You see, the way everyone else handles history is to recall previous stuff with the up-arrow key. Leave it to Moz to do something different, eh?

...Irritating.

Sorry, this is CSS code and meant to be placed in userChrome.css file in the chrome folder in the Firefox profile folder.

#PopupSearchAutoComplete[is="search-autocomplete-richlistbox-popup"]{
 display:none!important;
}

It is not that difficult to create userChrome.css if you have never used it.

The first step is to open the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" page and find the button to access the profile folder with the random name (xxxxxxxx.default-release).

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-troubleshooting-information-page-fix-firefox

You can find the button to go to the profile folder under the "Application Basics" section as "Profile Folder -> Open Folder". If you click this button then you open the profile folder in the Windows File Explorer. You need to create a folder with the name chrome in the profile folder with the random name (name is all lowercase). In the chrome folder you need to create a plain text file with the name userChrome.css (name is case sensitive). In this userChrome.css text file you paste the text posted. On Mac you can use the TextEdit utility to create the userChrome.css file as a plain text file.

In Windows saving the file is usually the only time things get more complicated because Windows can silently add a .txt file extension and you end up with a file named userChrome.css.txt. To avoid this you need to make sure to select "All files" in the dialog to save the file in the text editor using "Save File as".

You need to close (Quit/Exit) and restart Firefox when you create or modify the userChrome.css file.

More info about userChrome.css/userContent.css in case you are not familiar:

• https://www.userchrome.org/what-is-userchrome-css.html
• https://www.userchrome.org/how-create-userchrome-css.html
• https://www.userchrome.org/firefox-changes-userchrome-css.html

In Firefox 69 and later you need to set this pref to true on the about:config page to enable userChrome.css and userContent.css.

• about:config => toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets = true
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox

Things have changed dramatically and I don't know why. Now, after several FFox restarts, the search bar suddenly stopped working altogether. I can copy/write text into it, but when I click the (+) at 1 o'clock, no drop-down with choices of where to search appear. In other words, I can search only with DuckDuckGo, not with dictionary.com, imdb.com, ebay.com, etc.

What a train wreck.

When I removed this:

#PopupSearchAutoComplete[is="search-autocomplete-richlistbox-popup"]{
display:none!important;
}

from 'userChrome.css' and relaunched FFox, the (+) functionality for the search bar returned. Whew!

Is there any solution? Can I move the search bar to somewhere else? For example, to a tab?

How about automatically clearing search history whenever the search bar is active? Or, periodically, while FFox is running. Is there any way to do that?

Hi Mark, if I understand correctly:

You want to be able to click in the text box and type WITHOUT the drop-down appearing. But you ALSO want to be able to summon the drop-down by clicking the magnifying glass button (whether it has the plus icon or not, since that only appears on sites which allow you to add them as a search engine).

I don't know whether there is any way to do that with style rules. I'm skeptical because it seems to involve behavior (i.e., scripted actions associated with the text box and button) and not purely appearance.

Hi Mark, if I understand correctly ...

You understand correctly. In the process of this quest, I discovered a workaround. If I right-click in the search bar -- never did that before -- I can choose 'Clear Search History'. That wipes out everything in the drop-down that makes the drop-down long. In a week or so I'll be doing it automatically. ...I sure wish the developers would stop screwing around with the UI. Don't they have anything better to do with their time?

That's a wrap. Thanks for your time. I hope you don't feel it was wasted. I sure don't.

Recap: 1 - All the 'about:config' settings need to be copied to 'prefs.js', especially 'browser.urlbar.maxRichResults'. 2 - Each of the profile directories should have a plain text 'readme.txt' file in them giving a list of files, what they do, and how to recover. Having that stuff on the Internet does no good if FFox won't start (or even if it will start but starting it will prevent recovery). 3 - Your excellent tool needs to be built in.

Thanks again, and Thank You, cor-el. You guys are super.

Hi Mark, you can mark your last reply as Solution to close out the thread.

With respect to #1, this is not normally required. There may be a permissions problem with your prefs.js file that allows you to update it normally but prevents Firefox from updating it.

As noted previously, the Search History feature is linked to the Form History feature. So unless you want to disable both form and search history (Control whether Firefox automatically fills in forms), then your method of clearing search history using the context menu is your best workaround.

I suppose another possible workaround would be to create a userChrome.css rule that simply hides the search history suggestions in the drop-down to eliminate that section without affecting the one-off search buttons.

Hi Jefferson,

Hi Mark, you can mark your last reply as Solution to close out the thread.

It's not the solution.

With respect to #1, this is not normally required. There may be a permissions problem with your prefs.js file that allows you to update it normally but prevents Firefox from updating it.

Pigs 'may' fly on some airlines, too. There's no permissions problem. FFox updates 'prefs.js' all the time.

As noted previously, the Search History feature is linked to the Form History feature. So unless you want to disable both form and search history (Control whether Firefox automatically fills in forms), then your method of clearing search history using the context menu is your best workaround.

I thought that had been done. What is 'form history'? I don't fill out forms. Or is it login ids and passwords to sites?

I suppose another possible workaround would be to create a userChrome.css rule that simply hides the search history suggestions in the drop-down to eliminate that section without affecting the one-off search buttons.

That's exactly what I want. How would I do that? We've already tried this:

#PopupSearchAutoComplete[is="search-autocomplete-richlistbox-popup"]{
display:none!important;
}

and it disabled all search choices such as dictionary.com, imdb.com, ebay.com, etc. If you have a different thing to try, bring it on! Thanks -- Mark.

Does this code work better?

.search-panel-tree,
.search-panel-tree + .searchbar-separator {
  display:none !important;
}

 Yes,

 .search-panel-tree,
 .search-panel-tree + .searchbar-separator {
  display:none !important;
 }
 
 works perfectly: allows drop down of search choices but suppresses search history.
 
 Thank you so much!
 
 It's been years since I looked at CSS.
 In line 1, what is the function of the comma?
 In line 2, what is the function of the plus?
 In line 3, why is the (unneeded?) semicolon there?

 PS: In fact, what is the purpose of line 1?

 PPS: This:
 
 .search-panel-tree,.search-panel-tree+.searchbar-separator{display:none !important}
 
 appears to be the minimal form.
 

Recap for those finding this topic while searching:

In 'prefs.js' user_pref("browser.urlbar.maxRichResults", 0);

In 'userChrome.css' .search-panel-tree,.search-panel-tree+.searchbar-separator{display:none !important}

The comma is a separator, it simply allow more than one selector for the {} rules. .search-panel-tree is the actual container you want to hide and .searchbar-separator is the menuseparator to separate this content from the footer with the search engines. The plus is used to specify that the two selector are adjacent in the DOM (Next-sibling combinator), in this case it is necessary because there in another .searchbar-separator present further up in the DOM. and I only want to hide this menuseparator

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_selectors
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Attribute_selectors

I sometimes add the semicolon to prevent issues with adding additional properties to the rules to avoid having to check if the last property has a ';'.

In one line:

.search-panel-tree, .search-panel-tree + .searchbar-separator {display:none!important}

Two separate lines.

.search-panel-tree {display:none!important}
.search-panel-tree + .searchbar-separator {display:none!important}