Strange problem with Firefox

Jeff Zylstra · April 03, 2013, 02:21:35 PM

This problem started yesterday (I think). I cannot use the search box in my Firefox. Others can, but I cannot. There are no search engines listed, and I cannot add any using the "manage search engines" function. Everything is grayed out in that box. I have deleted Seach.SQLite, and the FormsHistory file in the profile, thinking that it was corrupted and would be recreated but to no avail. I even updated the program to version 20, but still nothing. What is even odder is that I cannot access Google.com, Bing.Com or Amazon.Com. You can type the address in the address bar and hit enter, but nothing happens. No errors, no hour glass, nothing. Any ideas?

Conan_Ward · April 03, 2013, 02:59:11 PM

no problems going to any of those pages from other browsers? address/search bar in IE (depending on version) or omnibox in chrome is able to search ok?

Bob · April 03, 2013, 03:10:42 PM

I would laugh if you working offline and didn't know it.

I just downloaded and installed FF 20. Previous version struggled with G+ this one plays nicer. Has more privacy features too.

Jeff Zylstra · April 03, 2013, 03:32:24 PM

Quote from: Conan_Ward on April 03, 2013, 02:59:11 PM
no problems going to any of those pages from other browsers? address/search bar in IE (depending on version) or omnibox in chrome is able to search ok?

No problems accessing any other sites in IE 8. Yes, address searchbar in IE works fine. I ran a Malwarebytes scan, and it came up with nothing. The sites that I cannot access all seem to be search engines that were once used in Firefox, but can no longer be accessed because the plug in for the search engine is gone and cannot be added, and also typing the address for the website in the address bar does not work either. I CAN access those websites via links in other websites, or from bookmarks however, so I'm guessing that it is a corruption issue in Firefox. Tried rebuilding the Firefox profile, but no joy as of yet.

And yes, I did try the "work offline" option - just to make sure.

Bob · April 03, 2013, 03:42:17 PM

Save your bookmarks to a file, uninstall the browser completely. Reboot. Load the latest version and should be good to go.

Jeff Zylstra · April 03, 2013, 03:50:45 PM

Quote from: Bob Connor on April 03, 2013, 03:42:17 PM
Save your bookmarks to a file, uninstall the browser completely. Reboot. Load the latest version and should be good to go.

I've been dreading that because I have hundreds of bookmarks, but if I can do it with an export and import then the "nuclear" option it is! Thanks, Bob.

Gene Foraker · April 04, 2013, 11:03:02 AM

No need to worry about bookmarks. I use the free Firefox addon - XMARKS to save all of my bookmarks in the cloud and synchronize them to all of my computers. I believe that Firefox has their own addon now to do the same thing. You can also choose to share the saved passwords to all of your computers.

Jeff Zylstra · April 04, 2013, 11:04:55 AM

Tried uninstalling with Revo uninstaller to get a thorough uninstall, and STILL no joy! I've also disabled every plug in and extension, updated those extensions, and everything else I can think of. I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times, deleting old folders and profiles, but still no joy. I have to think that there are hidden files out there somewhere, probably related to the fact that I used roaming profiles.

Also, I can not directly type a web address into the address bar or search engine bar (there are no search engines listed and I can't add any). I CAN reach sites that are in the bookmarks, are reached via links, or that I have visited previously. Those work. Almost makes me think it is DNS related, except that Internet Explorer works fine (I just hate it), and Firefox works with sites in the bookmarks, even though I've cleared history, etc....

Any ideas?

P.S. Thanks, Gene.

Mark · April 04, 2013, 12:53:16 PM

In Firefox, click Bookmarks -> Show all bookmarks (Ctrl+Shift+B) -> Import and Backup -> Export Bookmarks to HTML.

Save to known location like Desktop or whatever, then uninstall and reinstall Firefox, or just close Firefox and delete your profile and let it build a new one. Profile is located in

Code Select

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
If it's Windows 7, then

Code Select

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

I'd just nuke the whole folder. It will be named some_randomness.default. You could even just move it to another location for testing and move it back if it doesn't work. If Firefox wont open afterwards, run a repair.

I got another idea if this doesn't help, but try this first. It'll be less time consuming than plan B

Billy Welsh · April 04, 2013, 02:20:52 PM

Does Plan B involve garlic and incantations?

Mark · April 04, 2013, 02:27:33 PM

Quote from: Billy Welsh on April 04, 2013, 02:20:52 PM
Does Plan B involve garlic and incantations?

No. It involves the about:config page and manually resetting any user-defined settings to default.

Jeff Zylstra · April 04, 2013, 09:40:49 PM

Quote from: Mark on April 04, 2013, 02:27:33 PM
Quote from: Billy Welsh on April 04, 2013, 02:20:52 PM
Does Plan B involve garlic and incantations?

No. It involves the about:config page and manually resetting any user-defined settings to default.

I already tried accessing about:config from the address bar. It's just like a website. You hit enter and nothing happens. No error, no hour glass, nothing. I also tried deleting the profile, both from the users folder and the profiles\%user% folder on the server. No luck with that yet. I suspect that it was seeing old data from when I did a reset, so I am deleting those folders and trying the uninstall/reinstall again. I'm so tempted to go with Chrome at this point, but I find some of the plugins for FF to be very useful.

Jeff Zylstra · April 09, 2013, 01:33:46 PM

From the Mozilla Firefox Forums:

"This is a known issue and will be fixed in 20.0.1 due out in the next few days. There is a problem with the address bar becoming unresponsive if the profile is stored remotely."

Bug 857672

Yes, my roaming profile is stored remotely, so I will assume that is the problem. I should have checked there first, before uninstalling Java, plugins, etc.... Oh well. It still beats Internet Explorer, which I am using right now.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2687285

Conan_Ward · April 09, 2013, 02:22:36 PM

I dunno, I do just fine with IE 10...but 10 only just got rolled out to anything other than 8

Jeff Zylstra · April 09, 2013, 02:43:27 PM

Quote from: Conan_Ward on April 09, 2013, 02:22:36 PM
I dunno, I do just fine with IE 10...but 10 only just got rolled out to anything other than 8

We're still using IE 8 here, simply because insurance company websites don't really like change too much. They invest in all of these plugins to make their print and PDF generation engines work, and they don't update them for eons, so we're stuck with what they support. For some strange reason, the cursor in IE 8 blinks like a nervous tick, which drives me crazy.