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

Why does spell check suddenly flag every word?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by LinkTiger

more options

All of a sudden, starting today, the Firefox spell checker flags every word I type as incorrect, despite being set to the language "English (United States)". Is there a way to see if the dictionary is corrupted or broken in some way? I checked persdict.dat in my profile folder, but nothing there looks odd (just a few names I use often). This happens on all web sites, in all forms that check spelling.

All of a sudden, starting today, the Firefox spell checker flags every word I type as incorrect, despite being set to the language "English (United States)". Is there a way to see if the dictionary is corrupted or broken in some way? I checked persdict.dat in my profile folder, but nothing there looks odd (just a few names I use often). This happens on all web sites, in all forms that check spelling.
Attached screenshots

Modified by LinkTiger

Chosen solution

I was able to fix this by reinstalling the app, keeping my profile. So the problem must have been with the dictionary in the program folder, rather than the personal dictionary in the profile folder.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

You can try to reset the spellchecker.dictionary pref on the about:config page via the right-click context menu to see if that helps.

Do you still have the dictionary installed in the dictionaries folder in the Firefox program folder or in the Firefox profile folder in case your locale doesn't come with a dictionary and you have installed one?

more options

Chosen Solution

I was able to fix this by reinstalling the app, keeping my profile. So the problem must have been with the dictionary in the program folder, rather than the personal dictionary in the profile folder.