I can't print anymore, the "help" button doesn't work, and Firefox always sets to "Never Remember History" even if I change it
SO many issues with Firefox now! For one, it crashes quite a bit. I submit the crash report, and go from there. Keeps happening. But the main thing is this:
I go to "Options" and under "Privacy" it has "Never remember history" - I change it to "use custom settings for history", hit "ok" and then when I go back to it, it's back on "never remember history" already. What gives?
The issues I'm having right now is that I used to click on Print in my email (Yahoo) and pop-up blocker would stop it, but a dialog would pop up saying "try again", and I would hit that, and a separate window would open where I could print the email. Now, when I click on print, NOTHING happens. No box, no changes whatsoever. No pop-ups blocked, nothing at all. I mean, the button for "print" doesn't even react like I clicked on it. Nothing happens.
The other issue is that when there's a text box, if I start to type my email address, it suggests my email address. It never used to do this! I don't want this, either. How can I stop the suggesting of my email address. I don't want it to remember what I typed!
Another issue with Firefox is that when I click on the "menu" button in the top right, there's a question mark that says "open help menu" at the bottom. When I click on that, the help menu is EMPTY. I included a picture so you can see.
I've "reloaded Firefox", as well as downloaded another copy and actually reinstalled it. All these errors keep happening. How can I get them to stop or function correctly? What's causing them to work all wonky?
All Replies (6)
jscher2000 said
undies78 saidOkay I found the prefs.js file. What should I be doing with it?My suggestion is to make a copy of it, either in a "working" folder or a "broken" folder, as the case may be. Later we can compare it with the other file to see whether we can spot settings changes that could be causing this problem. Or you can use the working file to replace a broken file.
Ok, now I have a copy of the "broken" prefs.js file, and I just installed a fresh copy of Firefox again, so I'm assuming I have a working prefs.js file. What should I do with them?
If Firefox is working, then that would confirm you have a working prefs.js file. Please back that one up to a "good" folder.
To compare text files (like .js files), I usually use WinMerge (http://winmerge.org/). This program display differences between the two files side by side. Many of those may be irrelevant like the time something was updated or the size of something, but others may point to settings differences that actually impact how Firefox works.
The other files of interest are:
- addons.json
- user.js (if any)
- xulstore.json
Since .json files do not have line breaks (or even many spaces), a plain comparison will be very ugly. Rather than suggest a bunch of steps for addressing that, you could zip up those files when you have a set for comparison and send them to me to look at.
jscher2000 said
If Firefox is working, then that would confirm you have a working prefs.js file. Please back that one up to a "good" folder. To compare text files (like .js files), I usually use WinMerge (http://winmerge.org/). This program display differences between the two files side by side. Many of those may be irrelevant like the time something was updated or the size of something, but others may point to settings differences that actually impact how Firefox works. The other files of interest are:Since .json files do not have line breaks (or even many spaces), a plain comparison will be very ugly. Rather than suggest a bunch of steps for addressing that, you could zip up those files when you have a set for comparison and send them to me to look at.
- addons.json
- user.js (if any)
- xulstore.json
Okay, so I backed up the "bad" prefs.js, and I also backed up the "good" one, meaning that's the one from when I completely uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox, complete with the settings that come by default.
Then I customized Firefox the way I like it (don't remember history, don't suggest, tell websites I don't want to be tracked, etc). That's how it is right now - all like it was before, and still working for the time being. So I copied THAT prefs.js file as well.
Then I zipped them all up and they're ready to send. Let me know how to get them to you.
Try updating Firefox. The new release is Firefox 38.
Try updating Firefox. The new release is Firefox 38.
If all History settings are default then the custom settings are hidden and you see "Firefox will: (Never) Remember History". "Never Remember History" means that Private Browsing is active and "Always use private browsing mode" gets a checkmark. "Use custom settings for history" stays selected if at least one of the History or Cookie settings is not the default to make you aware that changes from the default setting have been made.
The "Use custom settings for history" selection allows to see the current history and cookie settings, but selecting this doesn't make any changes to history and cookie settings.