Hi,

Please check if this happens in Safe Mode. Safe mode disables the installed Extensions, and themes (Appearance) in Tools (Alt + T) > Add-ons. Hardware acceleration is also temporarily disabled - the manual setting is Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Use hardware acceleration when available. All these settings/options/add-ons can also be individually or collectively disabled/enabled/changed in Firefox normal mode to check if an extension, theme, option or hardware acceleration is causing issues. Disabling/enabling hardware acceleration, and some types of add-ons in normal mode may require a Firefox restart.

Uninstalling Add-ons

Uninstalling Toolbars

Troubleshooting Extensions and Themes

Cannot Uninstall Add-on

Problematic Extensions

Options

Thanks for your reply. The search bar problem still occurs in Safe Mode and without my theme. I also double-checked my extensions/add-ons; I have one that is disabled due to incompatibility (an HP printing one) and AdBlockPlus, no others. Do you have any other suggestions for me? Thanks!!

You can consider the Reset Firefox feature via Help (Alt + H) > Troubleshooting Information to check if its okay.

(To revert to the previous profile you were using, close the new profile (i.e. exit Firefox), start Firefox and choose the Default User profile. While the Profile Manager is open, you can also delete the newly reset profile (the one containing random numbers), or the former profile, as the case may be).

Managing profiles

Profiles Howto

No luck with that either. I think I might just give up and learn to deal with it. Thank you for all your help, though, I really appreciate it.

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#w_8-make-a-new-profile

There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

The problem still exists with both the new profile created when I reset firefox and with the new profile I just created using the profile manager. I'm baffled.

Can you also please check the Error Console: Tools (Alt + T) > Web Developer. You may have to Clear the existing messages before opening the Tab Groups. You can right-click on the messages (if any), Copy and Paste it here.

I just cleared everything and then played with Tab Groups for a little bit. I have a ton of "Dropped Declaration" warnings with sources:

• https://www.mozilla.org/tabzilla/media/css/tabzilla.css
• https://developer.mozilla.org/skins/common/css.php
• https://developer.mozilla.org/skins/mdn/Transitional/css.php

I also have some messages:

• developer.mozilla.org : server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555
• statse.webtrendslive.com : server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555

I have no idea what any of this means; is it helpful at all? Thank you!!

You can right-click on a message and copy the whole message. Ideally to isolate any possible messages related to the search bar, you can also to Work Offline via File (Alt + F) menu, and clear all existing messages before opening the Group tabs.

Do you mean I should copy all the warnings? I'm a little confused. In the Error Console, I have no Errors, 50+ Warnings, and 6 Messages. Five of the Messages are identical, and it's copy-pasted here:

• developer.mozilla.org : server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555

The sixth Message is, copy-pasted:

• statse.webtrendslive.com : server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555

I cleared all Messages and Warnings before going to Work Offline. I messed around in the Groups for a bit - moved a few tabs into new groups, named grouped, made boxes bigger and smaller - all while fighting against the constantly appearing search bar. I have had no Messages, Errors, or Warnings reappear in the Error Console.

Usually it could be useful if there are specific error messages (Error tab). It is a little strange, you are getting so many warnings and messages even after going offline. This is a clean profile with no default Extensions etc., isn't it??

It is a clean profile. I created one first using the Reset Firefox setting, and then a different clean one using the Profile Manager. I almost with I was getting an Error message; at least then it would make sense.

You can skip errors with a web page reference in the error console.
Only errors that refer to a chrome location (chrome://) are important in this case.

Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that works.