topic Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs in Discussions

How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

strifemit — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 05:11:15 GMT

How do I stop Firefox adding to my shortcuts. I want to control what is on new tabs. All suggestions so far do not work.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

HughH — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 13:51:39 GMT

Go to Firefox settings, on the left hand panel click on home, then scroll down until you come to Firefox Home Content. You should see shortcuts and under that Sponsored Links. Untick the blue box next to that and you should be all set.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

HughH — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 11:02:21 GMT

Another way of doing it is to set all the four lines to show on your home page. Pin every box of the four lines, then set the first lines with the sites you want. Then reset how many lines you want shown according to the sites you want shortcuts to. It worked for me.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

ArtinTP — Sun, 25 May 2025 20:20:35 GMT

It does NOT work and yes I unticked the "Sponsored Links" box and virtually every freakin site I visit ends up adding yet another unwanted shortcut I then have to tediously delete. Like a fool I support Mozilla financially both for Firefox and Thunderbird and yet they have not addressed this awful invasive/intrusive fault in their browser.

What I want is the choice to put only those shortcuts that I choose on my home page and not to have any automatically added - Period!!!!!!!!!

So, Mozilla are you listening, make it happen or I go back to Brave.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

frostcalibr — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:49:41 GMT

that does not work if you have sooo much search history that you cant even see the add button(yes evn if you enable 4 rows)

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

maureenocal — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:09:45 GMT

Been searching for this fix, too. I migrated from Safari and Chrome, and both browsers make this type of customized bookmarking on the new tab page simple and straightforward.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

IPlayStuff — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:09:07 GMT

I just want to stop it from adding stuff from my history, I already have sponsors off. I guess I'll just turn off shortcuts for now until I find a fix.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

sethwilpan — Thu, 21 May 2026 16:18:46 GMT

Me too.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

JustMy2Cents — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:30:21 GMT

Go to firefox (settings) go to (home) under the part where says (firefox home page) uncheck box that says (web).

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

MS3 — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 14:46:11 GMT

I find this extremely annoying as well. The thing that worked for me was to untoggle "Shortcuts". Unchecking the "Sponsored Links" box alone did not work. This is the solution if like me, you don't need the shortcuts anyway. The sites I visit most are already on the Bookmark Bar.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

Applejuiceman — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:32:32 GMT

Think I figured it out:

Go to Firefox settings

In the search bar at the top, type ‘about:config’

In the search preference name section, search for ‘browser:newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.smartshortcutsfeed’

Set this to false

This should get rid of the smart shortcuts and stop new ones from appearing

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

Applejuiceman — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:37:54 GMT

In the same config section, also search for ‘browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improve search.topSiteSearchShortcuts’ and set that to false as well.

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

Applejuiceman — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:42:56 GMT

// ignore this, accidentally replied to my comment twice, this website is horribly designed

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

ArtinTP — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:40:23 GMT

Every time I type about:config into the search bar, I get the message saying "Sorry! There are no results in Settings for "about:config". Need help? Visit Firefox Support.

What am I doing wrong?

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

Applejuiceman — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:49:13 GMT

Uhh maybe try typing it in the regular search bar (on Firefox ofc). If it’s still not working then this might be a fix that only works for Linux/ubuntu, which is what I’m on. Although this doesn’t feel like the type of thing that’d be Linux specific since I’m doing it inside the browser.

Once I get back home I’ll try it on my windows laptop and report back. In the meantime, maybe try asking ChatGPT or something how to get to Firefox’s about:config section on windows

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

Applejuiceman — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 23:21:33 GMT

Update: I tried it at home on my windows pc and it worked for me! I just got on Firefox, went to the search bar, and typed “about:config” and Firefox came up with it as a search result

Re: How To Stop Firefox Automatically Adding Shortcuts to my New Tabs

nvbeancounter — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 23:11:31 GMT

It seems to stack shortcuts on top of each other. If I dismiss a shortcut, it often doesn't advance to the next to the right until after I dismiss several in the same location. maybe it's saving them by date, and/or stacking devices on top of each other. It's particularly apparent for a calendar short cut, where the number (date) changes, but in no particular order. I keep dismissing shortcuts and they keep coming. They don't appear to be in any particular order. I'll dismiss one from today, and then another will come up for a site I haven't been to in months. There must be 1000s!!! There should be a way to clear the unpinned shortcuts! And there is no simple way to add a shortcut. Oh Wait! I just dismissed unpinned shortcuts to the end of the list (1hr) and there is an "add shortcut" tab. Doesn't help being at the end of a useless list!