FireFox - Can't type in Address Bar or Search Box

**distortedecho** · November 8th, 2009

Hi there..

Have this odd issue every now and then where I can't type in the above mentioned boxes. Instead, as soon as I stop typing (for a split second) the text highlights, so I end up over typing it with the next word or letter I'm typing?

Happened in 9.4 also.

Anybody know of this issue, what causes it etc??

**SPr** · November 8th, 2009

Could it be a problem with the keyboard? Replace it and see if it happens again.

Woops. If it only happens in FF then it's not a kb problem.

**nexoncore** · November 8th, 2009

I had the same problem in 9.04, its not device related. I wish I could give a less destructive alternative, but I had to resort to a fresh installation again, but never suffered it since.

I guess a possible stab at the fix, would be to uninstall firefox through Ubuntu Software Centre, restart, then reinstall.

**distortedecho** · November 8th, 2009

Apparently this has been reported as a bug?? How can I check the progress?

**aylamarguerida** · December 11th, 2009

I am having this same issue. Has anybody figured anything out yet?

**raktarok** · December 11th, 2009

Try starting firefox in safemode. (firefox -safe-mode)

If the problem still persists, delete the folder .mozilla in your home directory(or you could just delete your profile folder inside it..) and start over again. Make sure that you backup your bookmarks and other firefox settings first!

**distortedecho** · December 11th, 2009

I've found that, when it happens, typing 4 'w's' for a URL, allows you to type a complete URL. It's only the first 2 characters, it seems. So something you type rapidly, such as "www" is quick enough to break the... glitch or whatever it is. 3x w's gets you 2. So type 4 and you get your 3.

It's a work around until they find out what FF is doing.

**joes7** · December 11th, 2009

re install firefox, or move to another browser.

**yipperzz** · April 26th, 2010

has anyone figured this out? i thought it was my computer this whole time but i guess others have had this issue too. i found that if i minimize the browser and restore it again, it seems to work again. seems pretty random though.

**johnisenglish** · May 26th, 2010

I've had this problem on 9.10 on multiple machines (a Lenovo T61 laptop and an old Asus motherboard desktop). It's really quite frustrating. I'm not sure if the issue is happening on my machine that's running 10.04, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Has anyone found a solution for the issue?