Firefox Android Address Bar Clears URL: 24 Reviews (2026)

If you tap the address bar in Firefox for Android and the web address disappears instead of letting you edit it, that is not a setting you changed by accident. It started with Firefox 157, and since 1 October a steady stream of long-time users have written about it, along with a second change: opening a new tab no longer brings up the keyboard.

We read every recent Google Play review about both changes to find out what exactly changed, how many people it bothers, and what Mozilla says about it.

Quick Answer: Why Does the Firefox Address Bar Clear My URL?

Since 1 October 2026, 24 Google Play reviewers have complained about two changes in Firefox 157 for Android. 16 are about the address bar: tapping it clears the web address or opens a search instead of letting you edit the link, and editing or refreshing now takes extra taps. 8 say a new tab no longer opens the keyboard. All 23 reviews with a version were on 157.0 or 157.0.1. In the 705 negative reviews before 157 arrived, we found none of these complaints. Mozilla replied to 20 of the 24, mostly asking people to post feedback or a bug report on its own sites.

How We Counted

We pulled the 6,000 most recent US English-language Google Play reviews of Firefox, which reach back to 5 August 2026, and read every review that mentions the address bar, URL bar, search bar, toolbar, the keyboard or new tabs. Firefox holds 4.61 stars from 6,553,353 ratings on Google Play and 4.65 from 218,362 on the App Store. Every review below is from the Android app.

Firefox 157.0 first shows up in our sample on 25 September and 157.0.1 on 6 October. The first complaint came on 1 October.

From 1 to 15 October these reviews were 22 of Firefox's 243 negative reviews (9.1%). Before 25 September, in 705 negative reviews, we found none describing either change.

Change 1: Tapping the Address Bar Clears the URL

Before 157, tapping the address bar selected the web address so you could edit it. Now, reviewers say, it opens an empty search field:

I click the address bar and all text is cleared with the input field focused. It should highlight the text in the address bar like it did before. Fix this poor behavior.

recent update makes this essentially worthless. Touching the URL bar to edit a URL or search result clears the contents, instead of opening an editing session. that is the reason for 1 star, the browser is effectively unusable as a browser. it is now effectively only a search portal.

Changed address bar without option to revert to old functionality. I want to edit the URL immediately, not search

The edit option did not vanish completely. It moved. One reviewer says it now sits in a menu:

the address bar is now a search bar and the actual address bar is hidden in a menu. it's horrible design.

Another writes that after tapping the search bar they now have to find a small edit icon somewhere else on the screen to change the current URL. A third says the old behavior can only be brought back by editing Firefox's configuration file, which most people will never do.

The change also affects refreshing. Two reviewers say reloading a page got harder, and one says it now takes a separate menu:

Are people from Mozilla even using Firefox on android? After the recent update it is impossible to refresh a webpage opened in a tab. When you click on the url field it will clear it instead of letting me edit it, so i cannot refresh or update the url

Really annoyed by the address bar changes; I want my browser to function like a desktop browser. This means if i tap on the address bar, I want to be interacting with the address typed in the bar!!! I don't want to open a separate menu to refresh the page! Please add a toggle to restore the address bar to the normal version instead of this weird floating bubble thing under the empty search bar, I hate it.

Change 2: New Tabs Don't Open the Keyboard

The second complaint is smaller but just as consistent. Opening a new tab used to put the cursor in the address bar with the keyboard up. In 157 you get a blank new tab page and have to tap the address bar first:

Versions 157 and everything after have ruined usability on Android by making opening a new tab no longer bring up the on-screen keyboard, so you can't open a tab and immediately start typing anymore; you have to manually select the address bar every single time. It wasn't this way in every version prior to 157. I checked release Firefox, Firefox Beta, and Firefox Nightly, and the keyboard is broken in every single version. I'm stuck using version 156.0.1 until Mozilla fixes this. Big regression.

Love this app, always have but a recent change has broke the new tab function, before when you click the new tab button, the tab number would change and the keyboard would open but that has stopped working. Now it just brings you a new tab page, no keyboard.

Has been getting better and better but now the keyboard doesn't automatically open when you open a new tab as it should. There's no reason you want just a blank tab. Of course you're going to type a search or a URL when you open a new tab. Please auto focus the URL bar so we can go straight to typing in a new tab.

Two reviewers point out that there is no setting to turn it back on:

they removed the second only thing that made me use this browser: auto focus keyboard on new tab. why isnt this the default or at least something toggleable in all browsers.

Bug or Design Choice? What Mozilla Says

Mozilla's support team answers most negative reviews (835 of the 1,033 in our sample) and replied to 20 of these 24. The replies split in an interesting way.

For the address bar, 9 of the 16 reviews got a pointer to Mozilla's ideas site, asking the reviewer to "share your thoughts" there. That is how Mozilla answers feature requests and design feedback. Only 4 were asked to file a report in the support forum.

For the keyboard on new tabs, 5 of the 8 got the opposite answer: a request to post the problem in the support forum "so we can investigate".

That suggests the address bar change is intended, while the keyboard behavior may be treated as a bug. Mozilla does not say this directly in any reply, so take it as a reading of the replies, not a confirmed plan.

What You Can Do

Use the edit option, not the bar. Reviewers say editing the current URL still exists, but it is now behind a menu or a separate edit icon instead of a tap on the address bar.

Refresh from the menu. One reviewer says reloading a page now goes through a separate menu instead of the address bar.

Tap the address bar after opening a new tab. It is one extra tap until the keyboard behavior changes again. One reviewer went back to Firefox 156.0.1 to avoid it, but that also means going without security updates, so we don't recommend it.

Tell Mozilla where it listens. Mozilla replies on Google Play but sends most reviewers to its own sites. If you want the old address bar back, post on its ideas site. If you want the keyboard back, report it in the support forum, since that is where Mozilla said it would investigate.

If you are thinking about switching, see how the main options compare in our mobile browser rankings.

Read the Full Breakdown

You can read the full negative review breakdown for Firefox on Android and Firefox on iOS, or go to the Firefox trust check and apps like Firefox.