682094 - Every time I log on to Firefox, I get the "What's New" screen which opens in a second tab. I can't save my preferences or my profile.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[aboutmegifts]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:6.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/6.0
Build ID: 20110811165603

Steps to reproduce:

I log on to Firefox. 


Actual results:

I get the add-on compatibility tab - "What's New..." which opens in a second tab, my first tab being my home page.  This happens every time I log on to Firefox.
I've deleted my prefs.js file as instructed, and restarted Firefox, but my changes are still not saved. I've unchecked the READ ONLY box.
I've tried other suggestions to no avail.  I'd like to go back to version 5.


Expected results:

The second tab should not be coming back up.

Comment 1

[:aceman]

You have some problem with your Firefox profile, it seems read only so Firefox can't store any changes of your preferences into it. Check if you have permissions to the FF profile and is set to read-write - apply these settings to all subfolders of it.

Comment 2

[aboutmegifts]

(In reply to aceman from comment #1)
> You have some problem with your Firefox profile, it seems read only so
> Firefox can't store any changes of your preferences into it. Check if you
> have permissions to the FF profile and is set to read-write - apply these
> settings to all subfolders of it.

Thanks so much for your post.  I had already unchecked READ ONLY, and I do have my permissions set up, so I don't know what else to do.

Comment 3

[:aceman]

Do you also always see the progressbar about Firefox update (from 5 to 6)?

Comment 4

[:aceman]

You say you alreade deleted prefs.js file. Did Firefox create a new one? If yes, can you attach it?

Comment 5

[aboutmegifts]

Attachment: Firefox Preferences file

Comment 6

[aboutmegifts]

Attachment: Firefox opening screen

This is the opening screen after the "compatibility" check.

Comment 7

[aboutmegifts]

I've deleted the prefs.js file several times.  I've tried changing my default setting back to my homepage several times, but it keeps defaulting back to "show my windows and tabs from last time."

I grew up on DOS and I'm not afraid to use it if that's what it takes to fix this.

Thanks again!

Comment 8

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Please create a new, additional test profile
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing%20profiles

Comment 9

[aboutmegifts]

(In reply to Matthias Versen (Matti) from comment #8)
> Please create a new, additional test profile
> http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing%20profiles

I have completely logged out of FF, checked for any applications that might still be running, didn't see any processes that I recognized to be part of FF.  When I type "firefox.exe - profilemanager" and hit ENTER, Firefox logs on.

I'm so ready to give up on FF.

Thanks again!

Comment 10

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

try "firefox.exe -p"

Comment 11

[aboutmegifts]

Attachment: Test Prefs.js file

This is a new profile set up as a test.

Comment 12

[aboutmegifts]

(In reply to aboutmegifts from comment #11)
> Created attachment 556137 [details]
> Test Prefs.js file
> 
> This is a new profile set up as a test.

Thank you!

Peachekeen

Comment 13

[:aceman]

What does comment 12 mean? :)

Comment 14

[aboutmegifts]

(In reply to aceman from comment #13)
> What does comment 12 mean? :)

As per Comment 8, I created a test profile and attached it.  Thank you, aceman, for the file attachment with the new prefs file.

Thanks,
Peachekeen

Comment 15

[aboutmegifts]

(In reply to aboutmegifts from comment #14)
> (In reply to aceman from comment #13)
> > What does comment 12 mean? :)
> 
> As per Comment 8, I created a test profile and attached it.  Thank you,
> aceman, for the file attachment with the new prefs file.
> 
> Thanks,
> Peachekeen

OK - maybe I'm misunderstanding this whole process.  Aceman, did you rewrite my prefs.js file? If so, how do I download the prefs.js file as opposed to opening the text file?  I grew up on DOS, but the only programming course I had was Fortran, and that was a looong time ago!

I've never been on this board before, so I'm not sure how it works exactly.

Thanks again.

Comment 16

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

I asked you to create a new profile and the answer that I expect is just if saving the preferences works or not.
This is no board, this is a bug database and it's not there to provide support. We try to find out if your problem is a real bug or not and why this happens.

Comment 17

[aboutmegifts]

Thank you so much. My sincere apologies.  I created a new profile and the extra "checking for compatibility of add-ons" tab does not come up with the new profile.
This problem all began when I upgraded to FF 6.

Comment 18

[:aceman]

No I haven't done anything to your prefs.js, I just fixed the file type you entered wrongly on the attachment. You are not supposed to download the file and use it in any way.

We need to know if the new profile, created and attached in comment 11 fixes your problem. If in the new profile you do not get the what's new page and saving of changed prefs works.

Comment 19

[aboutmegifts]

Yes, the new profile works - it doesn't bring up the what's new tab, and it saves my home page.

Comment 20

[:aceman]

Good. So if you had anything valuable in your previous profile, you can try to copy over the files into the new profile (simply copy the file from old profile and overwrite the same file in the new profile). You can see which file contains what here: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Recovering%20important%20data%20from%20an%20old%20profile

Comment 21

[aboutmegifts]

(In reply to aceman from comment #20)
> Good. So if you had anything valuable in your previous profile, you can try
> to copy over the files into the new profile (simply copy the file from old
> profile and overwrite the same file in the new profile). You can see which
> file contains what here:
> http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/
> Recovering%20important%20data%20from%20an%20old%20profile

Thank you so much for all your time and help!  You are appreciated.