Closed Bug 193638 (startup) Opened 22 years ago Closed 7 years ago

[Meta] corrupt or lost pref.js / startup configuration error (tracking bug)

Categories

(Core :: Preferences: Backend, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
Preferences: Backend
Platform:
x86
All
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: Matti, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 2 open bugs)

Details

(Keywords: meta) 

This bugs is for duping incoming bug reports. This is a possible bug in mozilla
but it could be also caused by a crash (system or mozilla itself) while Mozilla
writes the prefs.js file.

If you have this problem you can do this to fix this problem :

first locate your mozilla user-profile (see the release notes for the path) and
after that close mozilla including quicklaunch

a) rename the file "prefs.js" in your mozilla profile to "prefs.old" and rename
"prefs.bak" to "prefs.js". 
("prefs.bak" is a backup generated by mozilla)

or

b) open prefs.js in a text-editor and try to fix (and possible delete) the
corrupt line

or 

c) create a new mozilla user-profile. (mozilla -profilemanager)
*** Bug 193589 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 193220 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 192882 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 191060 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 191059 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 162609 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 182579 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 184096 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 187070 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 181226 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 176855 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 172913 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 170560 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 170321 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 169249 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 167453 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 165797 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 164383 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 162597 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 139838 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 119805 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 139971 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 141005 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 147053 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 153625 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 153742 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 154189 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 158233 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: prefs_lost, 191101
Summary: corrupt pref.js/startup configuration error → corrupt pref.js/startup configuration error
Conrad: 
Is this possible the same or a releated problem of bug 170539 ?
I can't believe that this bugs are only caused by a crash while writing or a
corrupt File System.
Alias: startup
Blocks: profile-corrupt
*** Bug 162290 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 190386 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 174321 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 183145 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 194743 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Hi, I encountered the problem and have confirmed this to be caused by an
incomplete prefs.js file. The corrupted prefs.js file has the following lines. I
hope this helps pinpoint the problem.

# Mozilla User Preferences
// This is a generated file!

user_pref("mail.smtpservers", "");
user_pref("mail.ui.folderpane.version", 2);
user_pref("mailnews.ui.threadpane.version", 2);
user_pref("prefs.converted-to-utf8", true);



The original file had the text as listed below. On restoring this file, the
problem got resolved.

# Mozilla User Preferences
// This is a generated file!

user_pref("browser.bookmarks.added_static_root", true);
user_pref("browser.search.defaultengine",
"engine://C%3A%5CProgram%20Files%5Cmozilla.org%5CMozilla%5Csearchplugins%5CNetscapeSearch.src");
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://www.mozilla.org/start/");
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone", "rv:1.2.1");
user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_flip", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_move_resize", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.status", true);
user_pref("intl.charsetmenu.browser.cache", "windows-1252, x-mac-roman, UTF-8,
ISO-8859-1");
user_pref("intl.charsetmenu.mailview.cache", "ISO-8859-1");
user_pref("ldap_2.prefs_migrated", true);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.history.filename", "history.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.history.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.pab.filename", "abook.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.pab.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.work.description", "work");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.work.dirType", 2);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.work.filename", "impab-2.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.work.isOffline", false);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.work.position", 3);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.work.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1");
user_pref("mail.account.account1.server", "server1");
user_pref("mail.account.account2.server", "server2");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account1,account2");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount", "account1");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.localfoldersserver", "server2");
user_pref("mail.compose.attach.dir", "C:");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.draft_folder",
"mailbox://amathur%25tychi.com@mail.bigoar.com/Drafts");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.drafts_folder_picker_mode", "0");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fcc_folder",
"mailbox://amathur%25tychi.com@mail.bigoar.com/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fcc_folder_picker_mode", "0");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fullName", "Amitabh Mathur");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.organization", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.reply_to", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.smtpServer", "smtp1");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.stationery_folder",
"mailbox://amathur%25tychi.com@mail.bigoar.com/Templates");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.tmpl_folder_picker_mode", "0");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.useremail", "amathur@bigoar.com");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.valid", true);
user_pref("mail.root.none", "C:\\Documents and
Settings\\Administrator\\Application Data\\Mozilla\\Profiles\\Default
User\\7vvh686h.slt\\Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.pop3", "C:\\Documents and
Settings\\Administrator\\Application Data\\Mozilla\\Profiles\\Default
User\\7vvh686h.slt\\Mail");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.directory", "C:\\Documents and
Settings\\Administrator\\Application Data\\Mozilla\\Profiles\\Default
User\\7vvh686h.slt\\Mail\\mail.bigoar.com");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.download_on_biff", true);
user_pref("mail.server.server1.hostname", "mail.bigoar.com");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.login_at_startup", true);
user_pref("mail.server.server1.name", "amathur@bigoar.com");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.type", "pop3");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.userName", "amathur");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.directory", "C:\\Documents and
Settings\\Administrator\\Application Data\\Mozilla\\Profiles\\Default
User\\7vvh686h.slt\\Mail\\Local Folders");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.hostname", "Local Folders");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.name", "Local Folders");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.type", "none");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.userName", "nobody");
user_pref("mail.smtp.defaultserver", "smtp1");
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp1.auth_method", 1);
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp1.hostname", "mail.yahoo.com");
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp1.try_ssl", 0);
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp1.username", "test");
user_pref("mail.smtpservers", "smtp1");
user_pref("mail.startup.enabledMailCheckOnce", true);
user_pref("mail.ui.folderpane.version", 2);
user_pref("mailnews.ui.addressbook_results.version", 2);
user_pref("mailnews.ui.threadpane.version", 2);
user_pref("messenger.save.dir", "C:\\Work");
user_pref("network.cookie.cookieBehavior", 0);
user_pref("prefs.converted-to-utf8", true);
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_bgcolor", false);
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_bgimages", false);
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_evenpages", true);
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_footercenter", "");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_footerleft", "");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_footerright", "");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_headercenter", "");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_headerleft", "");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_headerright", "");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_in_color", true);
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_margin_bottom", "0.5");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_margin_left", "0.5");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_margin_right", "0.5");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_margin_top", "0.5");
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_oddpages", true);
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_orientation", 0);
user_pref("print.printer_\\\\Towson6\\DC2Cannon7200.print_reversed", false);
user_pref("security.warn_entering_secure", false);
user_pref("security.warn_submit_insecure", false);
user_pref("signon.SignonFileName", "44413608.s");
user_pref("timebomb.first_launch_time", "1044415095856000");
user_pref("wallet.SchemaValueFileName", "44545006.w");
user_pref("wallet.caveat", true);
user_pref("wallet.crypto", true);
*** Bug 195964 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 196469 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
-> default owner to decide what to do with this bug. (invalid ?)
But we can always use this as dupe target..
Assignee: matti → ccarlen
*** Bug 196969 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 197592 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 196812 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 198187 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 199453 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 202785 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I can't seem to locate prefs.js anywhere.  Is it possible that the file was
never downloaded?
That should be in your home directory. (see the Mozilla release notes for the
path). One directory is makred hidden and you must configure explorer to show
hidden files.
You can also try solution c)
Blocks: 132517
Keywords: meta
Summary: corrupt pref.js/startup configuration error → corrupt or lost pref.js / startup configuration error
*** Bug 162245 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 204732 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
adding bug 201812 for pc-cillin, although i thought there was an older bug for
that...
Blocks: 201812
Sarah : See bug 170539 comment #138 (but bug 170539 is fixed for 1.3)
*** Bug 205511 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 192305 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 210354 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 210841 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 212086 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 212881 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 213040 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: majorbugs
*** Bug 217037 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Matti,

Does the method a), renaming prefs.bak to prefs.js, work always? Are there 
cases even the backup file is corrupted? We have a large number of 
feedback from Japanese users of NS7.1 on this problem. It all has to
do with localized names of items like "Local Fodler", "Custom Toolbar",
"Editor history", etc.
It should always work if you get a startup configuration error but it will not
help if your prefs.js is lost.
This could be also caused by other applications who are possible modify
Mozilla's prefs.js and corrupt it.

Anti-virus products may possibly write to this file to change the mail-server to
a local mail-proxy server to scann incoming mails for virus attachments.
(It's known that PC Cillin cause a complete loss of the prefs.js file)

BTW: for c) : You can use http://matti.no-ip.org/Mozilla/profile.txt if you want
to move your old mails and settings back into a new profile.
(note: this Host is blocked by the Netscape Firewall)
*** Bug 220484 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 221228 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 222130 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking1.6b?
Flags: blocking1.6a?
Flags: blocking1.6a?
Darin, chofmann says that you've poked around in prefs for minimo. Can you help
us here?
There is a patch pending in bug 132517 which should help to avoid this.
*** Bug 227081 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
we may get something for but 132517 but it's unlikely that this bug, without a
patch, is going to be fixed for 1.6b. We want to make a big push on prefs and
other profile dataloss issues for 1.7.
Flags: blocking1.6b? → blocking1.6b-
Flags: blocking1.7a?
*** Bug 217835 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking1.7b?
Flags: blocking1.7a?
Flags: blocking1.7a-
*** Bug 191557 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 211759 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 174130 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 186493 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 202706 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 223162 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 224799 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 237133 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
more progress made here for beta...  will take more fixes for final as they come in.
Flags: blocking1.7b?
Flags: blocking1.7b-
Flags: blocking1.7+
I just experienced a problem that sounded like I had lost my prefs.js.  But when
I tried to recover the old versions of the file, it made no difference.  

The real problem was that I my profile had been silently changed to be the
Default User profile rather than the profile I normally use.  This happened
because the browser had crashed previously (mysteriously in the night, all by
itself) but it left some part of itself still running for returning feedback, so
when I started up a new mozilla, it automatically chose the Default User, and
kept doing so even after I had killed off the feedback window, since the default
profile had been changed.  I finally manually switched my profile in
Tools/Switch Profile and things seem back to normal.

I'd suggest there should be more noise every time you start up as the Default
User.  
comment #78 is very different and is NOT this bug.
You had a running Mozilla process in the background (your profile is locked) and
you get a Profile in Use Dialog.
*** Bug 217047 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 216215 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking1.7a-
Flags: blocking1.6b-
Flags: blocking1.7+ → blocking1.7-
FF prefs are lost after 2 days,   this is 2nd time in 4 days 4th time in a row.
 No common denominator, I didn't do anything to justify behavior, no new
software installs, etc.  Fresh install of XP Pro, SP2 updates all 5 days prior.
New DL of FF,  Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041001
Firefox/0.10.1
*** Bug 209301 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 161164 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 217377 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 230105 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 260457 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 224353 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 246988 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 241930 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking-aviary1.1+
*** Bug 215800 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
No longer blocks: majorbugs
Flags: blocking-aviary1.1+ → blocking-aviary1.1-
says "thunderbird is already running" when i launch the program. says to close the  process or restart the system....
Assignee: ccarlen → nobody
QA Contact: bugzilla → prefs
Putting Bug 392956 and Bug 422447 in dependency tree(Blocks:), to find real problem and cause of the problem, and to make search/tracking easy, although both bugs are not to resolve specific problem (meta bug like, but not real meta bug). 

By the way, please don't Dup bugs to this meta bug(meta bug since initial) any more.
Blocks: 392956, 422447
Summary: corrupt or lost pref.js / startup configuration error → corrupt or lost pref.js / startup configuration error (tracking bug)
No longer blocks: 205120
Depends on: 205120
No longer blocks: 392956, 422447
Depends on: 392956, 422447, 430438
No longer blocks: 139562, 201812, 343851
Depends on: 139562, 201812, 343851
Depends on: 432438
I've discovered Bug 123929. Setting dependency for ease of tracking. 
> Bug 123929 (profile-corrupt) Prevent and repair profile corruption (tracking bug)
I've added the bugs here to the other bug (given that the other is older and has much more bugs added), merging the two.
This is now a DUP of 132929.
No longer blocks: 132517, prefs_lost
Bug 123929 is for "corruption of files in profile", but this bug focuses on "loss/corruption of prefs.js"(can be said subset of Bug 123929).
DUPing is correct action?
Bug 191101 seems to have been added at the wrong end.  Fixing.
No longer blocks: 191101
Depends on: 191101
We should make up our mind about this.  Is this a duplicate or a subtracker?

If a duplicate, it should be marked as such.

If a subtracker, dependencies of this shouldn't be duplicated there.

To me, it seems to be a subtracker.  Does anyone disagree?
QA Contact: preferences → preferences-backend
Adding bugs DUP'ed to bug 304045 to "Depends On:" fields, to avoid loss of incident that prefs.js corruption continued to happen even after use of nsSafeFileOutputStream(prefs.js).
Depends on: 304743, 325904, 335178, 345198, 351807, 365636, 377467
Summary: corrupt or lost pref.js / startup configuration error (tracking bug) → [Meta] corrupt or lost pref.js / startup configuration error (tracking bug)
FYI.
As written in Bug 246722 Comment #2, use of nsSafeFileOutputStream(prefs.js) was introduced by Bug 250092(FIXED on 2004-07-19), and Bug 246722 was WONTFIX'ed on 2004-07-28.
FYI.
Bug 477934(fixed around 2009/05) narrowed window of prefs.js loss even after fix of Bug 250092 upon system crash.
> Bug 477934 nsSafeFileOutputStream (prefs.js) not safe from system crashes
Under this conditions:

- Linux-Fx 10.
- Profile on an NFS-share which is not sync-mounted.
- User is 'over quota' (blocks limit exceeded).

Firefox will leave the prefs.js with file size 0.  This happens because in this configuration the "over quota" does not cause the writes to fail but the close instead.  This behavior is well known (http://linux.frank4dd.com/en/man5/nfs.htm#13).

I suppose that Firefox does not check the return value of the close call.
Depends on: 665010
Keywords: qawanted
This bug isn't being used for tracking, so I'm going to close it. That doesn't mean the individual issues are invalid and I'll be looking at each separately.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
Depends on: 966651
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