Hi Trendy, what happens when you try to use the other search engines? Do you get a connection error, or just a blank page, etc.?

Try to delete the search.json file and possible search-metadata.json and search.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default built-in search engines that come with Firefox and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

jscher2000 said

Hi Trendy, what happens when you try to use the other search engines? Do you get a connection error, or just a blank page, etc.?

Hi jscher2000, The only search engine that is currently operable is GOOGLE! Imagine that! It's almost as if Google is keeping the other search engines from operating since none others can operate except Google. That's very interesting!

The message I get when I try to use the aforementioned 3 other search engines is this:

"Unable to connect

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at startpage.com.

   The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
   If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
   If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web."

None of those things mentioned in the message are the problem as I have already checked each one. And the fact that only GOOGLE is showing up and fully operable is quite suspect. But I don't like using Google. Repeated tries with the other search engines, other than Google, results in the above message repeating as many times as I try.

cor-el said

Try to delete the search.json file and possible search-metadata.json and search.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default. You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default built-in search engines that come with Firefox and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

Hi Cor-el! I tried what you suggested and was able to delete the "search.json" file and the "search-metadata.json" file successfully. However, oddly enough I could not find the "search.sqlite" file that you mentioned! Wonder why it is not there or is not appearing?

I signed-off from Firefox after deletion of the two files (incidentally, I am using Windows 8.1) and apparently the search engine did rebuild itself upon the next reboot but guess what? Google showed itself at the very top with the rest of the engines listed in descending order (perhaps because as you said it would reset itself to the default?) And when I went to try Startpage, IXQuick, and DuckDuckGo I could not. I received the same message as explained to jscher2000 just above. Only Google was again fully operational.

I even went to About:Config to look for the "search.sqlite" file in the hope that I would find it there but apparently it is missing or something. So, I did not find it there either. I wonder if that file might need to be worked on and that is why those other three search engines are not working properly?

Thanks for your response and also to jscher2000! I do appreciate help from both of you and hope that we can get to the bottom of this problem soon!

I doubt that Google would dare block other search sites. Also, how would that happen??

So is this problem only using Firefox's built-in search features (search bar, address bar, etc.) or also if you try to load those sites directly using a link?

• https://startpage.com/
• https://duckduckgo.com/

You mentioned this is not a new problem. Do you recall how far it goes back?

search.sqlite was used in older Firefox version and has been replaced by search.json, so it is OK if the file isn't there.

You can do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

jscher2000 said

I doubt that Google would dare block other search sites. Also, how would that happen?? So is this problem only using Firefox's built-in search features (search bar, address bar, etc.) or also if you try to load those sites directly using a link?

• https://startpage.com/
• https://duckduckgo.com/

You mentioned this is not a new problem. Do you recall how far it goes back?

Hi jscher2000! Thanks for your reply.

Essentially, my mention of Google is due to the fact that it is the only search engine working and appears without fault each time which is rather odd being that the others don't. I wasn't sure if there might be a connection there or not.

Yes, this problem presents itself when only using the built-in search features as you have described. Oddly enough however, I could not use the "live" links that you provided here to the two search engines I like to use. They would not work when clicked upon. I had to input them myself on my browser and then I found the following:

DuckDuckGo only produces a Blank Page.

Startpage will work but not like before. It does not produce a "clean" page but will produce results that I can still view although they are harder to work with than before. For example, when I input the word "sky" to search for information, the following appears:

=========================

"Settings

   Privacy
   Settings
   Support
   Community
       Facebook
       Twitter
       Blog
   About Us
   Add StartPage
       Add to Browser
       Homepage
       Mobile Device
       Toolbar
   Language
   Dansk 	Deutsch
   English 	English UK
   Español 	Français
   Italiano 	Nederlands
   Norsk 	Polski
   Português 	Suomi
   Svenska 	Türkçe
   中文 	日本語
   繁體中文 	한글
   Share
   Theme
   Air
   Night
   White
   Black
   Air (Classic)
   White (Classic)
   Black (Classic)
   Classic

   Any time
   Past 24 hours
   Past week
   Past month
   Past year

   Web
   Pages from the UK

   Add to my browser
   Set as Home

Web Images Videos Advanced Bookmark this search Any time

   Any time
   Past 24 hours
   Past week
   Past month
   Past year

   Sky TV & Broadband | News, Sports, Movies & Entertainment

   https://www.sky.com/ Proxy  Highlight

   Sky brings you all the latest news, sport and entertainment stories. Manage your My Sky account or discover more about a host of TV and broadband services.
   My Sky Homepage Logged Out

   www.sky.com/mysky/indexb.html Proxy  Highlight

   Learn more about My Sky ... Track orders and find out what to do if you're ...

===========================

That is **EXACTLY** as it appears after inputting **any** word into Startpage whereas before it used to work perfectly without all of the stuff as shown above. It was all in HTML or CSS (in other words, in blue all the way through.) Now the upper part (as shown) is in black and not in HTML or CSS only the results are shown in blue HTML or CSS which is good. So, something is clearly wrong and that might also be what is affecting my built-in search features?

Incidentally, I only input the word "sky" into the search engine to bring up 'clouds', 'air', etc. but it appears to have brought up something else. It's o.k. though. :)

As to how far this problem dates back, it would be to about the last two FF updates only. Prior to that all was working well.

cor-el said

search.sqlite was used in older Firefox version and has been replaced by search.json, so it is OK if the file isn't there.

---

You can do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Thanks for this list! I currently have some of those programs suggested already but it will of course take some time to run through all of them so may be back in a day or two or so after I have finished with the results.

I have run at least SuperAntispyware thoroughly and nothing unusual showed up. It was clean. Will see about the rest.

It sounds as though something is filtering your access to the web, but I'm not sure what.

Could you check for a non-standard connection setting on the Add-ons page. Either:

• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
• type or paste about:preferences in the address bar and press Enter

In the left column, click Advanced, and then above the page on the right side, the Nework mini-tab. Click the "Settings" button here.

The default of "Use system proxy settings" should piggyback on your Windows/IE "LAN" settings. However, you could try "No proxy" to see whether that works better.

Trendy said

As to how far this problem dates back, it would be to about the last two FF updates only. Prior to that all was working well.

Do you mean the two recent updates in the past few weeks, or over the past 3 months (major updates)?

Firefox 43 has a major change with respect to extensions: unsigned extensions do not run. If one of your extensions was coordinating your browsing access, this could be a factor in any recent issues.

Trendy said

cor-el said

search.sqlite was used in older Firefox version and has been replaced by search.json, so it is OK if the file isn't there.

---

You can do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Thanks for this list! I currently have some of those programs suggested already but it will of course take some time to run through all of them so may be back in a day or two or so after I have finished with the results.

I have run at least SuperAntispyware thoroughly and nothing unusual showed up. It was clean. Will see about the rest.

I have completed the check with the software as listed and have found nothing. It was all clean. Good to know!

The AdwCleaner, however, listed some things that I am not familiar with and therefore am afraid to delete them as they may be important to the system. This malware cleaner also does not appear to have an all-important Back-Up feature to be able to fall back upon if needed. Therefore, I am hesitant to delete the few things it did find.

Under Options- Delete "Tracing" Keys was automatically checked. Reset Winsock settings was also checked. The rest of the items are unchecked.

• • Are any of the following SAFE to remove and delete?**

Under Services - N.

Under Files - Profiles -- User.js

Under DLL- "Path"

Under Shortcuts - "Path" "Argument"

Under Scheduled Tasks - "Name"

Under the little world icon - "Content"

Under Firefox - "c:\Users\user-pref ("browser.search order.us.3", data:text\plain. browser.search.order.US.3=IXQuick"

Under C:|USERS\extensions.sieve\dereferers

Under Registry - Key HKLM\Data Container\ Also, the following were listed: . Data Table . Data Table Fields . Data Table 1 . Data Table Holder . LSP Logic . LSP Logic 1 . Read Only Manager . Data Statistics

Thanks!

jscher2000 said

It sounds as though something is filtering your access to the web, but I'm not sure what. Could you check for a non-standard connection setting on the Add-ons page. Either:

• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
• type or paste about:preferences in the address bar and press Enter

In the left column, click Advanced, and then above the page on the right side, the Nework mini-tab. Click the "Settings" button here. The default of "Use system proxy settings" should piggyback on your Windows/IE "LAN" settings. However, you could try "No proxy" to see whether that works better. Trendy said

As to how far this problem dates back, it would be to about the last two FF updates only. Prior to that all was working well.

Do you mean the two recent updates in the past few weeks, or over the past 3 months (major updates)?

Firefox 43 has a major change with respect to extensions: unsigned extensions do not run. If one of your extensions was coordinating your browsing access, this could be a factor in any recent issues.

It is currently set to "No Proxy" but have tried both in the past with no remarkable results.

With regard to major updates I mean the problem has shown up over the past three months.

As to the Search Engines Startpage and DuckDuckGo, as well as IXQuick, they all continue to default to either an about: blank (page) or "Unable to connect" "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at startpage.com."

Except that Startpage will work to some extent by inputting the url each time in the search bar. The others will not come up.

One other thing. After running the suggested Anti-malware software and listing the results, this one item came up on AdwCleaner to remove. I have not done so as I was waiting to hear from Cor-el for further guidance since he suggested the use of those items. But it has picked up the following that may have something to do with things, I don't know.

Under the item entitled "Firefox" - "c:\Users\user-pref ("browser.search order.us.3", data:text\plain. browser.search.order.US.3=IXQuick"

Does that offer a clue? Any suggestions?

Hi All, Just to let you know that I have gone elsewhere to search for the answer to my questions and an expert on Firefox has advised me to simply go back to the previous version of Firefox and then wait for the upgrade to the next version. Something did not connect properly during this most recent download so that is what I am going to do. Thanks everyone for your help anyway.