I am using "Clear history when Firefox closes." I thought you told me to make sure that feature is on (checked). Which setting button are you referring to as being (fainted) disabled? I can drag a bookmark to a file, and it appears just fine in the tile....not sure about an item from history.... but it doesn't make sense to use the feature if it's not actually 'working' for you, and filling the tiles with 'most visited sites' as it should. I've never seen URLs under the tiles, ever. I just see the faint borders around the big white tiles, and nothing else.

I didn't tell you to tick the box and enable this feature, sorry if my reply had confused you.

I asked if you were using this feature and if you did to check if you weren't removing some specific data.
You can remove the checkmark and disable this feature if you previously didn't use it.

It's ok. I'm not surprised I'm confused at this point, because I am. I must have read that part of your post wrong. The "Clear history when Firefox closes" option/box was checked (enabled) even before you told me to look at it a day or two ago. I'm open to uncheck it if it helps enable these tiles. Which specific data are you referring to that I may be removing? Thank you for being so patient with this issue.

Both the Browsing history (for the URLs) and the Cache (for the thumbnails) can cause issues.

Note that websites might send HTTP response headers to specify not to cache their pages (Cache-Control: no-store) and this will prevent Firefox from generating a thumbnail just like also happens with pages that you visit via a secure https connection.

When you say thumbnails, that would be a smaller image in the tile, right? I know a thumbnail is small, but when I clicked and dragged a bookmark to a tile, it filled the whole tile, so it's not considered a thumbnail is it? I visit quite a few of the same websites all the time; espn, CNN, yahoo, rotoworld, WSJ, etc. so I don't know why there would be HTTP response headers (not that I know what those are yet). I think I've told you, months ago, those tiles were "working" and I didn't even think about them them until they disappeared.

A thumbnail is an image of the web page associated with a tile and will always fill the full width and height of that tile. Tiles are resized automatically if you modify the size of the current Firefox window to make them fit in the window.

That's what I thought, but you're explanation is better than what I was thinking. What are the next steps I can take? I wish someone from Mozilla could take remote control of my PC and figure this darn thing out.

cor-el - Do you have anymore steps to take?

Make sure that you haven't enabled a High Contrast theme in the Windows/Mac Accessibility settings.

Make sure that you allow pages to choose their own colors.

• Tools > Options > Content : Fonts & Colors > Colors : [X] "Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above"

Note that these settings affect background images that are used on the about:newtab page.

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Website_colors_are_wrong

Hello cor-el. I read your steps, and everything was already set as noted in your post. Are you as baffled by this as I am?

Hi yankeespride and cor-el, this is quite the conversation about homepages and tiles. However I still have not figured out what the objective is with the tiles and tabs.

So far, I have thumbnails 9X9 should open up in a new tab? If this is the case, the tiles New Tab Page – show, hide and customize top sites

In the about:config page the setting browser.newtab.url needs to be set to about:newtab

Change this, open a new tab and the tiles will be there. Once you add the pages you want to the tiles, click the top left corner to "pin" them there :-)

Please feel free to correct me if there is more confusion. I *think* this is what you are talking about, but maybe a screenshot? How do I create a screenshot of my problem?

Hi guigs - nice of you to join the discussion - but I am at my wit's end with these tiles..I think.

As for, In the about:config page the setting browser.newtab.url needs to be set to about:newtab......I thought I did this already, but I guess I'll have to go back and check. If I stumble with it, I'll post it and let you know. I can drag bookmarks into the tiles, and I thought history could be dragged into them, too. (but my history is not showing any history tonight; why? I don't know). My settings are such to NOT delete browsing history. I thought the point of the tiles was to do the work for you, not to add the most visited sites to those tabs manually through dragging bookmarks. Here is a screen shot. Cor-el has asked me a few times if there are URLs under the tiles, but I've never seen those either. Let me take a screen shot. I tried to upload a screenshot of my New Tab page, but it says, "Error Uploading Image - Invalid or No Image received." I saved a paint file to my desktop, and it wouldn't upload....uggh

I just looked under about:config. The value for browser.newtab.url is about:newtab

See:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot and make sure that the file size isn't too large (below 1 MB).

If you drag a bookmark or history item in a tile then you should at least see the URL under the tile.

Are you keeping history?

• Tools > Options > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history"

Also check the Settings for "Clear history when Firefox closes"

If you use cleanup software then check the settings for the Firefox application.

This morning, I went into Tools>Options>Privacy>History>Firefox will: I selected "Remember History" instead of "Use custom settings for History". Out of curiosity, I opened a new tab, and several of the 9 tiles were filled with thumbnails of previous sites I'd been on that night. Now, this is good, or is it? "Use Custom Settings for History" was set to "Remember my browsing and download history." It doesn't make sense that this option would not allow me to see thumbnails in the tabs, while the other option, "Remember History," would. As far as the tiles, I don't see the URL of each unless I drag the pointer (hand) over a tile, and it pulls up a box with the description of the Tiled site and it's URL.