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Can't load local pages all the time?

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So I have my homepage set to a local html file using file:///. It will open it but randomly when opening firefox it says File not found. If I reset the homepage to the exact same link and try again it works fine. This is happening on 5 separate computers all running firefox. Any ideas why?

So I have my homepage set to a local html file using file:///. It will open it but randomly when opening firefox it says File not found. If I reset the homepage to the exact same link and try again it works fine. This is happening on 5 separate computers all running firefox. Any ideas why?

Chosen solution

I have some mapped drives. If I reboot Windows while I'm not on the network, when I return to the network, the mapped drive isn't active and programs that access it die an ugly death until I open the drive directly in Windows Explorer. Not sure if you have that scenario.

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All Replies (11)

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Why are you using the Browser to open a local folder? Is Explorer not able to do this?

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We are using a custom homepage with quick access to links that we need. It just won't always open. Its just an HTML text webpage we created. It's very simple.

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Try to disable the Activity Stream design for the home page by setting this pref to false on the about:config page.

  • browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.aboutHome.enabled = false

You can disable the new Activity Stream design and revert to the earlier design by setting this pref to false.

  • browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enabled
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Thank you. I will try that and report back in a couple of days.

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This didn't help. It happened again today. This has been an on going problem for quite sometime. Any other ideas?

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Presumably the home page address has all "forward" slashes like:

file:///C:/folder/folder/page.html

When the problem strikes, do either of these help:

  • reloading (Ctrl+r or Ctrl+Shift+r to bypass cache)
  • clicking the Home button on the toolbar (or pressing Alt+Home on the keyboard)

If not, can you browse the hard drive using:

file:///C:/

Is there any possibility that a proxy server, private VPN, or other connection that bypasses local address resolution could be in effect at the time?

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Yes exactly. The homepage starts with file:///U:/

I can browse to the drive when this happens that is how I "fix" it. Find the file and open it with firefox and reset it as the homepage. (even though the link I am changing it to doesn't change at all.)

Refreshing or going home doesn't work at all. We don't have any proxy or VPN's set up.

I don't know if it matters but the file is located on a network drive mapped to the computers.

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Chosen Solution

I have some mapped drives. If I reboot Windows while I'm not on the network, when I return to the network, the mapped drive isn't active and programs that access it die an ugly death until I open the drive directly in Windows Explorer. Not sure if you have that scenario.

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I tested that out today. It happens when the computer is rebooted and the network drive does need to just be opened again and all is well. Anyway to stop that from happening?

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For the application where I have this problem, I was thinking of creating a batch file (or its modern equivalent, e.g., a PowerShell script) to first launch the mapped drive in Windows Explorer to trigger the connection, and then close that window and start the application. I haven't researched the syntax for that.

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I marked this as solved. I feel like anymore questions should be posted elsewhere as its no longer a firefox issue. Thanks for all the help!