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Problem with Firefox Address Bar

J

judgecrandall

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 16, 2009
23
0
I'm having a problem with the Firefox address bar that is driving me crazy. When I used to type a word into the address bar (e.g., espn), the search bar would either open espn.com, or a google search for espn if the domain guessing didn't work. Now, I just get a page labeled "Failed to open page" that says "The host does not exist."

I've checked all the relevant about:config options, and all those seem to be set correctly. The problem is still there in Safe Mode, too. I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times (using AppDelete), which doesn't change anything. I don't know what else to try at this point. Does anyone know what the problem is? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Did AppDelete remove org.mozilla.firefox.plist from HD/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences ?

You could try again to see, or just move it to the Desktop and then start up Firefox.
 
AppDelete does remove it. I tried moving org.mozilla.firefox.plist to the desktop, and still no luck. Thanks for trying.
 
Open up about:config
Type keyword into the filter bar
Do you have:

Code: 
[B]Preference Name    Status     Type      Value[/B]
keyword.URL        default    string    http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
keyword.enabled    default    boolean   true
 
judgecrandall said:
Yeah, that's exactly what I have.
Click to expand...

Bummer, was hoping that would help. If you go to Help in the menu bar and select Troubleshooting Information... under Modified Preferences on the page that comes up do you see anything that looks like it may be preventing Firefox from working properly?
 
Nothing looks like it would be messing with the address bar. I tried changing them, and still the same, unfortunately.
 
Just create a new bookmark, and be sure to add a keyword for it. There is the option when you create it.

You can also modify existing ones.;)

EDIT: on second tought, you can also name a bookmark. For example, I have a bookmark called WEN (it's wikipedia in english). When I type it, the adress comes first in the list.
 
DewGuy1999 said:
Looks like the user.js file may be preventing all that you've tried from working. It's all explained here mozillaZine: User.js file
Click to expand...

I'm not sure this is the problem, as I don't even have a user.js file on my system. Could creating and then deleting the user.js file actually be helpful?

lewis82 said:
Just create a new bookmark, and be sure to add a keyword for it. There is the option when you create it.

You can also modify existing ones.;)

EDIT: on second tought, you can also name a bookmark. For example, I have a bookmark called WEN (it's wikipedia in english). When I type it, the adress comes first in the list.
Click to expand...

I have a lot of bookmarks with keywords, but I'd prefer to not have to bookmark EVERY website I ever go to... =)
 
Try this:

Back up your bookmarks to a JSON file. Go find your Firefox profile folder and profiles.ini file (they're in /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Firefox). Move them elsewhere (while Firefox isn't running). Relaunch Firefox. Restore your JSON backup of your bookmarks. Does it work now? If it does, something was messed up in your profile.
 
Followed your instructions, and the address bar still doesn't work correctly, unfortunately :(. So I guess it's not a profile issue? Thanks for your help.
 
judgecrandall said:
I'm not sure this is the problem, as I don't even have a user.js file on my system. Could creating and then deleting the user.js file actually be helpful?
Click to expand...

Since the user.js supersedes everything else it seemed like the perfect answer, but if you dont have one (I don't) then I don't imagine that creating/deleting would work.

Do you have the latest version of Firefox? Do you have any Firefox add-ons installed? Maybe one of them is causing this behavior.
 
DewGuy1999 said:
Since the user.js supersedes everything else it seemed like the perfect answer, but if you dont have one (I don't) then I don't imagine that creating/deleting would work.

Do you have the latest version of Firefox? Do you have any Firefox add-ons installed? Maybe one of them is causing this behavior.
Click to expand...

I'm using version 3.6.6. I haven't tried the 4.0 beta, I'll try that later. As for add-ons, I don't think that's the culprit, as I've tried running in safe mode, and regular mode after reinstalling (with no extensions installed). I've noticed that I get the same "The host does not exist" page with Safari. I've never really used Safari, so I'm not sure what normal behavior would be, though. The Chrome address/search bar works just fine though.
 
judgecrandall said:
I'm using version 3.6.6. I haven't tried the 4.0 beta, I'll try that later. As for add-ons, I don't think that's the culprit, as I've tried running in safe mode, and regular mode after reinstalling (with no extensions installed). I've noticed that I get the same "The host does not exist" page with Safari. I've never really used Safari, so I'm not sure what normal behavior would be, though. The Chrome address/search bar works just fine though.
Click to expand...

Does browsing work otherwise? Like when you type in a full URL or use a bookmark?
 
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