Since a certain update in Firefox, whenever you type a ‘ or a / in certain text fields, a box will come up at the bottom, called quick find. You can press Esc to exit it, but if you press ‘ or / again, it will pop up again. I think it has the same function as Ctrl+F, without the next or previous buttons, so there is no need for this feature, especially since it only destroys your ability to use contractions. So after a few months of pain (for me at least), someone came up with a fix to disable this. Here’s what you do:
1. Type about:config in the address bar, and press enter.
2. Right click “Preference Name” and select New, then Boolean.
3. Type in “searchkeys.disable.all”. Press Okay.
4.Select “True”. Now you’re done!
The “Quick Find” feature should now be disabled! 
P.S. If it doesn’t work, let me know.
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Comments: 20 comments
All the fields that are marked with REQ must be filled
Heidi
February 16th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
OH THANK YOU GOD!!!
You are awesome.
Btw, for my computer, I don’t have to right click preference name. I can right click anywhere in the screen
I’ve got Win XP SP2, Firefox 2.0.0.12
But thanks for this =) This has only happened to me twice so far, and it’s annoying as hell! You’ve just saved the entire American culture now, and for that I give you a trophy (as if it means anything
.
Ben
February 18th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Thanks, but it didnt work. It still keeps popping up
Imran
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Yep same problem as Ben, no matter what I’ve tried its popping up and driving me crazy
Andrew
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
New post up on how to disable quickfind, this one should work:
http://imapcsite.com/blog/2008/02/23/works-how-to-disable-quick-find-in-firefox/
Marcel
July 31st, 2008 at 1:26 am
OH yes! That did the trick. Tonight this demonic feature tested my fury
and now
I’ve triumphed over it.
Thanks.
our
August 28th, 2008 at 12:49 am
about:config
searchkeys.disable.all set to TRUE
then tried your suggestion but NOTHING removes/disables that damn quick find — I may have to abandon Firefox because I can’t type without the “feature” stealing my cursor and sometimes uncontrollably moving my screen … MOZILLA is NO HELP
Andrew
August 28th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Seriously. It should have been removed in Firefox 3 or at least an option to turn it off but noooo.
Really, I don’t see how it’s so hard to press ctrl+F for normal find compared to pressing ‘
Anonymous
October 27th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Still can’t work what annoying is when i type an HTML Code when i put the closing tag I need several tries so that it will not show quick find
Anonymous
October 27th, 2008 at 12:50 am
sorry the tag didn’t show up </…>
sparkythewondersquid
January 29th, 2009 at 9:52 am
it does not work in fx 3.1
Devo
February 5th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
You could always just go to:
Tools->Options->Advanced->General
and turn off “Search for text when I start typing”
That should disable Quick Find, but still allow you to use Ctrl+F.
Viistar
June 10th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
THANK YOU. it randomly started quick searching last night and i had no idea why my email was going haywire! i couldn’t even type a message… all is well now… thank you thank you! ^^
pequin
June 26th, 2009 at 6:34 am
Thank you Devo, the above fix does not work, but yours did – I was just about to look at that option before I saw our post, I don’t know what these other people have done ( I followed the :instructions, I am not a programmer, but I am not new to Firefox as well)Thanks for the tip
KnifeySpooney
July 16th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Thanks for this, it disabled Quick Find on Firefox 3.5 on Windows 7. I have no idea why in hell the developers put this feature on the quote key, it’s really bad. And it’s still around after a few versions.
I couldn’t put apostrophes in a WYSIWYG editor because it wasn’t exactly a textbox. Thanks!
p.s. – I’m a Linux
Anonymous
July 21st, 2009 at 10:09 pm
that fixed it! thanks so much. i have no idea why Quick Find was added to firefox. sooo annoying.
Anonymous
July 21st, 2009 at 10:13 pm
thanks! it fixed mine, but i guess it depends on the version you have.
I have v3.0.11 on PC running windows vista. If there’s no other option, you could install a previous version of firefox.
Mahesh
September 18th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Hey guys, Under Options -> Advanced -> General Tab there is a check box which says ‘Search for text when I start typing’ un-check the check box and save it/ok. This fixed the issue of disabling the quick find in firefox 3.5.3 for me.
KOA Anubis
October 5th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I can confirm Mahesh’s solution.
For some of us (like myself with the new FF update) i t doesnt have tick in the box,
just tick it, and untick it. That should solve your problem.
Regards,
- Anubis
jean
December 19th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Nope. didn’t work. Neither does Tools/options/advance/ uncheck “search for text when I start typing” (The latter was already unchecked; and ticking then unticking doesnt work either.)
I’m having the problem when I compose or reply in AOL email — an apostrophe triggers the search. Ack!
Any other ideas?
Vista, Firefox 3.5.5, HP 8100
Anonymous
January 28th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Thanks a ton, it worked for me!
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