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

Default Firefox page search won't work in private browsing.

  • 5 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

Default engine isn't working ever since the one of the updates earlier in the year. Never happened before. This really is annoying and I've put up with it up until now because it really is annoying. For know I'll use Google Chrome but once this is fixed I'll come back because it really is that big of an issue to me.

Default engine isn't working ever since the one of the updates earlier in the year. Never happened before. This really is annoying and I've put up with it up until now because it really is annoying. For know I'll use Google Chrome but once this is fixed I'll come back because it really is that big of an issue to me.

All Replies (5)

more options

Try using the Search Reset extension.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/searchreset/

This add-on is very simple: on installation, it backs up and then resets your search preferences and home page to their default values, and then uninstalls itself. This affects the search bar, URL bar searches, and the home page.
more options

I'm sorry but it didn't do anything at all. Firefox without private browsing works. Also if I start Firefox without private browsing and I open a private window it works. But I got tired of that because it became very tedious.

more options

You can check if you have the XML files of the default search engines including Google in the browser\searchplugins folder in the Firefox application folder.

If not then you need to reinstall Firefox.


Try to delete the search.json file and a possible search.sqlite file in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

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.

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder
more options

Thank you, I'll try these solutions tomorrow because it is late right now. Thank you for your help.

more options

You're welcome


Current Firefox versions use the default search engine (pref: browser.search.defaultenginename) to set the search engine that is used on the about:home page.

Check the browser.search.defaultenginename pref on the about:config page and make sure that it is set to the default value Google.

  • browser.search.defaultenginename

Currently selected search engine:

  • browser.search.selectedEngine