I have set search engine preference as Google but Firefox is defaulting to Bing - help?
Yesterday, I had a page pop up directing me to download a new Mozilla add-on that would increase browser security. After I completed the install, my browser search has kept defaulting to Bing instead of Google. I have checked several forums including your own for instructions, but as you can see in the attached image, my settings to use Google are still in place and I cannot figure out why it's still defaulting to Bing. I don't want to completely uninstall Firefox if I don't have to, as I would lose all of my saved Bookmarks and other data, but what else can I do to fix this?
Chosen solution
please remove "SafeSearch Incognito" which appears to be malicious: Disable or remove Add-ons https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/safesearch-incognito-used-inappropriately-should-not-be-signed/11979
as future advice, please never install anything just because a website pops up and advertises for it - genuine security updates will never be offered to you this way!
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (6)
have you tried removing that newly added addon yet?
I'm not sure what it was called and I'm also trying to figure out how I can see all of my add-ons listed in order to identify and try to remove it.
could you go to the firefox menu ≡ > help ? > troubleshooting information, copy the contents of that page and paste them here into a reply on the forum? this might give us a clue what is going on...
{
"application": {
"name": "Firefox",
"osVersion": "Darwin 13.4.0",
"version": "49.0.2",
"buildID": "20161019084923",
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.9; rv:49.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/49.0",
"safeMode": false,
"updateChannel": "release",
"supportURL": "https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/49.0.2/Darwin/en-US/",
"numTotalWindows": 1,
"numRemoteWindows": 0,
"remoteAutoStart": false,
"autoStartStatus": 7
},
"modifiedPreferences": {
"accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar": 0,
"browser.cache.disk.hashstats_reported": 1,
"browser.cache.frecency_experiment": 1,
"browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run": false,
"browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max": false,
"browser.cache.disk.capacity": 358400,
"browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported": 1,
"browser.download.importedFromSqlite": true,
"browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion": 8,
"browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID": "20161019084923",
"browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID": "20161019084923",
"browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone": "49.0.2",
"browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2": true,
"browser.urlbar.userMadeSearchSuggestionsChoice": true,
"dom.apps.lastUpdate.buildID": "20161019084923",
"dom.apps.reset-permissions": true,
"dom.apps.lastUpdate.mstone": "49.0.2",
"dom.mozApps.used": true,
"extensions.lastAppVersion": "49.0.2",
"font.internaluseonly.changed": true,
"gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext": 2,
"gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID": "0x0863",
"gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion": "45.0.2",
"media.gmp-manager.buildID": "20161019084923",
"media.gmp.storage.version.observed": 1,
"media.webrtc.debug.aec_log_dir": "/Users/douglasroyal/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems",
"media.webrtc.debug.log_file": "/Users/douglasroyal/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/WebRTC.log",
"media.benchmark.vp9.versioncheck": 1,
"media.gmp-widevinecdm.lastUpdate": 1474870767,
"media.gmp-gmpopenh264.version": "1.6",
"media.youtube-ua.override.to": "43",
"media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate": 1471549850,
"media.benchmark.vp9.fps": 63,
"media.gmp-gmpopenh264.abi": "x86_64-gcc3-u-i386-x86_64",
"media.gmp-manager.lastCheck": 1479019965,
"media.gmp-widevinecdm.version": "1.4.8.903",
"media.gmp-widevinecdm.abi": "x86_64-gcc3-u-i386-x86_64",
"network.cookie.prefsMigrated": true,
"network.predictor.cleaned-up": true,
"places.database.lastMaintenance": 1478759621,
"places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages": 100664,
"plugin.importedState": true,
"plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types": "application/pdf",
"print.print_margin_top": "0.5",
"print.print_to_file": false,
"print.print_evenpages": true,
"print.print_orientation": 0,
"print.print_duplex": -437918235,
"print.print_paper_size_type": 1,
"print.print_unwriteable_margin_right": 17,
"print.print_paper_height": " 11.00",
"print.print_resolution": -437918235,
"print.print_unwriteable_margin_left": 17,
"print.print_margin_left": "0.5",
"print.print_reversed": false,
"print.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom": 17,
"print.print_scaling": " 1.00",
"print.print_margin_right": "0.5",
"print.print_oddpages": true,
"print.print_bgcolor": false,
"print.print_paper_width": " 8.50",
"print.print_bgimages": false,
"print.print_shrink_to_fit": true,
"print.print_margin_bottom": "0.5",
"print.print_unwriteable_margin_top": 17,
"print.print_paper_name": "",
"print.print_in_color": true,
"print.print_page_delay": 50,
"print.print_paper_data": 0,
"print.print_paper_size_unit": 0,
"privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs": true,
"privacy.sanitize.migrateClearSavedPwdsOnExit": true,
"storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite": 1476673429,
"storage.vacuum.last.index": 1
},
"lockedPreferences": {},
"javaScript": {
"incrementalGCEnabled": true
},
"accessibility": {
"isActive": false,
"forceDisabled": 0
},
"libraryVersions": {
"NSPR": {
"minVersion": "4.12",
"version": "4.12"
},
"NSS": {
"minVersion": "3.25",
"version": "3.25"
},
"NSSUTIL": {
"minVersion": "3.25",
"version": "3.25"
},
"NSSSSL": {
"minVersion": "3.25",
"version": "3.25"
},
"NSSSMIME": {
"minVersion": "3.25",
"version": "3.25"
}
},
"userJS": {
"exists": false
},
"crashes": {
"submitted": [],
"pending": 0
},
"extensions": [
{
"name": "Adblock Plus",
"version": "2.8.1",
"isActive": true,
"id": "{d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}"
},
{
"name": "Asynchronous Plugin Rendering",
"version": "2.0",
"isActive": true,
"id": "[email protected]"
},
{
"name": "F.B Purity - Cleans up Facebook (WX)",
"version": "16.0.0.22",
"isActive": true,
"id": "[email protected]"
},
{
"name": "Location Guard",
"version": "1.2.3",
"isActive": true,
"id": "jid1-HdwPLukcGQeOSh@jetpack"
},
{
"name": "Multi-process staged rollout",
"version": "1.3",
"isActive": true,
"id": "[email protected]"
},
{
"name": "Pocket",
"version": "1.0.4",
"isActive": true,
"id": "[email protected]"
},
{
"name": "SafeSearch Incognito",
"version": "0.1.8",
"isActive": true,
"id": "@safesearchincognito"
},
{
"name": "Web Compat",
"version": "1.0",
"isActive": true,
"id": "[email protected]"
},
{
"name": "Windscribe",
"version": "0.1.43",
"isActive": true,
"id": "@windscribeff"
},
{
"name": "Adobe Acrobat - Create PDF",
"version": "1.1",
"isActive": false,
"id": "[email protected]"
}
],
"experiments": [],
"graphics": {
"numTotalWindows": 1,
"numAcceleratedWindows": 1,
"windowLayerManagerType": "OpenGL",
"windowLayerManagerRemote": true,
"supportsHardwareH264": "Yes",
"adapterDescription": "",
"adapterVendorID": "0x10de",
"adapterDeviceID": "0x0863",
"adapterRAM": "",
"adapterDrivers": "",
"driverVersion": "",
"driverDate": "",
"webglRenderer": "NVIDIA Corporation -- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M OpenGL Engine",
"info": {
"AzureCanvasBackend": "skia",
"AzureCanvasAccelerated": 1,
"AzureFallbackCanvasBackend": "none",
"AzureContentBackend": "skia"
},
"featureLog": {
"features": [
{
"name": "HW_COMPOSITING",
"description": "Compositing",
"status": "available",
"log": [
{
"type": "default",
"status": "available"
}
]
}
],
"fallbacks": []
},
"crashGuards": []
}
}
Chosen Solution
please remove "SafeSearch Incognito" which appears to be malicious: Disable or remove Add-ons https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/safesearch-incognito-used-inappropriately-should-not-be-signed/11979
as future advice, please never install anything just because a website pops up and advertises for it - genuine security updates will never be offered to you this way!
Thank you very much!
I usually avoid anything prompting add-ons but this one looked like a legit Mozilla product. More fool me. I really appreciate your help in getting me back in Google-land.