It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

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DC Chris
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It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by DC Chris »

Hi - newguy here - I searched the forum and didn't find any info, so I will try it here.

I am Release FF 25.0.

I store my Firefox profile on a network drive so I can access it across multiple computers on my LAN.

I get the:

"It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while. Do you want to clean it up for a fresh, like-new experience? And by the way, welcome back!"

1) I use my profile every day. I would love to know what setting or file this message is keyed off of.
2) I have my setup with extensions the way I like it, if I click "Reset Firefox" - two things happen. One - all of my extensions are blasted (known "feature")... I just don't feel like going back and reconfiguring them all. And two - my "reset" profile is copied to the local C:\ drive of the computer and my old one is deleted from my network drive, which is mounted as a drive letter in Win7.

I always click the "X" on this message and it always restarts every time I launch FF25.0. Very annoying.

Does anyone know what the trigger is for this annoying message? nsIXULRuntime::replacedLockTime was in the bugzilla report to add "this feature" in, but I can't seem to find that variable.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Chris.
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smsmith
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by smsmith »

How close are all of those computers in time and date? Are they all current?

You can try looking in about:config to see if there is a preference with a name similar to that variable. I couldn't find one in my list, but maybe it'll be in your since you are having this trouble,

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About%3Aconfig
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mightyglydd
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by mightyglydd »

Does anyone know what the trigger

This? :roll:

http://www.ghacks.net/2013/10/27/reset- ... x-61-days/
#KeepFightingMichael and Alex.
DC Chris
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by DC Chris »

smsmith wrote:How close are all of those computers in time and date? Are they all current?

You can try looking in about:config to see if there is a preference with a name similar to that variable. I couldn't find one in my list, but maybe it'll be in your since you are having this trouble,

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About%3Aconfig



Hi - thanks for the response. Yes - both NAS and PC's are time synched.

I did check about:config - no dice.
DC Chris
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Joined: November 5th, 2013, 2:41 pm

Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by DC Chris »

mightyglydd wrote:
Does anyone know what the trigger

This? :roll:

http://www.ghacks.net/2013/10/27/reset- ... x-61-days/


Hi - yeah... that is about all I could find on it other than the bugzilla report listed inside of that article. I tried to find the setting they talked about but to no avail. It looked like they had some bugs making it fire. It seems like my situation makes it fire all the time!

Chris.
DC Chris
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by DC Chris »

smsmith wrote:How close are all of those computers in time and date? Are they all current?

You can try looking in about:config to see if there is a preference with a name similar to that variable. I couldn't find one in my list, but maybe it'll be in your since you are having this trouble,

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About%3Aconfig


I should also say it worked beautifully until the FF25.0 upgrade ever since... well ... forever for me. :)

Right now for figuring this out, I am only using my main PC and my profile on the NAS... I am not bringing in anything else into the equation.
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dfoulkes
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by dfoulkes »

If you visit each computer and start up Firefox... do you get that message on all of them?... or, just some?
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mightyglydd
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by mightyglydd »

Hmm, most Bug Reports are pretty much gobbledygook to me, perhaps someone could interpret ?

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=498181

Why am I not surprised this was a Neckbeard idea.
#KeepFightingMichael and Alex.
groovix
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by groovix »

First a rant:
This "feature" has been problematic for me since I save firefox profiles that are restored at every login. First of all, when you make a crazy new feature you should always have a way to turn it off. Secondly, I think this "feature" is going to lead to more problems than it solves. I fail to understand how not using firefox for 60 days should require a reset. If anything, there should just be an option to perform that reset in the menu somewhere and people can do a reset when they notice a problem.

And now the workaround:
After several hours of online research and digging through the source code I found out how it works. It should have been implemented with some variable in prefs.js that can be changed or overridden, but instead it keys off the filesystem timestamp of the .parentlock file in the user profile directory (at least on Linux). I can see this causing problems in many scenarios.

So I am preventing that message with a simple touch (linux command) of the .parentlock file (updating the file's modification time). I don't know why the file modification time is getting screwed up over your NAS, but hopefully you can use this information to create a workaround.
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James
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by James »

groovix wrote:First of all, when you make a crazy new feature you should always have a way to turn it off.

mozillaZine is not Mozilla so we did not do this.
groovix
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by groovix »

mozillaZine is not Mozilla so we did not do this.[/quote]

I understand that mozillazine is not Mozilla or the author of the patch implementing this feature. I guess I could have written "when somebody makes a crazy new feature, they should always have a way to turn it off". It was just a rant venting some steam, I guess in the hopes that anyone writing future features (not mozillazine itself of course, but potential readers of mozillazine) not repeat the same mistakes.
DC Chris
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by DC Chris »

groovix wrote:First a rant:
This "feature" has been problematic for me since I save firefox profiles that are restored at every login. First of all, when you make a crazy new feature you should always have a way to turn it off. Secondly, I think this "feature" is going to lead to more problems than it solves. I fail to understand how not using firefox for 60 days should require a reset. If anything, there should just be an option to perform that reset in the menu somewhere and people can do a reset when they notice a problem.

And now the workaround:
After several hours of online research and digging through the source code I found out how it works. It should have been implemented with some variable in prefs.js that can be changed or overridden, but instead it keys off the filesystem timestamp of the .parentlock file in the user profile directory (at least on Linux). I can see this causing problems in many scenarios.

So I am preventing that message with a simple touch (linux command) of the .parentlock file (updating the file's modification time). I don't know why the file modification time is getting screwed up over your NAS, but hopefully you can use this information to create a workaround.


Groovix - you hit the nail on the head. I always thought a parent.lock file (I am on windows, but the profile is on a Linux NAS) was created during the start of the session and deleted at the end, I apparently had one dated 24 hours ago (???) so I deleted it. So far over a few minutes of testing and restarts- no message. Thank you for finding the root cause.

Also - I agree about the ability to mute a feature like this. I will report back. Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. I really appreciate it!

Chris.
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patrickjdempsey
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by patrickjdempsey »

I'm not sure I even remotely understand what the point of this is... why does it matter if your browsing data isn't "contemporary" and how does throwing out people's settings and removing their extensions and customizations help get their browsing data "up to date"? Here's to hoping the SeaMonkey folks break this "feature" for their builds.
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mightyglydd
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by mightyglydd »

Assuming this is a main release feature, not just for Builds......??
Imagine, you customize Grandma's Firefox so she can comfortably use it.
She doesn't use the PC for 60 days, fires it up and receives that daft message/warning, wanna bet she'll click Reset and then be presented with something unusable, completely alien to her, ridiculous, as is everything that Dotzler 'evangelizes'.
#KeepFightingMichael and Alex.
verco
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Re: It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while....

Post by verco »

It sounded like the justification was meant to be - you've installed a bad combination of extensions, or more likely a browser hijack in your Firefox profile, so you don't like Firefox anymore and switch to another browser. Time passes and you try Firefox again, but since the profile is still there the hjiacks are still there, so you stick with the other browser.
However, it seems like especially if this feature gets false positives when it hasn't been 60 days, it will hurt more people than it helps. A more direct method of blocklisting or even asking if users want to undo hijacks seems like it would be more effective, but it took many years of neglect before anything was done about the hijack situation, and the "best" they could come up with is the removal of the keyword.url feature.
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