"The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" er

[tpaulr]

Morning...

I get this error message on occasion, it usually sorts itself out after a few days, if not, I follow the instructions in the article that links to the error message.

What I would like to understand is what causes this so I can fix this once and for all...

The article says security software and the relationship with the favicon and sqlite databases can be the cause, but I'm trying to understand how or why.

I use Panda as my realtime A/V, I run Sandboxie and Voodoo Shield as my other real time security layers, this combination has proven to be very effective for me, no issues in years and years.

I have gone to the forums of both Sandboxie and VS over the years, but nobody can give me an answer.

When this even occurs, I always suspect it's Sandboxie, but I don't know how to test it or to fix it.

This happens when I click on a link in an email and it opens in un-sandboxed Firefox, again on occasion.

BTW,I can run FF sandboxed and un-sandboxed simultaneously, always have.This is also how I run T'Bird simultaneously, as well.

It's a nuisance, but I'd like to understand the dynamics.

Any ideas?

Thank you in advance.

[redwolfe_98]

you need to adjust sandboxie's settings to where they allow bookmarks and history to be saved if that is what you want.

using sandboxie is not complicated. adjusting the settings is pretty simple and intuitive.

here is a link to information about how to use sandboxie:

https://sandboxie-plus.com/sandboxie/helptopics/

[tpaulr]

redwolfe,

Thank you, but I've been using Sandboxie since V1, long before even Invicea and Sophos bought them.

Not understanding how to configure and use it is not the issue.

I found a simple solution - launch unsandboxed FF before sandboxed FF, rather then the other way around, problem solved.

I don't know whey I didn't think about this sooner.

[redwolfe_98]

so the problem was that you were running two instances of firefox, one sandboxed and one not sandboxed, at the same time.

the instance of firefox that was sandboxed had the bookmarks file and the history file locked, which was why, when you ran the unsandboxed instance of firefox, you saw the message saying that bookmarks and history couldn't be saved.

i would say that the "solution" to the problem would be to not run two instances of firefox, one sandboxed and one not sandboxed, at the same time.

the only time that you should run firefox unsandboxed would be when updating firefox, or when installing, or uninstalling, browser-extensions.

and, of course, you should only have one instance of firefox running at a time. when two instances of firefox are being run at the same time, they conflict with each other, because one, the one that was launched first, is going to have some of the program's files locked, and, so, they will not be accessible by the second instance of firefox that is running.

[tpaulr]

Thank you, but I have been running 2 instances of FF simultaneously since Sandboxie was launched.

I would occasionally get the error message over the past couple years.

I also run 2 instances of Thunderbird, never had any issues whatsoever - I launch unsandboxed T'Bird first, then sandboxed T'Bird, decided to try that with FF.

Works.