How To Disable Firefox Quick Find

[Note added 2009-07-19: The advice given in this post is now out of date.  In modern versions of Firefox it is possible disable Quick Find using the menus.  On windows, click: Tools > Options > Advanced > General and deselect Search for text when I start typing.  On Linux click: Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General and deselect Search for text when I start typing.]

Recently I have found that when I start typing into a text box in Firefox I often get a Quick Find bar coming up at the bottom of the screen.  This happens if I am typing ahead.  Firefox seems to be interpreting characters typed at a web-page as a search string.  I don't remember having asked for this behaviour and I find it rather annoying.  I would much rather have Firefox silently ignore the type-ahead characters.  At least then I would not have to go to the trouble of removing the unwanted Quick Find bar (or sitting and waiting until it removes itself).  Fortunately a little research revealed the following fix:

Enter about:config in the Firefox URL line and click Go.

Select the line starting accessibilty.typeaheadfind and double click it until the Value field is false.

Comments

[Tristram Brelstaff]

SmokyOkie, there is now a menu option to disable Quick Find. I have inserted a note on how to find it at the head of the post.

[Gia45]

THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU!!!!!!!

[Gia45]

You better believe that I bookmarked the configuration page!!!
Many thanks again.
Whoever thought QuickFind was a positive thing to include - didn't think about it ...... or never used it themselves. Hope Firefox is listening.

[Pat]

Sounds good, but I have the Quick Find problem and the "Search for text when I start typing" box is not checked. I have FF 3.0.15

[AKLP]

Thanks! that feature was the worst thing ever made for firefox (i think)

[Pankaj]

thnx a lot....thats a fuckin probclem most of the users of firefox are facing.....this worked....thnx.

[phobic_84]

Here's another 'Thank you!'

[Augadha]

Thanks this really helped, it was annoying me so much.

[kuenloa]

whoever thought quickfind was a good idea needs to be slapped a few times

[Rajesh.SRA]

your link is very useful thanks thanks

[Yetta]

Sweet!! Thank you so much!

[arpie]

its great and easy working!!!! first opton.

[Anon]

I have quick find activated on my browser, but in the config is all set to false.

[hequilled houses]

Thats awesome! What else can I do in about:config?

[Chirag]

I never reply on comment forums, but this has been driving me fucking crazy. Thank you for my sanity.

[Shirin]

Thank you sooooooooooo much , you are my hero . xxxxx

[Anthony Crain]

I actually use firefox over IM or Chrome because of this feature.

I am a keyboard over mouse type of guy.

My home page is a list of links. As soon as I open firefox, I just start typing my desired link name and hit enter and bam! without the mouse, off I go.

Also, lets say I go to ATT.com or some other website. Rather than hunt around for their phone number, I type the word "Contact Us" or "Help" and the link is found no matter where it is hiding.

Those of you who have turned this off, no problem. Just hit a slash / or ctrl-f and you can get the same behavior without it doing it all of the time. Also, if you hit the apostrophe ' key, it searches ONLY links, which is awesome.

For blind people (I have a blind student right now) who can never use a mouse, this is an even more exciting feature than it is for me. But I love it for myself none-the-less. :)

[D.E.L.]

Free at last! THANK THE LORD, and thank you too!

[ivlenk]

Please remove Quickfind from the browser. It interrupts keyboard accessibility on many web sites. It is a complete annoyance and makes me want to use another browser.

For me, the preference is not remembered in new Firefox sessions. Honestly this is a deal breaker feature for this platform. It is that serious.