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Help with Search portion of the Navigation toolbar, regarding search engines.

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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In the search portion of the navagion bar (the part that contains Google, wikipedia, etc. in a drop down menu) there is a button that allows the management of search engines. You can also delete search engines if you prefer them not to be used.

I have tried multiple times to delete the ones that I do not want to use (like yahoo, twitter,ebay) but they keep coming back. I have also tried to change the order (by placing my preferred first) but it resets itself. I haven't found a time at which it resets- it appears to be at random intervals. Sometimes restarting my PC doesn't reset the search engines to default but sometimes it does. Sometimes closing firefox resets it but most of the time it does not.

I have also removed all of my plugins and add-ons to see if that changes anything- but it does not. I added them back one at a time to see if I noticed any changes but that does not seem to make a difference.

Essentially, I can't seem to actually remove any of the default search engines. They always come back and re-arrange the order I have set.

The search navigation bar also seems to always default to Yahoo, which I do not like.

In the search portion of the navagion bar (the part that contains Google, wikipedia, etc. in a drop down menu) there is a button that allows the management of search engines. You can also delete search engines if you prefer them not to be used. I have tried multiple times to delete the ones that I do not want to use (like yahoo, twitter,ebay) but they keep coming back. I have also tried to change the order (by placing my preferred first) but it resets itself. I haven't found a time at which it resets- it appears to be at random intervals. Sometimes restarting my PC doesn't reset the search engines to default but sometimes it does. Sometimes closing firefox resets it but most of the time it does not. I have also removed all of my plugins and add-ons to see if that changes anything- but it does not. I added them back one at a time to see if I noticed any changes but that does not seem to make a difference. Essentially, I can't seem to actually remove any of the default search engines. They always come back and re-arrange the order I have set. The search navigation bar also seems to always default to Yahoo, which I do not like.

All Replies (2)

Wesley Branton
Wesley Branton
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If you install and run the Search Reset Tool does this solve the issue?

Sometimes issue with Internet Explorer can affect Firefox.
Please try the following steps:

  1. Open Internet Explorer
  2. Select Manage Add-ons from the Tools drop-down menu
  3. View the Search Providers
  4. Set Google as the default provider
  5. Remove all other providers except for the ones that you want to use
  6. Close the Add-on Manager
  7. Select the Internet Options from the Tool drop-down menu
  8. Set the homepage to the Default or Blank
  9. Press Ok
  10. Then restart your computer
cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Try to delete the search.json file and possible search-metadata.json and search.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

You can also check for problems with preferences and rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js and user.js files to reset all prefs to the default value.