Clicking or Pressing enter after entering URL in address bar doesn't work.

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3

Now and again, FF goes into one of these spasms whereby entering a url into the address bar and pressing enter doesn't do anything. The same applies when i click the 'go' button.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Enter URL
2.Press Enter or click 'go' button.
Actual Results:
No response whatsoever. Its as if i haven't pressed enter or clicked the go button.

Expected Results:
Loaded the URL.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a4pre) Gecko/20070330 Minefield/3.0a4pre
Works for me. Please retest in -safe-mode, with a new profile or with a reinstallation in a new empty directory.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.5) Gecko/20070713 Firefox/2.0.0.5
I'm having the same problem. Seems to happen fairly frequently. Exactly the same as described by Thomas.

Same problem on Vista using FF 3.0 RC1. Ctrl-Enter does not work either. Firebug is not installed and del.icio.us is version 2.0.48.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008051206 Firefox/3.0

-- Cory

Regardless of what I try, I cannot type in an address and click enter. I can click on links.

I've been seeing this bug for quite a while, currently on OS X 10.5.3 FF3.0 rc3.

Possibly helpful: when it happens, it affects only that window. If I open a new window, the url bar works normally, but only in that new window...nothing seems to ever unstick the affected window's url bar.

This bug made it into the release. I'm currently using the following:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

Same issue, the address bar ceases to function as expected at random. The new suggest features still work, but when enter or go is pressed nothing happens. It does work when opening a new window or restarting.

This issue has been reported several times. See bug 437241, bug 440769, bug
441482, bug 441510 and bug 441502.

I personally run into this issue randomly (not so often) on Mac OS X from time
to time. Closing the current window solves the issue.

Confirming, component -> location bar, OS -> all

*** Bug 437241 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 440769 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 441502 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I'm having the same issue. Clicking on bookmarks, links within system, Delicious addon links all work normal.

This has happened twice in two days. If I open a new window, the new window works fine, but the original window does not work.

Entering data in the Search box does work as planned.

Windows XP SP2
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

Delicious 2.0.64
Dictionary Switcher 0.9
dragdropupload 1.6.7
Forecastfox 0.9.7.6
Google Gears 0.3.24.0
Google Notebook 1.0.0.20
Greasemonkey 0.8.20080609.0
IETab 1.5.20080618
NoScript 1.7.1
Operator 0.9.3
Remember The Milk 1.0.2

(In reply to comment #12)
> I'm having the same issue.

Can you please try running Firefox in safe mode and see if the problems persists?

The problem is not regular. Sometimes it'll go days without doing it, sometimes within a few hours.

If the bug pops up, any restart will resolve the issue. Running in Safe Mode will always fix the problem, but I wouldn't be able to determine if the problem would not occur in safe mode.

This morning, it began to happen after only a few minutes of use. I restarted the browser (normally) and attempted to go to all of the same websites I went to prior. I couldn't get Firefox to reproduce the problem.

I know it helps little to none if the problem can't be reproduced... I'm paying more attention to my activity to try to keep note of last actions before the problem arises. I'll post again here if I can discover anything new/determine steps to reproduce.

Latest time:
Opened Firefox at ~5pm local.
Left computer, left Firefox running at 5:30 with with three tabs:
http://www.menswearhouse.com/tuxedos/tuxedo_wedding.jsp
http://www.alsformalwear.com/portfolio-wedding-index.asp
http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/utcatholic.org/render

Returned to Firefox at 8:05pm local.
Address bar did not respond.

Opened new window, address bar responds.

This occured on a different computer than my above entry:

Windows XP SP2
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

Delicious 2.0.64
Google Gears 0.3.24.0
Greasemonkey 0.8.20080609.0
IEView Lite 1.3.3
Move Media Player 1.0.0.07103010
NoScript 1.7.1
Operator 0.9.3
Remember The Milk 1.0.2

That means this cannot be related to:
Dictionary Switcher 0.9
dragdropupload 1.6.7
Google Notebook 1.0.0.20
IETab 1.5.20080618

*** Bug 443235 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

And middle clicking on the go button, does that work?

(In reply to comment #17)
> And middle clicking on the go button, does that work?
>

For me, unknown. None of the trackpads/trackballs/mice I use have a middle button.

*** Bug 439233 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Bug 439233 contains a video of this problem.

I can just confirm that I also have this problem. At the moment I can only remember getting this on w2k, not my vista or ubuntu machine. But I can be remembering wrong about vista. And ubuntu I am not runnnig as frequent as vista an w2k.

*** Bug 443409 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Is this only after opening a new tab?

Yes, only after opening a new tab and it's appears randomly. From time to time.
If I open a new one Firefox app instance, everything is fine.

I can confirm this for my experience as well. When the bug strikes, it is after a new tab is opened. The address bar, however, will fail for all tabs in that window.

In Bug 443346 the reporter noted that they the del.icio.us add-on installed. Have those who had the problem tried safe mode? It seems that some of them (comment #15) has the del.icio.us add-on.

I have the same problem since Firefox 2 and I'm currently using Delicious Bookmarks 2.0.64

(In reply to comment #27)
> I have the same problem since Firefox 2 and I'm currently using Delicious
> Bookmarks 2.0.64

I've forgotten to say that I'm using:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; pt-BR; rv:1.9.0) Gecko/2008061600 SUSE/3.0-1.1 Firefox/3.0

Tulio: did you try safe mode?
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode

I'm trying it now, but I think it's difficult to catch it because it fairly happens.
I hope to help you.

This will sometimes happen a few times an hour, and sometimes I go days ithout
it ever being a problem. I'll add the info for my machine.

MacBook Pro, OSX Version 10.4.11

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061004
Firefox/3.0

Add-ons:
CSSViewer 1.0.3
Delicious Bookmarks 2.0.64
Firebug 1.2.0b4
Operator 0.9.3
Piclens 1.7.0.3458
Screen grab! 0.95
User Agent Switcher 0.6.11
Web Developer 1.1.6

(In reply to comment #128)

Haven't tried it on 3.2a1pre, but I am getting the issue with 3.1b2 on mac. Here's my user agent
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1b2) Gecko/20081201 Firefox/3.1b2

The reason I'm not particularly looking for 3.1b users is because, bar blockers/etc, it's already been branched and updates on trunk could have had an effect.

Thanks for the quick feedback, though. :)

This issue happens in FF for me each day and right now in fact. I find that every time I open the 4th or 5th tab in FF, the URL entered in the address bar will not load after clicking "green arrow" or pressing enter. Even entries in the Google Search bar to the right of the address bar will not load. However, within the same "non-functional" tab, clicking a bookmark will allow the bookmarked page to load, but you still can't change to a different URL from that tab. So, I've added Google as a bookmark; this allows entry of the desired URL into Google search to proceed.

Windows XP: Reproducible daily.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120122 Firefox/3.0.5

I didn't read the whole thread here, only the first post.

I have this bug using Firefox 3.1 beta 2 on Windows 7 beta build 7000.

The OP reports he only has this bug happening every now and then and that the bug includes the little arrow button.

This isn't the case for me.

Entering a url in the awesome bar and pressing enter does nothing. When I first starting using the beta it worked perfectly. However now for a week or two this never works, not ever.

Pressing the arrow key allows works.

This does not sound like the same bug. This bug seems, so far, random and possibly related to a plugin. The arrow does not work when this bug strikes. I suggest comment 132 is spun off as a separate bug.

(In reply to comment #132)
> I didn't read the whole thread here, only the first post.
>
> I have this bug using Firefox 3.1 beta 2 on Windows 7 beta build 7000.
>
> The OP reports he only has this bug happening every now and then and that the
> bug includes the little arrow button.
>
> This isn't the case for me.
>
> Entering a url in the awesome bar and pressing enter does nothing. When I first
> starting using the beta it worked perfectly. However now for a week or two this
> never works, not ever.
>
> Pressing the arrow key allows works.

You were right, the "bug" was caused by the AVG safe search plugin.

(In reply to comment #133)
> This does not sound like the same bug. This bug seems, so far, random and
> possibly related to a plugin. The arrow does not work when this bug strikes. I
> suggest comment 132 is spun off as a separate bug.
>
> (In reply to comment #132)
> > I didn't read the whole thread here, only the first post.
> >
> > I have this bug using Firefox 3.1 beta 2 on Windows 7 beta build 7000.
> >
> > The OP reports he only has this bug happening every now and then and that the
> > bug includes the little arrow button.
> >
> > This isn't the case for me.
> >
> > Entering a url in the awesome bar and pressing enter does nothing. When I first
> > starting using the beta it worked perfectly. However now for a week or two this
> > never works, not ever.
> >
> > Pressing the arrow key allows works.

using the middle mousebutton works, as a lazy workaround for me, but only because I've got cybersearch installed. So i can type, cybersearch loads a list of pages, and then the middle mousebutton works when clicking on any links from that list (enter still does not, of course)

just occurred for me again. I'd just restarted firefox, 20 tabs were reloading and I was trying to type an address.

error data collected as per Ted Mielczarek's instructions (hope i got them all... was searching manually... is there any search option in the error console?)

chrome errors occurring when address bar fails to respond:

Error: this.GP_DOCUMENT.location is null
Source File: chrome://googlepreview/content/browserOverlay.js
Line: 703

Error: e.originalTarget.location is null
Source File: chrome://customizegoogle/content/browser.xul
Line: 14

Error: yAddBookMark is not defined
Source File: chrome://ybookmarks/content/yAddBookMark.js
Line: 1511

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: XStringBundle :: getString :: line 17" data: no]
Source File: chrome://browser/content/tabbrowser.xml
Line: 909

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: XStringBundle :: getString :: line 17" data: no]
Source File: chrome://browser/content/tabbrowser.xml
Line: 909

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: XStringBundle :: getString :: line 17" data: no]
Source File: chrome://browser/content/tabbrowser.xml
Line: 909

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: XStringBundle :: getString :: line 17" data: no]
Source File: chrome://browser/content/tabbrowser.xml
Line: 909

Warning: Unknown namespace prefix 'html'. Dangling combinator. Ruleset ignored due to bad selector.
Source File: chrome://ybookmarks/skin/yAddBookMark.css
Line: 106

FYI, please try on the 3.2 branch.

(In reply to comment #128)
> The past seven months of comments have all come about since the release of 3.0.
> Can a few people try to reporduce the problem using a recent nightly trunk
> build (3.2a1pre)? Trying to see is this could be isolated to the 3.0.x branch.
> http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

(In reply to comment #130)
> The reason I'm not particularly looking for 3.1b users is because, bar
> blockers/etc, it's already been branched and updates on trunk could have had an
> effect.

(In reply to comment #136)
> chrome errors occurring when address bar fails to respond:
>
> Error: this.GP_DOCUMENT.location is null
> Source File: chrome://googlepreview/content/browserOverlay.js
> Line: 703
>
> Error: e.originalTarget.location is null
> Source File: chrome://customizegoogle/content/browser.xul
> Line: 14
>
> Error: yAddBookMark is not defined
> Source File: chrome://ybookmarks/content/yAddBookMark.js
> Line: 1511
It looks to me like an add-on is at fault here...

This happens to me to every time now.

*** Bug 476583 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Please try in safe mode or at least disable AVG if it is installed.

I believe the original report for this is not the AVG bug 475653. (I could be wrong)

This seems to be caused by Delicious v. 2.0.64
A recent version of Delicious(2.1.018)doesn't cause this. I see report in an unconfirmed bug 380314, that it works in Linux with Delicious V. 2.0.72

Anyone seeing this bug, please upgrade to latest version of Delicious.

*** Bug 380314 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

marking Invalid as it is caused by an extension.

I am using Delicious v. 2.1.018 and still occasionally get this problem. It seems to be less frequent than it used to be, but I'm unsure if the update to the extension is the reason or if various updates to Firefox are the reason that the problem crops up less frequently. It does however still happen.

Stephen, do you by chance have AVG as well?

I do not have AVG installed (in fact Delicious is the only extension I have installed).

this version I used also has the same problem,

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; zh-TW; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2009011315 Gentoo Firefox/3.0.5

Please remove all your extensions and see if you can reproduce it. I agree with Tracy that this is only confirmed using extensions.

After 6 months without this problem, I've noticed that it started again.

I believe that this is a problem related with an extension as it was related with an old version of Delicious but, is it possible to protect Firefox against this?
I think it's unacceptable to see Firefox halting because of a problem in an extension as I see in every software. Example: is unacceptable to see X server crashing because I started a program. In this case, even if there is an error in the program, it's obviously a problem with X server too.

Best regards,

Tulio Magno

(In reply to comment #150)
> After 6 months without this problem, I've noticed that it started again.
>
> I believe that this is a problem related with an extension as it was related
> with an old version of Delicious but, is it possible to protect Firefox against
> this?
Actually, that is not reasonable. Mozilla can't be expected to ensure complete functionality of thousands of 3rd party extensions. In this case, the Delicious extension developers need to be made aware of the issue so they can fix the bug on their end.

(In reply to comment #151)
> Actually, that is not reasonable. Mozilla can't be expected to ensure complete
> functionality of thousands of 3rd party extensions. In this case, the
> Delicious extension developers need to be made aware of the issue so they can
> fix the bug on their end.

I completely agree with you. It's impossible do correct communities addon's, but I think that Mozilla can try to make architectural modifications in Firefox to protect against these problems.

The fact is: addon developpers are going to make errors. It's natural. But I think that it's unacceptable that Firefox crash because of these errors. Can you understand me?

Thank for you answer.

Tulio: where did Firefox crash?

Sorry.

Crash = lock the URL address bar

At least once a week firefox crashes here. But it is not related to this bug and it's probably related to another addon or plugin failure.

Túlio: The bug you're looking for is bug 156493 (at least partly).

That is really amazing, Natch. Thanks!

But, is it possible to try something like this, but adapted to this kind of problem?

Let's specify that "this kind of problem" is "lock the URL address bar"

Túlio:
If you look at how addons are made, I really really doubt they could stop them. Firefox is written, in large part, entirely in Javascript. The addons have to have access to Chrome to be able to even put a button on a toolbar or an entry in a menu. If they have access to Chrome through Javascript, they've got access to all of it. To block it would be like....telling Greasemonkey "you can modify this website in Javascript, but *not* the navigation bar"

The truth is that in this case it wouldn't help you much even if plugins _and_ addons were in a separate process. Here the addon is doing valid stuff invalidly :) . In other words, once the user gives the addon permission to run, the addon has access to Chrome (conceivably to _enhance_ the UI). If it does something that isn't supported it may break the UI. To guard against every possible outcome of poor coding in addons is impossible. I think the resolution for this bug is accurate being that:

1) Mozilla provides a "Safe Mode", allowing you to use Firefox without any addons.
2) You can always disable/uninstall addons.
3) The addon developer is the one at fault, and should be the one to fix this.

In direct answer to your question: "lock the address bar" is very generic, afaik there are numerous ways this effect can be achieved, none of which can be guarded against. Say, for example, an addon developer decides to replace all addresses typed in the address bar that aren't valid urls with an about: page explaining to the user how to correctly navigate the internet. Say the about: page isn't properly registered with firefox, now every time the user types in "google", which default handling sends you to a search page with that search term, in this case the user will get an alert that firefox doesn't recognize the protocol. Who's fault is that? Now just remember, this is only one possibility (although highly improbable) out of dozens of other mistakes extension other can make.

On another note: this bug has been marked INVALID, and this is generally considered bugspam, so I'll discontinue discussing this any further here. If you'd like to propose ideas, a better place would be the newsgroups http://www.mozilla.org/community/developer-forums.html .

*** Bug 485957 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 486439 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I'm using 3.5 Beta 3. I'm unable to use enter button after typing url in address bar. In Private Browsing sometimes enter key works but not all time.

I've been keeping a careful eye on this bug on my OS X 10.4 intel machine, and here's what I've seen:

-Something about my machine made this bug happen pretty easily -- just a few hours running FlashBlock and Firefox versions 3.0.8 and earlier. So I ditched Flashblock.

-Without any plugins, I still saw exactly this bug -- hitting return in the url bar does nothing -- maybe about once a month for a total of 3 times. That was Firefox 3.0.8 and earlier. Though very rare, that obviously suggests that the bug is not exclusively a plugin problem, although obviously plugins can do something to trigger it. The Flashblock authors claimed their code did not have the window flaw associated with this bug.

-I've been running 3.0.9 and later both with and without Flashblock, and I have not seen the bug since. I used to see the bug in just a few hours, and now it's been a week and I have not seen it. Therefore, I think there's a real chance that the underlying flaw got fixed in Firefox 3.0.9 or later.

So if you have a favorite plugin that has problems with this bug... you might want to try it again with the latest firefox and see if the plugin now works right.

Moving forward, I think "invalid" is a reasonable state for this bug unless someone sees it happening with Firefox 3.0.10 or later and no plugins. In reality, I think there was an underlying Firefox bug and it got fixed.

I agree with the sentiments above that Firefox cannot get sucked into handling bugs in plugins. However, that means Firefox will have a sort of blind spot where bugs that for whatever reason are associated with plugins tend to be ingored. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that's what happened here.

I for one have this happening right now on 3.0.10 on Ubuntu 9.04 Hitting <Enter> or <Ctrl>+<Enter> on the address bar won't do anything and the only way to navigate is by using the search bar and clicking on links.

Will try to get somebody on IRC to help me gather needed info because this one is a difficult one to replicate but is still there hiding somewhere.

Plugins:
Adblock Plus 1.0.2
Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper 1.0.5
Delicious Bookmarks 2.1.018
Diccionario español Argentina 1.1.1
FireGPG 0.7.5
Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 0.7

I filed bug 490834 about blocklisting Delicious 2.0.64

This is still an issue for me without any of the named extensions installed.

Whenever this happens to me in the search bar, I get the following error in the Error console (Ubuntu Jaunty, Firefox 3.0.11):

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [mozIStorageStatementWrapper.step]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: file:///usr/lib/firefox-3.0.11/components/nsSearchService.js :: epsGetAttr :: line 2921" data: no]
Source File: file:///usr/lib/firefox-3.0.11/components/nsSearchService.js
Line: 2921

This happens after the following error appears:

Error: Permission denied to call method Location.toString

The address bar does not work either, but no error is returned when I try to use it. The only extension installed is the Ubuntu Firefox Enhancements.

(In reply to comment #166)
> Whenever this happens to me in the search bar, I get the following error in the
> Error console (Ubuntu Jaunty, Firefox 3.0.11):

This looks like bug 433129. Please head over there. Thanks.

I had exactly the problem outlined in this bug thread. However, by a process of elimination, I located the offending file. In my case the offending file that caused Firefox's "spasm" (a term given by this bug thread starter) was "search.json" located in Firefox’s Profile directory.

Upon renaming the Profile directory to something, and then executing Firefox, Firefox is forced to create a new profile. The "spasm" was confirmed not to occur in the new profile.

Exiting Firefox and replacing the "search.json" with the offending "search.json" into the new profile directory, then firing-up Firefox, the dreaded Firefox "spasm" once again takes hold.

As stated earlier, it was by a process of elimination that found the offending file. In this process, I tested other files such as, content-prefs.sqlite, cookies.sqlite, downloads.sqlite, formhistory.sqlite, localstore.rdf, permissions.sqlite, search.sqlite, webappsstore.sqlite, in a similar manner, but none of them could replicate the "spasm".

I presume the file "search.json" gets corrupted and some how incapacitates the address bar.

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0