Firefox on mac - Search box doesn't work

Question

I'm using firefox 3.5.1 on a mac and the search bar seems to have stopped responding to the "enter" key. I can type searches, and it will even "find as I type", but hitting "enter" doesn't do anything, no search is performed.

Have you had this problem? Is there an explanation, solution or workaround to it?

Update: I deleted firefox from the applications folder and reinstalled it, but the problem remains. I don't run any add-ons or plugins. I discovered that the box reacts to "enter" if it is empty, but as soon as I have entered some text nothing happens. The equivalent search box in safari works fine.

Very odd, but it seems it's not a common problem so I guess there's some weird issue with my particular install. I can live with it until Snow Leopard is released. :)

Answer 1

I was able to resolve this with a little less work than Reinstalling the OS. Here's what I did (It's likely not every one of these steps is necessary):

1. Delete the Firefox application
2. Delete the "/Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Firefox" directory
3. Delete the "/Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Mozilla" directory
4. Delete the "/Users/yourusername/Library/Caches/Firefox" directory
5. Delete the "/Library/Application\ Support/Mozilla" directory
6. Delete the "/Library/Application\ Support/Mozilla" directory

Just to be sure, I then did a search for Firefox and Mozilla to make sure no directories or anything that looked like a preference storage was still present.

Finally, I reinstalled Firefox from the same dmg I'd used to install it last

Answer 2

In the regular Find (Cmd-F) field, Enter finds the next occurrence. However, if you are using "Quick Find" (by typing "/", or just typing search text, depending on your configuration), Enter is passed on to the newly focused content. For example, if you Quick Find some text that is found as part of a link, then pressing Enter will follow that link. Cmd-G can be used to go to the next occurrence with either Find or Quick Find.

Answer 3

I have not experienced this myself. I also can't find much on Google about the problem being reported.

I can only imagine that you need to remove and reinstall Firefox, or if you use add-ons disabling them all and then trying. You may have a add-on that is intercepting the enter key or something similar.