You can fix this by installing the Classic Theme Restorer. In customize mode it will give you a refresh button that you can put where you need it. The preferences for the add-on also have an option to hide the refresh button that remains in the address bar.

Instructions for installing this add-on are here: How to make the new Firefox look like the old Firefox

This is what I did;

I cannot enable Classic Theme Restorer. After a month, it still breaks Colorful tabs, all of my tabs are either clear or the same color except for the currently selected tab and pinned tabs. Yes, colorful tabs is that important. It helps me organize and tell my tabs apart. My other problem is that every time I open the customize menu tab now, my toolbars get rearranged from address bar at the top, bookmarks toolbar, and yahoo toolbar with tabs below. When I select or open the customize menu tab, the tool bars get rearranged to yahoo tollbar on top and address bar on bottom. Simply closing Firefox or restarting it fixes the problem, but it makes customizing a problem. I recently installed Adblock Plus to fix a hanging and freezing problem. I keep my add ons-extensions and plug ins up to date and am running the latest version of Firefox non-beta. I am on Windows 8.1 and run with many tabs, but have selected in options the, "do not load tabs until selected" option. I really think you guys need to scap Firefox 29 and go back to 28 and rebuild from there. Stop trying to satisfy or appel to developers and programmers. They are the minority of users. The majority of users use the Internet, computers, and browsers, including Firefox as a tool to do their work. Ignoring that idea, or forging ahead the developer way in spite of this has been a major failing of the IT community and was the cause of the problems with Internet Explorer, Windows Vista, Windows 8, and now OS X, and now Firefox 29. Matching the Chrome rapid release cycle was a mistake. Simply releasing updates more often was the answer, not trying to imitate the competition. I don't use IE or Chrome often because they load all tabs on open, and Chrome is not faster unless you turn off Java, Flash, and everything that makes the Web vibrant and interesting. Congratulations on joining the two big crap browsers out there. Being most used does not mean being the most liked. Firefox was the most liked until it tried to be the most popular. I'm a teacher, and I can tell you, the popular kids are also the most shallow and superficial....

you can downgrade here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/28.0/win32/en-US/

that's the only way to go. FF29 is full of problems.. also you can delete the update installation folder in case it persistently tries to download.. and make sure you change the auto update options..

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates\0

i have installed "classic theme restorer" - as advised by firefox support here.

now there is a new issue: installing this extension brought back the firefox button in the top-left corner. but at the same time, this extension removes/hides the new menu button on the right side of the toolbar.

using the customization screen i am able to put the button back on the toolbar, but pressing this button has no effect.

and here is the punchline: since firefox support team is listing this extension as the one and only possible solution to several hundred thousand user complaints, this is now a FULLY SUPPORTED BY MOZILLA FEATURE/PRODUCT.

you cant win both cases: 1) either you stop recommending this extension and replace all such instances with a simpler "unsupported feature" for all forum questions. at least this way your users will know to look for a new browser. 2) actually fix the feature in your product to work as the users desire.