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drop down arrow that allows you to see previous pages viewed in address bar greyed out

  • 16 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by sallykated

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Suddenly the drop down arrow is greyed out, followed all the advice I could find. Cleared cache and cookies, started Firefox in safe mode and that didn't work, reset firefox and that didn't work either.

Suddenly the drop down arrow is greyed out, followed all the advice I could find. Cleared cache and cookies, started Firefox in safe mode and that didn't work, reset firefox and that didn't work either.

All Replies (16)

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Hello sallykated, in about:config find browser.urlbar.maxRichResults and check if you have 0 (zero) number as a value (default is 12, mean 12 entries).

thank you

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Make sure that the Location Bar is not set to "Nothing":

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > Location Bar: When using the location bar, suggest: History, Bookmarks, History and Bookmarks, Nothing

You can check on the about:config page if the browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled pref is set to true .

Try to open a new window to see if it works in that window.

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Hi- thanks for your help. It has a value of 12.

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It's set to false- do I need to set it to true? If so, how do I do that?

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double-click on it

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Thank you, did that, no change in new window.

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Does any data in a drop-down list show with the browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled pref set to true?

Did you try to close and restart Firefox after changing the pref to true?

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No data at all.

Just closed and restarted Firefox, no change.

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What is the current setting for the location bar?

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > Location Bar: When using the location bar, suggest:

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.

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As cor-el said above, change the Nothing with any of the other options : History and Bookmarks OR History OR Bookmarks, see : Location Bar

thanks

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OK, I did that and no change.

That was one of the first pieces of advice I got- to change the "history and bookmarks" to "nothing".

Changed it back though, still grey.

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If you set the location bar to nothing then you disable the drop-down list, so try to set it to the default Bookmarks and History or one of the others if you prefer not to see bookmarks or history.

You may need to check the value of the browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled pref to see if it is still true.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.
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It's now set to Bookmarks and History. The autocomplete is still set to true.

I'm so perplexed- could this be some sort of a virus?

I've run my regular antivirus (Kapersky) as well as Malwarebytes. It's a totally new issue, within the last couple of days, so color me befuddled.

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You do keep history?

  • Tools > Options > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

Problems with bookmarks and history not working properly can be caused by a corrupted places.sqlite database file.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.

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Yes. I keep history.