536680 - Firefox disappears - only visible in Task Manager

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Wyndham Clampett]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.2b5) Gecko/20091204 Firefox/3.6b5 GTB6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.2b5) Gecko/20091204 Firefox/3.6b5 GTB6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

I think this problem has been reported in the past but as it is still occurring I thought I should report it.

Frequently, Firefox will disppear from view after being minimised. This is quite random and I can't relate it to any specific activity.

No icon shows on the task bar. It is not visible in the list of applications in task manager but only in the list of processes.

Note that external links do not "revive" the browser when in this state. e.g. Clicking on a link in an email, etc.

Please note I have noticed this with the current production version as well 3.6 Beta 5.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Have you tried safe-mode / a new profile?
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#Make_a_new_profile

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Just curious, if you press Ctrl+Tab, does Firefox show up?

Comment 3

[Wyndham Clampett]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Have you tried safe-mode / a new profile?
> http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode
> http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#Make_a_new_profile

Not tried safe mode not creating a new profile but will try now.

Comment 4

[Wyndham Clampett]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Just curious, if you press Ctrl+Tab, does Firefox show up?

No.

Comment 5

[Noam Avnery]

If I may..
This is similar to this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=503870.
It happens to me for over a year now, I'd guess it's for 3.5.x and 3.6.x (I have 3.6.13  - the latest version).
Firefox disappears from the taskbar when minimized.
Alt-Tab can reach and restore it from the active applications menu.

It's driving me nuts sometimes.. The person who solves it will be my hero :-)

Comment 6

[chbok]

I often notice this issue under XP Pro, with several PC and several profils. It's really aleatory. An Alt+tab can reach firefox. It will "reopen" at the end of the task bar.
It could diseappear even if not minimised, behind another window, and one clic on the title window show it on the task bar.

Comment 7

[Ioana (away)]

I haven't seen this issue on any of the recent Firefox builds. Please only reopen this bug if you can reproduce it on Firefox 25 or newer.