MetaChat - Don't make me go back to Internet Explorer!

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28 June 2005

Don't make me go back to Internet Explorer! →[More:]I had to reinstall firefox, which has been running fine all along on my computer. I had some other troubles, and had to reinstall a few things. Now I can't make any changes to prefs that are permanent. I can collapse the toolbars and change my home page and make bookmark folders and save to the folders, but only as long as the browser's open. As soon as I close it, all prefs default back, and I have no idea why. When I make a change, I get a message saying 'failed to save the preferences file. Any preference changes made will be lost at the end of this session'. I've googled this error message and there were only about 20 results, and most of them said something along the lines of "yeah this is a well-known bug". But apparently it's not that well-known, or there would be a patch, hm? Anyone know what I could do to work around this thing? I can't stand the thought of not having tabbed browsing anymore. I've redownloaded it once, and reinstalled it 3x, and the same thing keeps happening. Help?

post by: iconomy at: 15:44 | 17 comments

Did you do a complete reinstall? Backup your bookmarks and then delete your profile and then reinstall and all that jazz? Or are you just reinstalling a new copy of Firefox over your existing profile? Because I had some problems saving bookmarks a while back and had to competely clean everything out and delete my old profile to get the new copy to work correctly. If you have then done that then I don't know what to tell you. But I'm sure some browser whiz will be along soon to add more.

posted by LeeJay 28 June | 15:53

I jus had the same problem on the latest install with win2K. Rebooting seems to have fixed it.

posted by loquacious 28 June | 17:21

I did reboot...at least 3 or 4 times, darn it. Rebooting is my lazy cure-all for everything too, but this time, no dice.

Hmm I like the profile idea! I've totally removed firefox and totally done a clean install a few times, yep. But I think I'll dig around in the folders and see what's up with the profile settings...thanks, LeeJay.

posted by iconomy 28 June | 17:35

I have a similar problem in that I am unable to download any updates to Firefox - when I try to,the installer says it is installing version 0.8 and then the whole thing just turns to shit. I (temporarily) fixed the problem by copying the program files from another computer, which got it working again, but have not been able to get it to an updateable state, even by going through the registry and deleting any keys that seem remotely related to Firefox. I am just working up the courage to do a complete XP re-install, which I hate doing.

Umm, that has nothing whatsoever to do with your question, does it? Sorry. It is most likely something stored in your profile, as LeeJay says. Perhaps a file has become read-only for some reason, which not only stops you changing preferences, but also prevents the re-install from overwriting it.

posted by dg 28 June | 17:45

Perhaps a file has become read-only for some reason, which not only stops you changing preferences, but also prevents the re-install from overwriting it.

I think that's it. Mucking about in the profile, and following the suggestions on the mozilla site itself, have done nothing. If I knew how to change the permissions, maybe (I don't)? I tried editing the bookmarks file. I closed firefox, deleted a few of the default bookmarks in the file, saved, opened firefox again, and the bookmarks were still there. So frustrating!

dg, I've reinstalled xp about 20 times. Unfortunately. It gets easier... I think??

posted by iconomy 28 June | 17:57

You may need to login as admin (if you aren't admin), right click on the firefox profile folder and add your user account under the security tab giving full control.

how you've ended up in that state though is another story!

posted by dodgygeezer 28 June | 18:06

To change permissions, right-click on the file and choose "properties" - you should see a row of boxes along the bottom of the window that pops up, one of which says "read-only" - this should not be selected. Probably a long shot, but worth a try.

I installed and re-installed XP probably 200 times during my stint as an IT Manager (and Win 3.1/95/98/NT even more), but have always shied away from doing it on my own computer. I am not sure why, but I think I get comfortable with the way things are set up and hate to have to arrange everything again. Plus, it is easy not to care if you forget to save someone else's bookmarks before formatting the drive, but not so easy when it is your own.

posted by dg 28 June | 18:06

Have you tried completely wiping out your profile and starting from scratch? (Not just uninstalling Firefox, but deleting the profile in \Documents and Settings\iconomy\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles?

posted by bugbread 28 June | 18:07

I'm getting excited now. I right-clicked on the Profiles folder, and the Read-Only box was checked! So I uncheck it, click Apply and then OK, but when I look again, the Read-Only box is once again checked. It rechecks itself. I don't see a security tab, though. Funny that you clued in on the admin thing, dodgy - I've been having some weird things happening with that, as well. For example, I couldn't install iTunes from my desktop, I could only install it if I dragged the setup icon into my admin folder. But for some reason, my computer is not recognizing me as the admin anymore, even though I am, and I'm the only person who has an account on it. Gah.

Also, the folder is here: c/iconomy/program files/mozilla firefox/defaults/profile...that is the right profile folder, right? There aren't two of them....?

(that would really be embarrassing...)

posted by iconomy 28 June | 18:23

Nope, that's probably not your profile folder. I think that's the base folder that it then makes copies of for each person who sets up a firefox account. Unless you specified otherwise (very unusual but not unheard of) your profile folder is in Docs'n'Settings...

posted by bugbread 28 June | 18:26

Aha...my User Account folder is empty...it disappeared. I know it's there somewhere but it's not showing up. And when I pop up my Start Menu, at the top there's usually my name and an avatar (win xp) but right now it's empty. I'll bet if I reboot, get the user info back, and try to uncheck that Read-Only box, it'll work. Here goes...thanks for all of the help so far! The comments you guys are making are really helping, even though you don't think that they are.

On preview: Bugbread, thanks! That Profiles folder has Read-Only checked as well, and the same thing's happening - it rechecks itself. I'm going to reboot.

(I had no idea there were two)

posted by iconomy 28 June | 18:32

(fingers crossed for you)

posted by bugbread 28 June | 18:41

Y A Y!

Hugs and kisses and butter for all!

Really - youse guys are the bestest ;)

posted by iconomy 28 June | 18:47

I take it everything is peachy and keenlike?

posted by bugbread 28 June | 18:56

Woohoo! *throws confetti*

posted by LeeJay 28 June | 19:26

Yes, thank you - once again peace reigned throughout the land. It was very cool how every person in this thread added one little piece to the puzzle!

posted by iconomy 28 June | 20:04

Mecha rok starz rool!

posted by taz 28 June | 23:05

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