Solved Firefox 136 (pre-release 136.05)

Firefox new urlbar.

How to remove new url dropdown that appears in Firefox 136.

Go into about:config and set: browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride from true to false (found on reddit)

This is useful for people like me who use the separate search-bar and use the URL sometime as a reference to edit the search etc. With the new 136 url-search, everything gets blanked as soon as you type in.



ps, I was looking/searching for a way to quick-post/message this so the right person could post this in the right place/section. But I must be dumb AF this morning cause I can't find any way to do this

Ghis1964 said:

Firefox new urlbar.

Click to expand...

Still on 135, but did the test to enable browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride on my VirtualBox testsystem.
And indeed, because I am using the separate search bar too, I would not want the new URL-bar at all.
So I already added this string to my Firefox user.js file:
user_pref("browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride", false);

Thanks for the information, saves me a surprise when updating to 136.

Kees said:

Still on 135, but did the test to enable browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride on my VirtualBox testsystem.
And indeed, because I am using the separate search bar too, I would not want the new URL-bar at all.
So I already added this string to my Firefox user.js file:
user_pref("browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride", false);

Thanks for the information, saves me a surprise when updating to 136.

Click to expand...

The other, as always so unpleasant, surprise is the tab that's playing media is shunked leaving just barely enough space to place the cursor without hitting the mute/un-mute button.
I've search through about-config for browser.tab , media , override , tabs , width , to no avail.
My tabs are always set 250 wide (browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and browser.tabs.tabClipWidth)
I can't find the one that would set the "playing" tab the same as all others.

Ghis1964 said:

The other, as always so unpleasant, surprise is the tab that's playing media is shunked leaving just barely enough space to place the cursor without hitting the mute/un-mute button.

Click to expand...

Because I don't have the 136 version of FF yet, I can't test it in my system.
I don't use prereleases at all, the normal releases give already enough problems.

A long period I used ESR versions, so I had to do all modifications once a year. But after a test with the normal version I can't go back, because FF is not accepting my profile anymore. Can't use profiles from newer FF versions on older versions it said. Tried every available trick but no use. So I decided to stay on the normal versions until about Sept. 2025 a new ESR version wil come out.

When the update to 136 is available, I will test it and see if I have the same problem.
Then probably I will have to modify my userChrome.css file (again) to cure the new 'advantages'of that version...

If I find something, I will notify it here.

In the meantime you might post a screenshot of that tab-problem. May be someone else already has a solution.

Kees said:

Because I don't have the 136 version of FF yet, I can't test it in my system.
I don't use prereleases at all, the normal releases give already enough problems.

A long period I used ESR versions, so I had to do all modifications once a year. But after a test with the normal version I can't go back, because FF is not accepting my profile anymore. Can't use profiles from newer FF versions on older versions it said. Tried every available trick but no use. So I decided to stay on the normal versions until about Sept. 2025 a new ESR version wil come out.

When the update to 136 is available, I will test it and see if I have the same problem.
Then probably I will have to modify my userChrome.css file (again) to cure the new 'advantages'of that version...

If I find something, I will notify it here.

In the meantime you might post a screenshot of that tab-problem. May be someone else already has a solution.

Click to expand...

I went with 136 to see if an issue I had was still up.
Some weird thing would stop youtube from playing whenever without reason. Refresh page would not do anything so I'd restart firefox and go. But after a week of this I got tired. Upgrading to 136 did not solved anything. Duplicating the page into a container tab solved the issue for a couple of time only, the work-around useless after this.
Yesterday I had to go so I shut down the system and boot it back later last night. The issue had not come back since. Then it hit me.... win10 got something wrong when I don't want it to update, ever. Internet getting slower should have alerted me but I thought it was because I had too many things going on (vBox, several folders open, gimp open, notepad++ open, firefox in 4 windows with tabs and tabs and tabs etc)
Last month I wasn't getting any internet in vbox. Been working this issue for 3 weeks to no avail. Until I let win10 do its "ever requesting update". Vbox internet was solved. Been working with win7 without ANY update for 15 YEARS, without any issue, until I went to update it last December. It died.

So some dormant not so dormant service in win10/11 is telling MS that update are not running as [they] desire. I have 15 years of proofing that update are useless, and ONLY useful for MS wanting to spy on people's system. Nothing more.
MS basing its operating systems on a browser (internet-explorer, Edge, etc) should tell anyone way more than enough to prove that they are doing nothing but spying on its customers. Either I find and burn this useless MS "gonna-tell-on-you" service, or I definitely switch to Debian.

Kees said:

Can't use profiles from newer FF versions on older versions it said

Click to expand...

Go to your AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xyzuser.default-123456etc profile and rename it to whatever dog-name you want (lol) This folder contains every permissions passwords preferences etc you need to keep. There is another default profile-folder along with this below, this one is useless and keeps you from downgrading as well. Delete this. Firefox will build another folder-structure when re-install. Never restart firefox after install. Never.
Before re-install, get rid of the install-folder in C program mozilla/firefox (or/and C program 86 mozilla/firefox if any)
The one in AppData\Local\Mozilla are no use so delete them. These are only basic cache si firefox start quickly/quicker. Brand new cache is never a bad idea for downgrading I would think.
Downgrading in linux (debian) is easier because "app purge firefox" (after saving your profile somewhere new-name etc) But in windows I'd go in regedit and look for "firefox". I bet you still have firefox-esr hanging around, and the firefox ones can be deleted. If you never ever done any reg clean, and see no esr but only firefox, leave em be.
You're free to skip that last step. Maybe firefox can still downgrade. Maybe.

Install ESR. Keep an eye on the AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles folder while you start firefox as new and see it build itself, when done shut down firefox. You'll see a profile with a longer name than the other (each one says ".default"). Open the one saying "abcxyz.default-123456etc" and delete everything inthere. Than, copy/paste everything you have in your "dog-name-folder" in the new one. All your old bookmark chrome content etc and .json .squilt .db .ini files will now be working from there. When you restart firefox you should see it restarting right where you left off, not its welcome-krap.


This is how I does mine. I used to never update firefox to avoid "new-useless-features" that would break any chrome-css custom and addons I had, so I would downgrade and force it to never self-update in the regedit. Also, I use the same profile (without files containing password database) for vBox's firefox install, either linux or windows. Picture below is the folders/files you need to keep and use. I usually delete "BackgroundTasksProfiles CrashReports PendingPings" as there is no use for me but for telemetry (which I've disabled in prefs and regedit and windows-policy anyway) Moreover, there are no "BackgroundTasks" in Linux (window's spy again lol)

As long as you have a whole copy of your profile (dog-name lol) you are set to experiment as many times as you wish, anywhere, any system.

As always if you're unsure of any of your doing and this is total new territory to you, do a system-restore backup point.



ps: If by any reason firefox does not want to restart as I said above, delete its new profile it surely had just made (welcome start krap etc) and copy/paste again etc, and make a short-cut on your desktop with this >>"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p (if yours says firefox-esr.exe than apply as such) (I don't remember seeing it when me we with windows7 etc, as I had to use esr. You never know these days)
Name it whatever... eg: Profile-chooser
This will launch the profile-chooser. Set it to run offline (check-box) and browse to your profile. Check/uncheck the box if you need profile-chooser to start again or not, and run firefox as normal.

Me, I start profile-chooser when unsure (in linux it's firefox-esr --profile)

I feel sorry for you, but as I already told, I have followed about every method described on the Internet to use an older profile in a newer version of Firefox. In the beginning it seemed to function like it should, but later on all kinds of strange error messages followed, distorting my normal browsing work. Then I decided to install the normal version of FF instead of the older ESR version. I have no desire to try any more than I did. Don't want to distort a good working browser by all kinds of tricks, that I can hardly follow (additional I have language problems because English is not my native language).

That's all I'd like to say about it.

But thanks for your description, maybe someone else can use it.


BTW. I am no Linux user and have no intention at all to become one.