Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems. See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

Profile Backup and Restore

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

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.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_search_or_add_new_engines

Deleting search files didn't change a thing. In a new profile there were about 5 search engines and everything was ok about managing them.

If you still have the old profile then try to rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js and user.js files to reset all prefs to the default value to see if that helps.

of course i have the old profile, actually the problem is i can't give up on it.

I'll try deleting these files but i'm confused about losing or breaking my addons and some manually configured tweaks if i deleted prefs.js. i'll backup and try, thanks for helping.

I don't know if you already solved this bug or not, since two weeks have passed since your last post, but I was having this same problem and found a workaround.

Searching for a solution for my (and yours) problem, I've found some threads, including this one, and tried a few things and since, like you, I wasn't willing to create a new profile, I've tried the following and it worked:

1. Start Firefox in Safe Mode.

2. Organize your search engines.

3. Hit OK and restart Firefox.

4. Voilá, all working and ordered like it should.

Hope it helps you and/or someone who comes to this thread to find an answer to this problem.

What a coincidence Vallovic I found the solution today and i was going to report what the problem is.

It's all caused by an add-on called "keyword.url hack" https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keywordurl-hack/ It resolves the most unbelievable change by Mozilla when they destroyed the address bar independent search engine. unfortunately i need this add-on hard so I'm gonna stick with the same workaround you mentioned to solve this issue.

I've wrote a review on the add-on page reporting the problem. If you are not a user of it check your add-ons one by one until you find out the bugy one.

good luck.

It's funny, because I use that add-on too, so it's definitely it. It's such a strange bug that I don't even tried to disable only the add-ons, I always thought that it was a Firefox problem - and it kinda is, because if they didn't have removed the URL behaviour, which comes from since I don't know when (I use Firefox almost since its first release), the add-on wouldn't need to exist and break the search engines manager. :P

Well, the solution is found and it's all that matters for now. Let's enjoy our Firefox again.

As an alternative you can look at the Keyword Search extension to see if that also has this problem.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/keyword-search/

You can specify in the Options of the Keyword Search extension in "Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" which search engine to use for the location bar and which search engine to use for the about:home page.

Thanks cor-el, I've tried keyword search before, I think it's not a good addon, specially for me as an Arabic language user it was full of bugs. keyword hack brings the original behavior of old address bar.

I have the same problem too: suddenly all my search bars are stuck in alphabetical order. Trying to rearrange either i) fails: (the "ok" button to accept changes doesn't do anything); or ii) the order can be changed but resets to alphabetical order on restarting firefox.

I've tried all the solutions mentioned: rearranging in safe mode, deleting files from the prfile folder, etc, but nothing works.

Pleae help.

You can try these steps if you haven't done this yet:

Rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js and user.js files to reset all prefs to the default value.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences

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.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox