FF Quantum 67.0 does not load smoothly; using taskbar icon allows page to load/switch
The question is vague, but I don't know how to describe it better. Since updating to 67.0 Quantum, and until last night, when I started FF, the toolbars showed up, but the main page was blank. If I clicked on the home icon, my start page (news.google.com) loaded fine, and away I went.
Yesterday, in an attempt to fix the above, I uninstalled and reinstalled FF. Since I did that, the following happens:
- Starting FF shows a completely blank page. - Pressing the FF icon on the taskbar so that FF minimizes and then expands shows the toolbar. - Pressing the FF icon on the taskbar again as above loads my home page. - At this point, I can access the settings menu, but clicking anywhere else on the page does nothing, until - I press the FF icon on the taskbar to minimize and expand switches to whatever I've clicked on.
The same thing happens typing URLs in to the address bar. If I drag to highlight, I have to minimize/expand FF to show the highlighting; when I type in a new address, I have to minimize/expand FF to go to the new address - and I have to go through the same minimize/expand dance with the taskbar icon.
It's like I'm having to load individual frames of a movie, rather than the movie running smoothly.
And, to make it even more fun, when I start with add-ons disabled, FF works fine.
I have uninstalled, downloaded and reinstalled multiple times, including as administrator; I have refreshed multiple times with no success. I have disabled the few addons and extensions that are installed in my FF and restarted, with no success. I also updated my IS suite (Norton) and removed and re-added FF to my trusted list.
I am not having this issue with other browsers.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Chosen solution
jscher2000 - Thank you!
I had no idea that the clear cookies and site data/clear history selection was a problem - I'm not certain, but I think I've had them both selected for years. It was only recently that I started having problems.
Anyway, I disabled the "delete cookies and site data," restarted, and voila! things work as normal!
The only extension I have, adblock plus, installed fine, and the Cisco OpenH264 video codec and Widevine content decryption started just fine.
Thank you again - after dealing with Chrome for the past couple of days, I'm glad to have my FF back!
RichM
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Hi RichM64, that's a lot of symptoms to think about.
Before the reinstall, when you had the blank home page problem, I could have told you about this --
Custom home page not shown with this combination of settings:
(1) "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed"
- set in Options > Privacy & Security > Cookies section
- about:config => network.cookie.lifetimePolicy => 2 (modified)
(2) "Clear history when Firefox closes"
- set in Options > Privacy & Security > History section, with "Firefox will: Use custom settings for history" selected to show detailed options
- about config => privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown => true (modified)
If either of those has its default value, the problem does not occur, they need to both be set to cause the problem. Note for anyone testing it: the custom home page may load on the first restart, it stops loading on the second and later restarts. A fix is in development for a later update.
However, what you're describing after the reinstall is very puzzling. Here's what's different when you restart with add-ons disabled (start in Firefox's Safe Mode):
- all extensions are disabled
- hardware acceleration is disabled (can work around incompatibilities with graphics card/chipset driver software)
- userChrome.css and userContent.css files are disabled (if you use those)
- JavaScript compilers are disabled
If you don't think an extension is the problem, you could try disabling Firefox from using hardware acceleration in regular mode. This article describes where to make that change: Firefox's performance settings. This will take effect the next time you exit Firefox and start it up again. Any difference?
Since hardware acceleration improves the appearance of fonts and animations, you may want to check whether graphics card/chipset driver updates are available for your system. This article suggests safe ways to do that: Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL.
Chosen Solution
jscher2000 - Thank you!
I had no idea that the clear cookies and site data/clear history selection was a problem - I'm not certain, but I think I've had them both selected for years. It was only recently that I started having problems.
Anyway, I disabled the "delete cookies and site data," restarted, and voila! things work as normal!
The only extension I have, adblock plus, installed fine, and the Cisco OpenH264 video codec and Widevine content decryption started just fine.
Thank you again - after dealing with Chrome for the past couple of days, I'm glad to have my FF back!
RichM
Hi RichM64, there was a change in how shutdown works in Firefox 67, and when both of those options are selected, it can cause some of the work to be done at the next startup, which messes up the home page loading. There is a fix in the works.