Default Page Changing Search not Working
I had two browser hijackers and and got rid of them but they seemed to have messed with my browser settings or something. Basically the search function on the Firefox home page is not working at all(it was going through a proxy when I had the hijackers) and my default search by the address bar is changed to Amazon whenever I quit and reopen the browser. I restored to factory settings and the correct homepage was there and working. I opened and closed the browser three times and the homepage changed and and the Google next to the search bar is gone and I have amazon as the default search by the address bar again. So I completely removed Firefox and reinstalled it and the same thing happened again. And now my address bar search is not working either. Please help.
Modified by cor-el
All Replies (12)
Try to reset some preferences to the default with the SearchReset extension:
Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).
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
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config
If there is still a problem with searching via the default about:home page then try to reset the search engine used on the about:home page.
Reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref via the right-click context menu to the default on the about:config page and close and restart Firefox to restore the about:home page to its default.
- Open the about:config page via the location bar
- Type in the Filter bar: mstone
- Right-click the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone line and select: Reset
- Close and restart Firefox
If this didn't help then delete the delete the chromeappsstore.sqlite file in the Firefox Profile Folder and repeat the above.
Well the address search problem and the search near the address bar is fixed but I am still unable to search from the homepage bar. I type something in and hit search and nothing happens. I followed all the above steps. I am using the default homepage.
Here is what the homepage looks like.
What is the current value of the browser.search.defaultenginename pref on the about:config page?
That should Firefox make use the Google search engine on the about:home page.
Did you also try to reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref and close and restart Firefox?
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
- Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
Check for the presence of a mozilla.cfg file in the Firefox program folder to initialize some prefs.
This also involves the presence of a file, probably in "defaults\pref" folder, that specifies to read this mozilla.cfg file.
If you have this mozilla.cfg file then best is to do a clean reinstall of Firefox and remove the Firefox program folder.
All that is in the prefs folder is channel prefs and itms. And the default theme is the only one I have. And I tried to reset http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone and restart it didn't work.
What do you mean with "itms" ?
Is that a second file in the pref folder?
I seem to be having the same problem as this person. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/934580 However the fix is quickly becoming more complicated than I can handle. His quick fix doesn't work because it will not let me edit the file and I would need exact instructions on how to use the SQlite manager. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/934580
What is the content of the itms.js file?
You can open the file in Notepad.exe for inspection.
pref("network.protocol-handler.warn-external.itms", false);
All it says.
That looks OK (probably added by an iTunes program).