How to fix an annoying Firefox bug

jeffy777 · August 11th, 2007, 08:37 AM

This is something that has been bothering me for awhile now. I kept hoping Mozilla would fix it with each new release, but I finally got rid of it with the help of Google. Many firefox users have had this problem, so I thought I'd share. Interestingly, some people never experience this bug, while it can show up for other people on a daily basis.

Here's an example of the bug:

The ' and / keys are hotkeys that bring up the quick find box if you want to search the text on a webpage (similar to CTRL + F, but with less features). These hotkeys are supposed to be disabled whenever you are typing in a form element (textbox, textarea, etc.). However, occasionally when posting on a forum for example, including ' in a post would still bring up the Find box, and it becomes impossible to type ' in your post, which gets very frustrating after about the hundredth time this happens, which seems to be totally at random since it doesn't happen all the time.

Well, here's how to fix it:

Disable the ' and / hotkeys (CTRL + F works better anyway)

First, close Firefox.....

Open the following file with WinRAR or something similar (I use PowerArchiver), also a good idea to make a backup first:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\chrome\toolkit.jar

Inside, open up:
content\global\findBar.js

Find these lines:
const CHAR_CODE_SLASH = "/".charCodeAt(0);
const CHAR_CODE_APOSTROPHE = "'".charCodeAt(0);

Replace them with;
const CHAR_CODE_SLASH = "".charCodeAt(0);
const CHAR_CODE_APOSTROPHE = "".charCodeAt(0);

(Note: you can change the hotkeys to something else if you want to...I just changed them to nothing)

Save and exit.

Life is now beautiful once again images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Viper007Bond · August 11th, 2007, 10:50 AM

OMG I fucking love you! I have this problem all the time and usually fix it by spamming my control + alt + windows keys. That seems to fix it and allow me to type a ' again. heh

Off to make my changes...

(BTW, you can open JAR files with WinRAR images/smilies/wink.gif

)

fbc · August 11th, 2007, 02:16 PM

Wow, I actually thought that bug was just something weird on my PC.

jeffy777 · August 11th, 2007, 07:07 PM

You're welcome guys! I had a feeling others would benefit from thefix This bug is really the only problem I've ever had with Firefox, and I've been using it since before it was even called Firefox images/smilies/smile.gif

monkeymax · August 11th, 2007, 07:48 PM

Nice one Jeffy! Now... if only my PC hadn't blown up spectacularly... images/smilies/lol.gif

It was a problem I frequently had before...

Thankfully it's not a problem I've experienced on the Mac, though I have found a couple of annoying niggles on the Mac version of Firefox that do not appear on the Windows version - but they're something for another day... images/smilies/wink.gif

Adunaphel · August 11th, 2007, 07:51 PM

Can't say i've encountered this bug yet *knocks on wood*, but thanks anyway in case i run into it.

matt2000 · August 11th, 2007, 08:52 PM

yeah i didn't even know those keys did that *prods keys and jumps up and down with excitement...* and i've never had that problem...

jeffy777 · August 11th, 2007, 09:03 PM

Some people are lucky enough to never know the evils of this bug. Others of us have lost many a hair over it.

monkeymax · August 11th, 2007, 11:41 PM

I fall in the second group. My word that was (is) an annoying bug.

chaos386 · August 12th, 2007, 12:30 AM

I've been using Firefox since before 1.0, and I've never had that problem. Maybe it's because I've always set Firefox to search when I start typing any character? images/smilies/think.gif

jeffy777 · August 12th, 2007, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaos386

I've been using Firefox since before 1.0, and I've never had that problem. Maybe it's because I've always set Firefox to search when I start typing any character? images/smilies/think.gif

Could be. I've never turned that feature on to be honest.

ryosuke · August 12th, 2007, 02:05 AM

never ever had this problem and i've never used that feature.

jeffy777 · August 12th, 2007, 02:14 AM

Now I'm even more curious as to why some people have this and some don't? I've had it pretty much on all my PCs and windows installs. I wonder if it's a conflict with some other installed program.

epp_b · August 12th, 2007, 02:41 AM

I've never experienced this problem, but thanks for pointing it out for future reference.

I just use type-to-find anyway images/smilies/wink.gif

cvrefugee · August 12th, 2007, 06:40 AM

I always use Ctrl+F so no bugs here.

jeffy777 · August 12th, 2007, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cvg

I always use Ctrl+F so no bugs here.

Oh yeah, I always use CTRL + F as well. But the problem is that ' and / would act as hotkeys when they weren't supposed to, such as if I were to try to include the word "I'm" in a post. The instant I would type the apostrophe, the quick find would come up and so including an apostrophe would be impossible, unless I copied and pasted it in, but that's gets old really fast. The hotkeys ' and / are supposed to be disabled when filling out a form (such as a post for example), but for some reason they are only disabled sometimes. That's the bug. Be thankful you've never experienced it images/smilies/wink.gif

monkeymax · August 12th, 2007, 10:58 AM

Jeffy - I wonder if one of the plug-ins could've caused it?
From memory I was using a weather one (with Fox in the name I think), TabMixPlus, GoogleBar and I think that's it...

jeffy777 · August 12th, 2007, 05:32 PM

That's what I thought at first too. I've had the bug with no plugins/extensions installed, and on the default theme images/smilies/sad.gif

jeffy777 · October 19th, 2007, 08:43 AM

Guys, keep in mind that you will need to apply this fix every time Firefox updates, atleast until they officially fix it.

I have been lazy since 2.0.0.7 came out, but the bug has returned so it's definitely still in the latest version.

Time to go apply the fix again images/smilies/smile.gif

matt2000 · October 19th, 2007, 02:06 PM

i've never had this problem, and i have lots of plug-ins installed (Forecastfox, FireFTP, Spell check, Fasterfox etc)

FF 2.0.0.8 has just come out so that might help to fix this problem for people who have it images/smilies/smile.gif

August 11th, 2007, 08:37 AM	#1
jeffy777 Joined: Feb 8th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: US Age: 27 Posts: 5,662 Car: '04 Toyota Sienna, crippled people like vans.... Rep Power: 53	How to fix an annoying Firefox bug This is something that has been bothering me for awhile now. I kept hoping Mozilla would fix it with each new release, but I finally got rid of it with the help of Google. Many firefox users have had this problem, so I thought I'd share. Interestingly, some people never experience this bug, while it can show up for other people on a daily basis. Here's an example of the bug: The ' and / keys are hotkeys that bring up the quick find box if you want to search the text on a webpage (similar to CTRL + F, but with less features). These hotkeys are supposed to be disabled whenever you are typing in a form element (textbox, textarea, etc.). However, occasionally when posting on a forum for example, including ' in a post would still bring up the Find box, and it becomes impossible to type ' in your post, which gets very frustrating after about the hundredth time this happens, which seems to be totally at random since it doesn't happen all the time. Well, here's how to fix it: Disable the ' and / hotkeys (CTRL + F works better anyway) First, close Firefox..... Open the following file with WinRAR or something similar (I use PowerArchiver), also a good idea to make a backup first: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\chrome\toolkit.jar Inside, open up: content\global\findBar.js Find these lines: const CHAR_CODE_SLASH = "/".charCodeAt(0); const CHAR_CODE_APOSTROPHE = "'".charCodeAt(0); Replace them with; const CHAR_CODE_SLASH = "".charCodeAt(0); const CHAR_CODE_APOSTROPHE = "".charCodeAt(0); (Note: you can change the hotkeys to something else if you want to...I just changed them to nothing) Save and exit. Life is now beautiful once again __________________ A man named Jeffy once said, "If laziness is craziness, then I've lost my marbles...and I don't feel like trying to find them." Last edited by jeffy777; April 11th, 2008 at 09:33 AM..

August 11th, 2007, 10:50 AM	#2
Viper007Bond Lazy Head Dude Joined: Sep 21st, 2003 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 21,086 Car: Dodge Viper (I wish!) Rep Power: 237	OMG I fucking love you! I have this problem all the time and usually fix it by spamming my control + alt + windows keys. That seems to fix it and allow me to type a ' again. heh Off to make my changes... (BTW, you can open JAR files with WinRAR ) __________________ Fight back against the evil Quiky by +1'ing this post! There is no replacement for displacement. - Wolfgang Bernhard, Chief Operating Officer, Chrysler Group talking about the Dodge Viper SRT-10 ... I ask Herb Helbig, vehicle synthesis manager for SRT and a member of the original Team Viper development group since day one, if they'd ever thought of adding traction control. "It comes with two," he says, pointing at my feet. "Learn to use them." Got it. - Motor Trend on the 2006 Dodge Viper Coupe, November 2005

August 11th, 2007, 02:16 PM	#3
fbc Mantastic! Joined: Jan 8th, 2005 Last Online: 12:50 AM Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 33 Posts: 10,630 Car: 2006 MY07 Astra SRi Turbo Rep Power: 82	Wow, I actually thought that bug was just something weird on my PC. __________________ www.sniffpetrol.com

August 11th, 2007, 07:07 PM	#4
jeffy777 Joined: Feb 8th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: US Age: 27 Posts: 5,662 Car: '04 Toyota Sienna, crippled people like vans.... Rep Power: 53	You're welcome guys! I had a feeling others would benefit from thefix This bug is really the only problem I've ever had with Firefox, and I've been using it since before it was even called Firefox __________________ A man named Jeffy once said, "If laziness is craziness, then I've lost my marbles...and I don't feel like trying to find them." Last edited by jeffy777; August 11th, 2007 at 07:14 PM..

August 11th, 2007, 07:48 PM	#5
monkeymax Joined: Dec 7th, 2004 Last Online: December 29th, 2008 Location: England Age: 25 Posts: 1,023 Car: Toyota MR2 Mk1, Toyota MR2 Mk1 SC, Peugeot 309 Rep Power: 19	Nice one Jeffy! Now... if only my PC hadn't blown up spectacularly... It was a problem I frequently had before... Thankfully it's not a problem I've experienced on the Mac, though I have found a couple of annoying niggles on the Mac version of Firefox that do not appear on the Windows version - but they're something for another day... __________________ Yup, two too many cars, but I love 'em: 1991 Peugeot 309 - owned it for four years, currently the only runner and the daily driver... but great fun to drive! French though, so gotta treat her rough to keep her happy. 1989 Toyota MR2 Mk1 - owned it for two years. Love it loads. Currently undergoing a suspension upgrade... 1987 Toyota MR2 Mk1 SC - A project car that had Headgasket issues when I bought it. I've never driven it... yet...

August 11th, 2007, 07:51 PM	#6
Adunaphel Global Moderator Joined: Jan 18th, 2006 Last Online: Yesterday Location: [ˈne:dərlɑnt] Age: 29 Posts: 3,597 Car: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E (W201) Rep Power: 67	Can't say i've encountered this bug yet knocks on wood, but thanks anyway in case i run into it. __________________ 01001001 00100000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010100 01001000 01000101 00100000 01010011 01010100 01001001 01000111

August 11th, 2007, 08:52 PM	#7
matt2000 Hedgehog Sandwich Joined: Feb 17th, 2006 Last Online: 12:10 AM Location: Market Harborough, UK Age: 18 Posts: 3,682 Car: '77 Land Rover Series III LFS Status: Rep Power: 56	yeah i didn't even know those keys did that prods keys and jumps up and down with excitement... and i've never had that problem... __________________ 'I've spoken to the scientist in that article. He is convinced that the parrot is "just resting".' - Plissken "My daughter has... errr HAD one, and I was given one" - Scott

August 11th, 2007, 09:03 PM	#8
jeffy777 Joined: Feb 8th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: US Age: 27 Posts: 5,662 Car: '04 Toyota Sienna, crippled people like vans.... Rep Power: 53	Some people are lucky enough to never know the evils of this bug. Others of us have lost many a hair over it. __________________ A man named Jeffy once said, "If laziness is craziness, then I've lost my marbles...and I don't feel like trying to find them."

August 11th, 2007, 11:41 PM	#9
monkeymax Joined: Dec 7th, 2004 Last Online: December 29th, 2008 Location: England Age: 25 Posts: 1,023 Car: Toyota MR2 Mk1, Toyota MR2 Mk1 SC, Peugeot 309 Rep Power: 19	I fall in the second group. My word that was (is) an annoying bug. __________________ Yup, two too many cars, but I love 'em: 1991 Peugeot 309 - owned it for four years, currently the only runner and the daily driver... but great fun to drive! French though, so gotta treat her rough to keep her happy. 1989 Toyota MR2 Mk1 - owned it for two years. Love it loads. Currently undergoing a suspension upgrade... 1987 Toyota MR2 Mk1 SC - A project car that had Headgasket issues when I bought it. I've never driven it... yet...

August 12th, 2007, 12:30 AM	#10
chaos386 .sa = bad driver! Joined: Nov 8th, 2004 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia Age: 22 Posts: 3,564 LFS Status: Rep Power: 62	I've been using Firefox since before 1.0, and I've never had that problem. Maybe it's because I've always set Firefox to search when I start typing any character? __________________ "Shit, that's a busy table cloth." -matt2000

August 12th, 2007, 02:05 AM	#12
ryosuke Joined: Jul 28th, 2005 Last Online: November 15th, 2008 Location: franconofurd, germsmany Age: 23 Posts: 1,618 Car: FZ50 GTR Rep Power: 15	never ever had this problem and i've never used that feature. __________________ Goddo supiido yuu! Burakku emparaa

August 12th, 2007, 02:14 AM	#13
jeffy777 Joined: Feb 8th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: US Age: 27 Posts: 5,662 Car: '04 Toyota Sienna, crippled people like vans.... Rep Power: 53	Now I'm even more curious as to why some people have this and some don't? I've had it pretty much on all my PCs and windows installs. I wonder if it's a conflict with some other installed program. __________________ A man named Jeffy once said, "If laziness is craziness, then I've lost my marbles...and I don't feel like trying to find them."

August 12th, 2007, 02:41 AM	#14
epp_b n00b of the year Joined: Jun 23rd, 2006 Last Online: 01:13 AM Location: Canadaland :) Posts: 4,903 Car: 1995 Nissan 240SX Rep Power: 45	I've never experienced this problem, but thanks for pointing it out for future reference. I just use type-to-find anyway

August 12th, 2007, 06:40 AM	#15
cvrefugee Joined: Aug 16th, 2004 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Corona, CA Age: 28 Posts: 3,449 Car: 2005 Scion xB Rep Power: 60	I always use Ctrl+F so no bugs here.

August 12th, 2007, 10:58 AM	#17
monkeymax Joined: Dec 7th, 2004 Last Online: December 29th, 2008 Location: England Age: 25 Posts: 1,023 Car: Toyota MR2 Mk1, Toyota MR2 Mk1 SC, Peugeot 309 Rep Power: 19	Jeffy - I wonder if one of the plug-ins could've caused it? From memory I was using a weather one (with Fox in the name I think), TabMixPlus, GoogleBar and I think that's it... __________________ Yup, two too many cars, but I love 'em: 1991 Peugeot 309 - owned it for four years, currently the only runner and the daily driver... but great fun to drive! French though, so gotta treat her rough to keep her happy. 1989 Toyota MR2 Mk1 - owned it for two years. Love it loads. Currently undergoing a suspension upgrade... 1987 Toyota MR2 Mk1 SC - A project car that had Headgasket issues when I bought it. I've never driven it... yet...

August 12th, 2007, 05:32 PM	#18
jeffy777 Joined: Feb 8th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: US Age: 27 Posts: 5,662 Car: '04 Toyota Sienna, crippled people like vans.... Rep Power: 53	That's what I thought at first too. I've had the bug with no plugins/extensions installed, and on the default theme __________________ A man named Jeffy once said, "If laziness is craziness, then I've lost my marbles...and I don't feel like trying to find them."

October 19th, 2007, 08:43 AM	#19
jeffy777 Joined: Feb 8th, 2005 Last Online: Yesterday Location: US Age: 27 Posts: 5,662 Car: '04 Toyota Sienna, crippled people like vans.... Rep Power: 53	Guys, keep in mind that you will need to apply this fix every time Firefox updates, atleast until they officially fix it. I have been lazy since 2.0.0.7 came out, but the bug has returned so it's definitely still in the latest version. Time to go apply the fix again __________________ A man named Jeffy once said, "If laziness is craziness, then I've lost my marbles...and I don't feel like trying to find them."

October 19th, 2007, 02:06 PM	#20
matt2000 Hedgehog Sandwich Joined: Feb 17th, 2006 Last Online: 12:10 AM Location: Market Harborough, UK Age: 18 Posts: 3,682 Car: '77 Land Rover Series III LFS Status: Rep Power: 56	i've never had this problem, and i have lots of plug-ins installed (Forecastfox, FireFTP, Spell check, Fasterfox etc) FF 2.0.0.8 has just come out so that might help to fix this problem for people who have it