Captcha Issue in Google Search

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Question by @ZemplinTemplar:

Hello, everyone.

From time to time, almost every year, I occassionally type a bit too fast into the Google Search engine, and then I get a captcha. That’s not an issue, of course, it’s happened to plenty of people. I just fill in the captcha, send it, refresh the browser and things work fine.

But not this time. I still have a send button, but I can’t see the captcha anywhere. Neither the older style captcha, or the new recaptcha. I’ve also noticed the site with the captcha keeps loading for a bit more, but it basically just loads a bunch of lines and white spaces, and an empty text field above the Send button. Ergo, despite this being such a small problem, I can’t input the captcha and I can’t resolve it.

Google Image Search and all the other components work perfectly fine, though. So the apparent captcha bug is only a problem on Google Search itself.

I am using Forefox Quantum (61) and I don’t remember ever having problems with disappearing Google Search captchas before. I have tried several things. Waiting. Didn’t work. Restarting my browser in safe mode with extensions turned off. Made no difference. Disconnecting my modem. No change. Turning off the computer, waiting, turning it on. Made no difference.

Ironically, the one time I did get to open Google Search, it was after I restarted my browser in full, back from safe mode, then found a random word via Google Image Search and switched to “All”. For some reason, it bypassed the captcha bug that one time. Only that one time, though. After I closed it and returned to Google Search, the bugged captcha was still there.

Since I couldn’t input the captcha, Google Search is currently behaving as if I’ve been sitting on that captcha for two hours and not bothering to type it in.

At this point, should I just contact my Internet provider ? Maybe they could help bypass the issue somehow?

This is more of a borderline browser issue than most, but if any of you can offer advice on this, I’ll be deeply grateful. While I can still search for sites via Image search if need be, it’s rather important for me I can access Google Search regularly (due to professional reasons).

To get an idea of the bug’s appearance, have a look at the attachment provided below.

Thanks in advance for advice. I appreciate any that could get this resolved.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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ZemplinTemplar, satrow

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From @anonymous:

Having used Google’s search in many different areas of the U.S. for a great number of years, I can honestly say that I’ve never ever had a captcha come across my screen in order to complete a search. I’ve used a great many different ISP’s over these years as well.

It may be that your problem is based on the ISP you’re using. It might be possible that Google has detected a high amount of activity from search bots coming from IP addresses that are given out by or assigned to your ISP, so they treat all of your ISP’s addresses as bots, requiring the captcha completion to successfully perform a search.

Another thought is that maybe you have some sort of malware unknowingly installed that is making multiple repeated queries to Google as part of its routine, thereby triggering the captcha when you yourself go to Google for a search.

All this is to point out that the captcha system is to prevent search bots and bots in general from using services or web-based applications that can be abused or that have been abused in the past.

For some reason, Google thinks you’re a bot and is trying to keep you out if you are one.

Anyone else have any thoughts on why @ZemplinTemplar , a regular user here on AskWoody would be getting the captcha treatment from Google on such a regular basis??

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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ZemplinTemplar

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A different perspective.

I too had similar problems with Captchas in Firefox. It just would not show the images to select. I kept disabling and enabling my few extensions and nothing worked. I suspected it was a Quantum issue since it was relatively new.

Finally I resorted to IE for the page. Same issue.

I went back to Firefox and started it with all extensions disabled and it worked. I still do not have a reason for the issue. However, I went and checked and then remembered that two days before I had updated Adobe Flash and had it set to ask, and to not store anything locally. I do not believe that was the issue, but just coincidently an updated Flash came out soon after. I doubt this is the reason, as I cannot belive the Captcha would be flash as I never got the warning to activate it. None of these occurances were with Google or related products/sites.

It has happened since, but hitting F5 repeatedly to refresh cured it. I have not had the issue in months.

I do not use Google search engine except for rare, rare reasons, but when I have I have never encountered a Captcha. Was this a function of having a Google account (I do not have one)?

Sometimes this can also be a video driver issue unable to render an image or feature.

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ZemplinTemplar

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About 9 months ago, reports on Twitter showed that VPN users were being asked if they were human, when using Google Search… it seems that use of Captcha was new at that point.

This could be IP related?

Maybe it’s time to look at a non-tracking search engine? Have you tried startpage.com, which uses Google search anonymously?

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ZemplinTemplar

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When using a VPN I can stumble upon needing to do Captcha… funny, but sometimes I’m just not human! (I think my vision is poor enough I don’t see necessary detail)

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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ZemplinTemplar

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With Elly, I don’t recall having been hit with a Captcha doing Google Searching.

Kirsty mentions tracking, which brings this to mind, although it may be unrelated:
One annoyance that I have run across is that for some sites I cannot get pictures or videos to display with their descriptions. This is due to a Firefox setting. I have FF 61.

Tools > Options > Privacy & Security > Tracking Protection. There are 3 choices: Always; Only in private windows; Never. I would prefer to set Always, but when I do, then the pics are blocked; everything else on the page does display. This is only for some sites/pages.
(One can set ‘Exceptions’, and ‘Change Block List’ to modify the above.)

(Note: Do Not Track is set to Always, with no problems. But I understand that this setting is mostly ignored by sites.)

Does the same problem exist on:
– a different browser?
– a new (Test) Firefox Profile?

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Bill C., ZemplinTemplar

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With the introduction of FF63, there will be changes to default tracking settings.

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ZemplinTemplar

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1 – Thank you Kirsty for the heads-up.
2 – An instance of a page that cannot properly be viewed with Tracking Protection set to Always.

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I have Tracking Protection in FF ESR, and have no issues accessing that page you linked to…

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Elly wrote:

Question by @zemplintemplar

Thank you, and all the others, for the provided advice.

As I’ve noted in my original post, whenever a captcha warning appeared  in my Google Search section in the recent past, there was no problem with it. A rare occurence, and the captcha always worked. Whether it was the older style of captcha, from earlier this decade (you know, the random words) or the newer, “I am not a robot” check box. It’s only been since yesterday that the captcha screen not only appeared, but the captcha needed was simply missing. Visually not there. The Send (or Submit) button is, as well as the warning text with help links below it, just as they should be, but the random captcha image is missing, or fails to load.

Yesterday, after a few hours, Google Search eventually reset itself and I could use it again. I was a bit cautious with it, but it worked without hiccups. This morning, the issue happened again. I’ve been pondering whether this could have anything to do with some of browsing habits, as I occassionally copy search terms (including two-worded ones) into Google Search, and the site might interpret this as some bot trying to type through my browser. Or something. Google Search also tends to throw you into the captcha when you access it or type in it fairly fast. They even have an official warning about that in the likely causes list that you get whenever Google Search forces a captcha on you.

Another possible cause, at least according to the Google help section that you can access from the captcha screen, is that there might be some malware present. I have an antivirus suite that includes a malware detector, and if I had any, it would get blocked automatically, “with extreme prejudice”, as they say. My AV preemptively blocks pretty much any suspicious file I encounter during browsing (along with the websites, and my Firefox settings also help with the blocking when needed). Frankly, I’d rule out malware, because nothing has really changed on that front on my machine.

I think it’s more likely it’s just been my faster typing at times, or some short-term issue with the IP. At this point, I’m thinking of contacting my provider and having them check the IP. I’ve heard there sometimes might be some hiccups in the connection that an ordinary user won’t notice, and these might create the impression of increased traffic, even when there’s no issue.

What bothers me isn’t the captcha, per se. That I dealt with occassionally in the past, and it was just a few seconds of my time, whenever it happened (at most, twice a year). What really bothers me is the vanishing of the captcha, causing me to get stuck for hours and making Google Search inaccessible. It’s a Catch 22 situation. And as I’ve noted, everything else works, including Image Search.

Yesterday, I found an image of what the captcha screen should look like when it’s working properly. I’m including it in this post as an attachment, just to make sure everyone can compare it with the weird bug I’m getting with mine. What it looks like in the attachment is what it should look like when working properly. As it’s been a while since I’ve had to use that screen at all, I don’t remember clearly whether they’ve replaced the word style captchas with “tick the box” catpchas, but either of the two should appear there, without problem. Which is what’s not happening on my machine.

P.S. My original post in this thread (now quoted by Elly) included two image attachments, showing the issue with the incomplete captcha bug. I asked the mods to remove the second image, since the screenshot contained the number of my IP adress. I wanted to white out those spaces, just to be on the safe side, but forgot before uploading. As I couldn’t remove the attachment from the post, I had to ask the mods to get it removed. (Just so we’re clear on why there’s only one attachment now.)

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Bill C. wrote:

I do not use Google search engine except for rare, rare reasons, but when I have I have never encountered a Captcha. Was this a function of having a Google account (I do not have one)?

As I’ve said, Google Search has only rarely asked me for a captcha, and when it did, I just filled it in and sent it, and then forgot about the whole issue. It wasn’t a commonly experienced thing for me, and I’ve been using regularly updated versions of Firefox for many years now.

I don’t know if it’s linked in any way to having a Google Account. Though I do have a Google Account, it’s just for basic things (YT account, mail), not for all the extended Account stuff they have on offer (Circles, or whatever they’re calling those social media attempts of their’s).

Bill C. wrote:

Sometimes this can also be a video driver issue unable to render an image or feature.

An interesting, if worrying possibility. I hope it’s not that.

I know of a few sites that have the newer “tick the box” captchas. I might visit those and log in, just to see if the captchas there are working. If these, and the older type work everywhere else, then it might be some bug or overlooked issue unique to Google Search or my current IP situation.

PaulK wrote:

With Elly, I don’t recall having been hit with a Captcha doing Google Searching. Kirsty mentions tracking, which brings this to mind, although it may be unrelated: One annoyance that I have run across is that for some sites I cannot get pictures or videos to display with their descriptions. This is due to a Firefox setting. I have FF 61. Tools > Options > Privacy & Security > Tracking Protection. There are 3 choices: Always; Only in private windows; Never. I would prefer to set Always, but when I do, then the pics are blocked; everything else on the page does display. This is only for some sites/pages. (One can set ‘Exceptions’, and ‘Change Block List’ to modify the above.) (Note: Do Not Track is set to Always, with no problems. But I understand that this setting is mostly ignored by sites.) Does the same problem exist on: – a different browser? – a new (Test) Firefox Profile?

Interesting ! My Tracking Protection settings in Privacy and security are set to “Only in private windows”, and IIRC, that’s how it’s been ever since I’ve had Firefox Quantum. My Exceptions list is empty, and the blocked sites list is set to the recommended, basic settings of Disconnect.me.  As for the “Do Not Track” setting below that, it’s been set to “Always” after I successfully updated to Quantum back in 2016.

I don’t really use any other browsers than Firefox. While I still have a version of IE on my Windows 7, I basically never use it, mostly because of my worries whether it’s still safe (given how Microsoft treats both the remaining IE browsers and even Edge, I have my doubts about its security while in use). So it’s just gathering figurative dust as a bit of leftover Win 7 software. I have never installed or used chrome on my own machine.

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For what it’s worth I encountered a Google “Re-Captcha” prompt last night when trying to access a new download of SDR software. I had to temporarily enable a whole lot of google.com, googleapis.com, and gstatic.com domain access to be able to see anything or get through it.

I’m headed over to their forum to complain to the author that I don’t care for having to do that just to download their application.

This is not a specific response to your question, just an anecdote roughly on the subject. I haven’t seen a Captcha prompt at all when running a Google search.

-Noel

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ZemplinTemplar

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Well, Google Search is back to normal now. I’ll try to avoid using it too intensively, and if the problem reoccurs during the following week, I’ll try to take more serious measures.

For a start, I’ve set the disabling of tracking to Always, in both options. We’ll see whether that might help matters.

I’ll keep you posted.

Noel Carboni wrote:

For what it’s worth I encountered a Google “Re-Captcha” prompt last night when trying to access a new download of SDR software. I had to temporarily enable a whole lot of google.com, googleapis.com, and gstatic.com domain access to be able to see anything or get through it. I’m headed over to their forum to complain to the author that I don’t care for having to do that just to download their application. This is not a specific response to your question, just an anecdote roughly on the subject. I haven’t seen a Captcha prompt at all when running a Google search. -Noel

Interesting.

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reCaptcha has been driving me crazy. I can get stuck identifying images for an hour. This happens using Norton Password Manager and elsewhere. Anyone have any ideas?

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I will try asking this here.
I am a Windows 7 with ESU user. On Firefox 85.0.2. On Sunday, I had a miserable time trying to order wet cat food for Mirko at Chewy .com.
I suspect my grind is due to I am still on V.92 connection here at the abode in Chicago.
The element which made it exhausting was when, upon checking out with the cases of cat food, Chewy decided I needed to solve a reCaptcha.

And then it also decided to NOT show me the reCaptcha.

Connection failed. Please refresh and try again.
Connection failed. Please refresh and try again.
Connection failed. Please refresh and try again.
Connection failed. Please refresh and try again.
And it did this another eight times or so.
I knew some methods to try and get through this. I emptied out the Firefox cache. I turned off Enhanced Tracking Protection. I disabled uBlock for the site.
Finally, I actually disabled restrictions globally in noScript.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
‘Solve this reCaptcha – but OH, no connection to the reCaptcha for you.’
The specific site from where it was trying to load the reCaptcha was http://www.gstatic .com. If I had any setting which would not let this site load, I would perceive disabling all restrictions globally would have gotten through it.
Anybody out here on AskWoody have any other procedures I can try?

Important links you can use, without the monetization pitch = https://pqrs-ltd.xyz/bookmark4.html

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[Microfix]

Steve, Are you seeing intrusive pop-ups, experiencing redirects on sites, slow browsing? (although the later may be due to V92 speeds) It may be good time to scan your computer with Malwarebytes adwcleaner to remove any adware and such-like.

Edit: also check –
network.http.sendRefererHeader is set to 1(default) within about:config in firefox

If debian is good enough for NASA...

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Microfix.

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doriel

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