FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
TheVisitor
Posts: 5469
Joined: May 13th, 2012, 10:43 am

Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by TheVisitor »

unbob wrote:
RobertJ wrote:.

Try using the profile manager to create a new temporary profile.

Profile Manager - Create, remove, or switch Firefox profiles

This may explain it. Again I know nothing about WIN.

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Profile Manager is non-functional also. See the screenshot below. Note that my current profile is not listed - only "default". How this is possible I have no idea. Also nothing is clickable on the Profile Manager window! So cannot create a new profile. ???????

Image
The 'Default' profile is the new name, don't recall when it changed, but that is your Profile.
Proceed as noted above and click on the 'create' new profile Give it name of your choice: Mytest or something
unbob
Posts: 143
Joined: December 13th, 2007, 9:43 am
Location: Merica

Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by unbob »

WaltS48 wrote:See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/de ... stallation

Do you have a userChrome.css file? Try disabling that and restart Firefox once you get it working with the broken profile again.
No userChrome.css file in profile folder.
Ortho_Fan
Posts: 266
Joined: December 7th, 2012, 4:49 pm

Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by Ortho_Fan »

Okay, I don't know if this will work or not, and I'm no Windows Guru. In fact, I'm just learning my way around my newly installed Windows 10.

That said, several years ago, I made some tweaky changes to Firefox's About:Config page at the suggestion of a friend, to maximize its performance. When I tried to re-start Firefox, it wouldn't run at all. So, on a hunch, I did a Windows system restore for the time/date prior to when I made the changes, and was able to call up Firefox and it worked fine. None of the changes were in place.

I'm not sure if this will work with Windows 10, but it might be worth a try before completely reinstalling Firefox. If you try this, prior to opening Firefox, you'll probably want to go off line, and if it opens, untick all of the settings pertaining to automatically updating Firefox.

OrthoFan
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dickvl
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Joined: July 18th, 2005, 3:25 am

Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by dickvl »

You get the "Using an older version of Firefox can corrupt bookmarks and browsing history ..." message when you try to start Firefox with a profile that has been last used by a newer version.
You can possibly bypass this by starting Firefox with the -allow-downgrade command line switch.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Com ... ne_Options
unbob
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Joined: December 13th, 2007, 9:43 am
Location: Merica

Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by unbob »

dickvl wrote:You get the "Using an older version of Firefox can corrupt bookmarks and browsing history ..." message when you try to start Firefox with a profile that has been last used by a newer version.
You can possibly bypass this by starting Firefox with the -allow-downgrade command line switch.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Com ... ne_Options
Thank you for that useful information. Three comments:

1) The incompatibility of earlier version profiles prevents users from reverting to an earlier FF version without creating a new profile - and therefore losing all their current profile data which may have been built-up over a period of months or even years. That is potentially a huge problem.

2) As I mentioned earlier in this thread - why are FF users required to be IT gurus? The '-allow-downgrade' command line option is a good example. That was good information you provided but how would "Joeblow user" ever know about that possible solution? I could only stumble onto it or get lucky on a FF user forum.

3) Why did my problem described in this thread occur in the first place? I only replied "yes" to a FF update request. I've done that many times before without problem. How can I avoid the possibility of such an error occurring in the future? I can't. Unfortunately, I consider FF to be the "shakiest" and most unreliable piece of software I'm running - and that includes Windows 10 which is perhaps a thousand times more complex than FF. Utmost in my mind is how to reliably backup and recover every component of FF in the event something goes wrong. Something is seriously wrong with the implementation and management of FF software.
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mightyglydd
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Location: Hollywood Ca.

Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by mightyglydd »

Are you really using Fx72 or spoofing your UA?
unbob wrote: I consider FF to be the "shakiest" and most unreliable piece of software I'm running

Then use another browser, problem solved.....
#KeepFightingMichael and Alex.
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RobertJ
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Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by RobertJ »

unbob wrote: 3) Why did my problem described in this thread occur in the first place?
One reason this will occur is a corrupt profile. A profile can be corrupted in a number of ways. One I have seen a number of times is during shutdown. When quitting FF the process can take 10's of second to move data from temporary files to final files. If, you shut down your computer while this is happening the profile will be corrupted. Additionally, computers are not perfect; s**t happens.

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FF 92.0 - TB 78.13 - Mac OSX 10.13.6
unbob
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Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by unbob »

Ortho_Fan wrote:Okay, I don't know if this will work or not, and I'm no Windows Guru. In fact, I'm just learning my way around my newly installed Windows 10.

That said, several years ago, I made some tweaky changes to Firefox's About:Config page at the suggestion of a friend, to maximize its performance. When I tried to re-start Firefox, it wouldn't run at all. So, on a hunch, I did a Windows system restore for the time/date prior to when I made the changes, and was able to call up Firefox and it worked fine. None of the changes were in place.

I'm not sure if this will work with Windows 10, but it might be worth a try before completely reinstalling Firefox. If you try this, prior to opening Firefox, you'll probably want to go off line, and if it opens, untick all of the settings pertaining to automatically updating Firefox.

OrthoFan
Thanks! I considered restoring a Macrium Reflect image backup but instead was finally able to recover from my problem after repeated tries. However, for some unknown reason I ended up with FF being installed in 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox ESR\firefox.exe' (even though it's the 64-bit version and not ESR). In any case, I'm now running v72.0.1 successfully - until the next time there's a FF screw-up.
unbob
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Location: Merica

Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by unbob »

mightyglydd wrote:Are you really using Fx72 or spoofing your UA?
unbob wrote: I consider FF to be the "shakiest" and most unreliable piece of software I'm running

Then use another browser, problem solved.....
Yes, good advice. I do run Chrome and Opera for years with no problems whatsoever!
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RobertJ
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Re: FF v72.0.1 is completely non-functional - now what?

Post by RobertJ »

unbob wrote:I'm now running v72.0.1 successfully - until the next time there's a FF screw-up.
Or an operator screw up, or WIN10 hiccup, or ...........

.
FF 92.0 - TB 78.13 - Mac OSX 10.13.6
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