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Search engine keeps getting changed back to Yahoo

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I am really getting tired of this. If it happens one more time, i will just switch to chrome. Randomly, like every few weeks, my firefox restarts and all of the default search engines are back and yahoo is the default. I want google as my default. I set google as the default and I remove all the others. Works great until, again, randomly, a firefox update?, and I'm back to Yahoo as the default with all search engines available as an option.

I would like this to stop. I made my choice, how do I get it to stick without having to install an addon?

I have antivirus and my machine says it's clean.

I am really getting tired of this. If it happens one more time, i will just switch to chrome. Randomly, like every few weeks, my firefox restarts and all of the default search engines are back and yahoo is the default. I want google as my default. I set google as the default and I remove all the others. Works great until, again, randomly, a firefox update?, and I'm back to Yahoo as the default with all search engines available as an option. I would like this to stop. I made my choice, how do I get it to stick without having to install an addon? I have antivirus and my machine says it's clean.

All Replies (7)

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Hi, see if this will help -

If your question is resolved by this or another answer, please take a minute to let us know. Thank you.

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My preferences save. My preference is google search with all the other search providers removed.

The annoyance is that at a random later time, I think after firefox has upgraded itself, all the search providers come back and Yahoo is the default again.

happyf trɔe

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Have you tried setting Google as the Default, and not deleting the other search engines?

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No I have not tried that. But if it were to fix the issue, wouldn't that then be a bug?

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Not necessarily a bug in Firefox. You might have a security program or anti-malware program that is cleaning "too well" and changing a preference in Firefox that it shouldn't be messing with.

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We're jumping around here. The only security program is Microsoft essentials. First the suggestion is leave all the search providers. Why? For this suspected other program?

What malware would actually put back all the original providers? Makes no sense. Except that firefox itself is sometimes deciding to reset my preferences.

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Are the search engine changes the only changes, or do you notice any other settings changes? For example:

  • Home page or other preferences set through the Options dialog
  • Missing extensions

The default search engine and the list of hidden search engines (the ones you "uncheck" in the Search panel of the Options dialog) are stored in a file named prefs.js in your active Firefox settings folder (profile folder).

The search engines listed in the Search panel of the Options dialog are detailed in a file named search.json in that same folder. If you use the Remove button in this dialog, that change is saved to search.json.

There are some system cleaning tools that can be scheduled to freshen up your browser data every so often, which may involve resetting or removing some settings files. You might check on whether you have anything like that.