FF 57 - Missing toolbar icons on startup

[FoxyFanny]

I have a number of Add-on icons on my toolbar (Lastpass, and so forth). When I updated to 57 and set the whole thing up (minus a lot of useful but now unsupported Legacy add-ons), FF would start fine.

However, without any evident reason, or additional Add-ons being installed, on first start FF comes up with only the black and white default FF icons, and none of the coloured ones for my Add-ons. Restarting time and again doesn't help. However, I have, through trial and error, found that if I start FF in Safe Mode, close it, and then restart normally, it loads as it should and shows all the toolbar icons correctly.

As I haven't installed new Add-ons, I'm guessing that this may have arisen through an update to one (or more) of the existing ones. However, it doesn't make too much sense that a Safe Mode start then with all add-ons disabled then allows a normal start with all of them working OK.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be grateful to hear them.

As I recall, it is years since I last had to go through the "binary Add-on disable" routine (i.e. half to half to half etc.) to isolate a "duff" add-on, and, if this indeed the cause of my current problems, then I'm not impressed.

[Brummelchen]

if safe-mode wont help:

create a new profile
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows
or
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

This article explains how to selectively transfer Firefox user data and settings to a new Firefox profile
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... _-_Firefox

or (less recommended)
reset your firefox profile to keep bookmarks and other stuff, read here please
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/re ... d-settings
(keeping bookmarks, history, passwords, cookies, form data aso.)

[FoxyFanny]

if safe-mode wont help:

create a new profile
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows
or
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

This article explains how to selectively transfer Firefox user data and settings to a new Firefox profile
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... _-_Firefox

or (less recommended)
reset your firefox profile to keep bookmarks and other stuff, read here please
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/re ... d-settings
(keeping bookmarks, history, passwords, cookies, form data aso.)

Thanks. I want to avoid doing that if possible, as I really don't know the cause. I did plan to produce a new profile, with my chosen add-ons, which would get rid of the junk that's built up over several years, but I'm reluctant to go to that length without understanding the cause of my present problem.

When I start in Safe Mode, I do nothing except immediately close it again. This, however, has the weird effect that when I start FF again in Normal mode, my icons are there, and all the add-ons are operational. The question in my mind is why?

It seems that the mere act of starting Safe i.e. without add-ons, and then starting normally, has the effect of resetting "something" to make FF work. It's also notable that after I have got FF working via the Safe Mode route I've described, I can open and shut FF as much as I want and it will always start correctly. In other words, the problem is not repeatable without, apparently, me having to restart the machine. That makes for a diagnostic nightmare, as the implication is that even if I methodically disable add-ons, FF will start properly every time and not throw up a "rogue" add-on.

I have inspected the list of recent updates, which show three only, and all dated today (after this problem first arose), of which two are plugins and one is a disabled add-on. I've also looked at the health and Troubleshooting information, which seems all in order and no problems

What's worrying is that this seems to have occurred quite out of the blue.

[Brummelchen]

I want to avoid

then you wont have luck.

[siffemoz]

Try closing FF, go to your profile folder, and delete xulstore.json which may have become corrupted. It will regenerate on restart. If that fails, then the "binary Add-on disable" routine would be the next thing to try. Creating a new profile is the last thing I'd ever do as it's so destructive. Refreshing FF should come before that, as doing that will save your bookmarks, PWs, etc.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/re ... d-settings

[FoxyFanny]

Try closing FF, go to your profile folder, and delete xulstore.json which may have become corrupted. It will regenerate on restart. If that fails, then the "binary Add-on disable" routine would be the next thing to try. Creating a new profile is the last thing I'd ever do as it's so destructive. Refreshing FF should come before that, as doing that will save your bookmarks, PWs, etc.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/re ... d-settings

Thanks for your reply.

I gave that a try, and got back a message about refreshing Firefox, which I don't want to do just yet, or until I have a listing dump of Add-ons to refer to when I decide to rebuild it.
As before, a startup in Safe Mode mode, swift immediate exit and start again normally fixed it, although I did have to recheck the toolbars to be visible.

When I have it starting normally, and delete the xulstore file, I see a few icons on one bar, with Menu and Bookmarks bars unchecked. Checking them gets it back to rights. I've tried disabling a couple of add-ons which looked as if they might be culprits, but no go with that.

As I mentioned previously, this is unrepeatable after the Safe>Normal "fix". I can open and close FF ad nauseam and it will work just fine, but when I turn on the system first and call it up, it then misbehaves. I can't for the life of me figure out how starting the programme Firefox and system start/shutdown can be so connected, but, having looked at the system error logs, I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be somehow due another programme running at startup which has an add-on in Firefox, and hooks into it as well as other chrome browsers on here.

Despite the vast speed improvements, and after many years of using it thus, I have relegated FF from being my default browser, at least for the moment. I need to find a completely different way of working with it, sans the add-ons which made it good for me; to fix this problem; and maybe one day I'll actually manage to get it to do the 2-stage verification on a couple of financial websites which it ceased to like several versions back, meaning that I have to do things on those with any of the chrome browsers.

[Brummelchen]

chrome dont have xulstore - no comparison please - wont help

his damaged xulstore is caused bei malwarebytes antiransome.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3035896

are you running malwarebytes software?

[FoxyFanny]

chrome dont have xulstore - no comparison please - wont help

his damaged xulstore is cause bei malwarebytes antiransome.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3035896

are you running malwarebytes software?

Thank you for your reply.

I am aware that chrome doesn't have xulstore, and the only comparison I would make is that my chrome browsers run perfectly, and this iteration of Firefox, for me, doesn't.

No, I am not running Malwarebytes software.

I have noted previously that this problem did not arise when first I updated to 57 and installed a couple of new add-ons. Exactly the same background AV and other processes were running then as now, so I can't see them suddenly mutate into being a cause of this problem.

I will continue to investigate the other possible causes I have mentioned.

[Brummelchen]

you can try in windows
start > execute > "msconfig" and start in safe-mode with network to avoid driver or antivirus-issues.

[FoxyFanny]

you can try in windows
start > execute > "msconfig" and start in safe-mode with network to avoid driver or antivirus-issues.

Thanks. I'll give that a go.

Update as of 29th November.

I started up FF in normal mode, and my add-on icons were, as usual, all missing from the toolbars. I did not, this time, go through the Safe-Mode->Normal routine, but immediately started on the "binary" add-on disables. Disabling half, then restarting produced no favourable results, nor did disabling the other half i.e. it seems unconnected to any add-ons installed (far fewer now than I used to have). All add-ons were then re-enabled and active.

I noticed that the xulstore file had a create date and time of today, which I presume is because disabling add-ons which would normally place their icons in the toolbars requires the xulstore to rebuild itself on restart, to not show said icons. The file size was 307 bytes.

More out of interest than anything else (and with nothing to lose), I deleted xulstore with FF running and restarted. The result was that FF started up showing all icons correctly, and xulstore had rebuilt itself to a smaller size of 288 bytes.

This is all very mysterious, but I plan next to recover the larger deleted xulstore from the Bin, keep the new smaller one pro tem by renaming it, and compare the contents of the two.

[FoxyFanny]

Comparison of the two before and after xulstore files shows that the "before" ends with "{"sidebarcommand":"","width":""}}}", whilst the "after" and larger xulstore has the sidebarcommand line plus the final section of ,"sidebar-title":{"value":""}}}.

Comments, please.

[therube]

my add-on icons were, as usual, all missing from the toolbars

Are other settings saved?
Like if you set the Menu bar to be visible, & restart FF, is it still visible on restart?

[FoxyFanny]

my add-on icons were, as usual, all missing from the toolbars

Are other settings saved?
Like if you set the Menu bar to be visible, & restart FF, is it still visible on restart?

Both the menu Bar and Bookmarks Toolbar are unchecked when it starts minus the icons. Some of "my" icons are on the Address bar, to the right of the box (as many as will fit there and be visible), and the rest, about 4, are on the Bookmarks bar; one to the left of the "Forget history" icon and the others immediately to the right.

I had my own version of userChrome.css in previous versions to control box widths etc. I'd forgotten this, and thought it might be a problem. However, disabling it, and now changing it to have the tabs below bars does not solve the problem.

When I started up this morning, my xulstore grew from c. 336 bytes to 2k, characters 336 to 1048, most of which appears to be relating to sidebar settings.

I have now noticed that this happens:-
1) start FF normally, shows no icons, BUT theme is Theme A (this being an old one, the only active theme listed in Themes, but NOT the one I'm using, which is, say, Theme BB)
2) start FF in Safe Mode, and it shows Theme A as 1) above. Immediately close it.
3) start FF normally again, shows all icons and bars BUT the theme is now Theme BB, which isn't in the Themes list. Interestingly, Theme A flashes briefly before being replaced by Theme BB.

It therefore looks as if it may be something to do with Themes.

The next stage of this is to set the Theme to one of the FF defaults, and see what happens. As I have mentioned, testing is difficult as this problem, once "fixed"
by the Safe Start, cannot be replicated except after shutting down and on first run. However, I will try setting the Default theme, deleting xulstore, and see what happens.

[FoxyFanny]

I think I've got to the "what" answer, but not "why".

I:-
1) ran FF normally, and set the Theme to the FF default "Light"
2) closed FF
3) deleted xulstore
4) restarted FF normally

FF started up, with those of my icons showing to the right of the box in the Address/location bar showing perfectly. The Menu and Bookmarks bars were unchecked, and, looking at the xulstore (and entirely logically), the default when FF rebuilds a missing xulstore on startup is that these are not checked.

I have the Personas Plus add-on installed, but the presence of this is, as far as I can see, unrelated to the problem, as previous disabling of add-ons revealed.

It seems to me that the cause of this is entirely down to the use of Themes from the Add-ons Themes store, and how they are applied by FF. More particularly, I think there's some sort of hangover from Themes I used in previous versions. For example, using Personas Plus, I have selected and added another theme, and this now sits in the list with the Theme A I have previously described, whilst the other, Theme BB, remains absent.

My thought is that the answer to this is to refresh my Firefox first and see what happens. I may then proceed to the "start from scratch - new profile" option.

[siffemoz]

Refreshing creates a new profile while saving some things , so if refreshing doesn't help I sure don't know what will. Good luck

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/re ... d-settings