719355 - Preferences won't save, specifically "Firefox will: Use custom settings..."

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Robyn Hahn]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1
Build ID: 20111220165912

Steps to reproduce:

I wish to enable cookies. I go to Firefox -> Options and bring up the Privacy Tab. I click on the History dropdown: (Firefox will:) and select Use Custom Settings for History. I go with the recommended settings to enable cookies. Then I click okay.




Actual results:

When I go back into Firefox -> Options -> Privacy Tab, the "Remember History" option has been re-selected, and not the "Use Custom Settings for History". Cookies are not enabled.



Expected results:

When I re-open Firefox -> Options -> Privacy Tab, it should be displaying:
Firefox will: "Use Custom Settings for History", not "Remember History". And cookies will be enabled (I'm assuming), which currently they are not. This affects my browser experience dramatically in Google Search, since I cannot set any preferences at all.

Comment 1

[Tim (fmdeveloper)]

Please see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Preferences%20are%20not%20saved

Comment 2

[Robyn Hahn]

Thanks for the link. I guess you must think I didn't try all that first.

In User.js one entry:
user_pref("yahoo.ytff.general.dontshowhpoffer", true);
Didn't seem relevant.

Prefs.js attributes read-only and hidden are (and have been) unticked all along. 
There are no prefs-n.js files (where n is some number)
This is no Invalidprefs.js file.
There is no prefs.js.moztmp file.

Based on my experience with your debugging help so far, I am quite reluctant to delete my pref.js file, only just because just pointing me to a page I've already followed through on (with exception to this one step) strikes me as indifference on your part and I'll lose all my settings for no real reason.

If enabling a browser to save cookies requires this much work and tech-savvy experience, I shudder to think what the tech-naive must be going through.

Comment 3

[:aceman]

The text under "Remember History" says cookies will be kept. Why is that not what you asked for? Maybe "Remember History" is equivalent to "Use Custom Settings for History"+"keep cookies".

Tell us which boxes exactly you have ticked when you set "Use Custom Settings for History".

Comment 4

[Robyn Hahn]

"Always use private browsing mode" and "Clear history when Firefox closes" are NOT ticked: the rest are ticked. I believe these are/were the default settings.

The problem I'm having is this: I'm attributing the fact that Google preferences tools indicate that Cookies have not been enabled, hence the error when I try to set browser preferences. Google identified the problem as a browser cookie issue, which is why I'm being a nuisance here. I'm deducing that because in the
Firefox -> Options -> Privacy Tab
I see:
"Remember History"
instead of what I set:
"Use Custom Settings for History"
the settings for cookies have not changed, which is confirmed when I try to set google search preferences and get the same error again.

Comment 5

[:aceman]

See bug 722613, the reported found out the same what I was saying.