Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Firefox keeps setting Yandex as the default search engine.

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

kesicialper
kesicialper
more options

First of all, I hate everything about Yandex and I will not ever use it simply because it tries to force itself into our lives. Anyway, this is not the main problem. Every once in a while I keep getting Yandex set as the default search engine for Firefox and every time, I delete all search engines and just leave Google. Why does this happen over and over again?

First of all, I hate everything about Yandex and I will not ever use it simply because it tries to force itself into our lives. Anyway, this is not the main problem. Every once in a while I keep getting Yandex set as the default search engine for Firefox and every time, I delete all search engines and just leave Google. Why does this happen over and over again?

All Replies (2)

FredMcD
FredMcD
more options

Type about:addons<enter> in the address bar to open your Add-ons Manager. Hot key; (<Control> [Mac=<Command>] <Shift> A)

In the Add-ons Manager, on the left, select Extensions. Remove “ Yandex “ Anything.

Also remove SafeSearch, SearchAssist Incognito, FileConverter Addon, SearchLock, DiscreteSearch, WebSearch, Findwide Search Engine, securedsearch

Now do the same in the computer’s Programs Folder.

Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Mac: Open the Applications folder. Linux: Check your user manual.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

What Firefox locale do you use ?

Yandex is the default search engine in some locales and in some countries.

You can rename/remove search.json.mozlz4 (and possible search.json, search-metadata.json, search.sqlite) in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed to rebuild the search engines registry.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

Firefox will rebuild the search.json.mozlz4 file from the builtin search engines.