Please bring back an option to disable New Tab Search Handoff search box redirects to address bar

[DimTheo]

Hello Firefox Support / Mozilla team,
I’m writing to share feedback about a recent New Tab behavior change that many long-time users are struggling with.
On the New Tab page, the search box now effectively hands off to the address bar Awesomebar. In practice, when I try to use the New Tab search field, it redirects focus input to the address bar instead of allowing typing directly in the New Tab search box. A lot of users are actively complaining about this new tab search box redirects to address bar, new tab search handoff disable.
What’s especially frustrating is that the old workaround no longer seems to work reliably:
browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.search.useHandoffComponent and related handoff preferences no longer restores the previous behavior, even when set to false.
This change creates real difficulty and disappointment for many usersenough that some are considering uninstalling Firefox or switching to alternatives like Waterfox. Regardless of the reasons for the redesign, it feels like a major usability regression for those of us who specifically relied on the New Tab search box behaving as a true, independent input field.
My request is simple: please provide an official, supported alternative either a setting in Preferences Ior a stable about:config option that allows users who need it to keep New Tab Search as a real search field, without forcing handoff to the address bar.
I’ve been using Firefox for about 25 years and I care a lot about the browser. From a user perspective, this change feels rushed and somewhat irresponsible because it removes a workflow that many people depended on without leaving a clear, reliable opt-out.
I truly appreciate the work you do, and I believe you’re aiming for the best user experience. I hope you can address this and offer a proper solution that reduces frustration and helps keep long-time users on Firefox.
Thank you for your time and your efforts.

[keiner]

I completely agree!

I also use the Firefox start page as my new tab page, and in the settings I have "Web search" enabled, so a search field from my chosen engine is displayed there. However, as soon as I type the first letter into that search field, the focus jumps annoyingly up to the address bar, forcing me to continue typing there.

This behavior irritates me every time again, and I want to keep the search bar and address bar strictly separated. I prefer using the large search field on the start page over the small one in the toolbar. Otherwise, I'd be forced to set a search engine directly as my start page, which would make me lose my shortcuts, top sites, and highlights.

There used to be a workaround years ago via about:config:
`browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar` → `false`

This no longer works since Firefox 148.0 (on EndeavourOS).

The preference mentioned in the original post (`browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.search.useHandoffComponent`) doesn't work for me either – it makes the search bar disappear, and instead I just get:
"An error occurred while loading this content. Refresh the page to try again."

Please bring back a working, calm search field on the new tab page that does not hand off to the address bar, or at least a reliable workaround for this behavior.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

In Firefox 148.0, the preference has been removed.

This information https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/firefox-148-0-is-not-allowing-me-to-use-the-search-bar-it...

[PaulFirefoxUX · Accepted solution]

Hello!

Firefox search UX designer here.

It sounds like you have been using the hidden config setting that allowed the search bar in the middle of the homepage screen to work instead of jumping you up to the address bar.

As a result of seeing other threads on Connect and on Reddit about this, we've decided to revive this config setting asap. It's already back in the Nightly edition of Firefox (which gets updates every day) and will be back in the next dot-release of Firefox, 148.0.1 on March 10.

For context: we're working on an improved search experience for the homepage so that everybody can have a much better search without being bounced to the address bar. (we call this bounce the 'handoff', and we know it's not a good user experience).

The first part of prepping for that work was to change the code for the existing homepage search bar – but we hadn't ancitipated that some people were using the unsupported 'disable the handoff' config setting as an accessibility workaround.

Since we saw that that was happening, we're reinstating it until the longer term improvements are ready.

[PaulFirefoxUX]

This config setting has now been reinstated 🙂 (in 148.0.2 – released today, March 10)

And more good news: we hear what people are saying in this thread and others like it, and we agree! We're moving towards making the search bar on the Firefox homepage work for everybody, without needing a hidden config setting.

[seive]

Can we get this fixed in private windows too?  It still does the handoff even with the about:config setting to disable handoff.

[PaulFirefoxUX]

Did that config setting ever work in private windows?

If not, then it definitely won't be something we fix immediately (the code for it is not maintainable, which is why we were removing it).

But I'm currently working on a replacement search box for the Firefox homepage (taking on people's feedback here!), so maybe that could work in private windows. I don't know tho, there are a number of factors that could impact that.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

---

@PaulFirefoxUX wrote:

Did that config setting ever work in private windows?

---

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-your-default-search-settings-firefox
Search suggestions in private windows

Under, about:privatebrowsing, it doesn't work.

Under, Always use private browsing mode or to Never remember history, it work.

At@

A indicator, to know if you use private browsing
https://www.soeren-hentzschel.at/firefox/firefox-120-ermoeglicht-das-zuruecksetzen-privater-sitzunge...

1 - Go to configuration editor https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
2 - Enter a search term browser.privatebrowsing.resetPBM.enabled
You can double-click on the preference to set the value to true

A indicator

[tozuco]

This hasn't been fixed; it still puts text in the search bar when using DuckDuckGo

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW3KWycnMlM
browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar, it works.