. Also when I try to copy (it seems to work), but when I right click & hit "paste" it doesn't work. I have Windows 8.1, Firefox 39.0 recently installed. Is there a reason this is happening & can it be corrected? Thank You PT

Chosen solution

Hello there,

By default, Firefox is configured to automatically check spelling. You can double check this feature by doing the following:

1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and choose Preferences. 2. Select the Advanced panel. 3. Click the General tab. 4. Make sure the checkbox "Check my spelling as i type" is ticked

Close the about:preferences page. Any changes you've made will automatically be saved.

Hope this helps!

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Chosen Solution

Hello there,

By default, Firefox is configured to automatically check spelling. You can double check this feature by doing the following:

1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and choose Preferences. 2. Select the Advanced panel. 3. Click the General tab. 4. Make sure the checkbox "Check my spelling as i type" is ticked

Close the about:preferences page. Any changes you've made will automatically be saved.

Hope this helps!

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Type about:config<Enter> in the address bar. If a warning screen comes up, press the Be Careful button. This is where Firefox finds information it needs to run. At the top of the screen is a search bar.

Type: layout.spellcheckDefault Its values are; 0 Spell Checker Off, 1 Check Only Multi-Line Input Boxes. 2 Check Multi And Single Line Input Boxes.

Also, check the spellchecker.dictionary entry.

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layout.spellcheckDefault

should go to 3 so that rich text can be spell-checked, over-riding any stupid websites that choose to disable your spell-checker - ultimately it should be the user that controls the browser, not websites.

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Spell check is there but, but it is said not compatible, was working. Is Firefox failing?

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A post was flagged as Solved Problem. Please remove that flag. If you don’t, others that can help may not read this post.


Download Firefox For All languages And Systems {web link} Save the file. Then;

Using your file browser, open the Programs Folder on your computer.

Windows: C:\Program Files C:\Program Files (x86) Mac: Open the "Applications" folder. Linux: Check your user manual.


Look for, and rename any Mozilla or Firefox folders by adding .old to them.

After rebooting the computer, run a registry scanner. Then run the installer. If all goes well, remove the OLD folders when you are done.