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All of my search options are gone. How can I get them back?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

staceyc4
staceyc4
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I did a firefox refresh and now I have no search capabilities. Unless I am typing an EXACT website in, I cannot search anything online. When I click on "options" and then on "search", nothing happens. No options appear. It stays on the "General" tab. What is the point of using Firefox if I also have to have Internet Explorer open so I can actually SEARCH the internet??? I tried to refresh again TWICE and even shut the computer down for a week and I still have no search capabilities. No options. I type in a word and hit enter and nothing happens.

I did a firefox refresh and now I have no search capabilities. Unless I am typing an EXACT website in, I cannot search anything online. When I click on "options" and then on "search", nothing happens. No options appear. It stays on the "General" tab. What is the point of using Firefox if I also have to have Internet Explorer open so I can actually SEARCH the internet??? I tried to refresh again TWICE and even shut the computer down for a week and I still have no search capabilities. No options. I type in a word and hit enter and nothing happens.

All Replies (4)

Bolaram Paul
Bolaram Paul
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try again after restarting

staceyc4
staceyc4 Question owner
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I have. Multiple times. Search bar is there, but it doesn't do anything.

Scribe
Scribe
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Hi, try clicking on Restore Defaults as shown in - Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Top 25 Contributor
  • Moderator
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You can check if you have the XML files of the default search engines including Google in the browser\searchplugins folder in the Firefox program folder.

If not then you need to reinstall Firefox.

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 current Firefox profile folder:

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.