In regards to your question about the Firefox logo:
The Firefox icon was recently changed to fit in more with the current logo trend.
Most logos now have little outlining.

You can review more release notes here.

This list includes most changes and patches to Firefox.

This doesn't answer most of the concerns in my question. And as for the logo, why is it the more standard Firefox icon in the update and app package and a different one in the final download?

Try the solution from this thread for the pencil icon on Mac:

• [/questions/883573]

• Delete the Firefox icon from the dock.
• Create a new icon by dragging the Firefox application to the dock.

On Mac you can close all open windows and still have the menu bar visible.
If you close the menu bar in this situation then Firefox won't reopen the tabs from the last closed window the next time.

Use "Firefox > Quit Firefox" to close Firefox with all currently open windows.

I already tried deleting the icon from my dock and dragging the Firefox application to the dock from the Applications folder, but that doesn't change the appearance of the Firefox icon. In fact, it has that same pencil, brush and ruler icon in the Applications folder, which is not the way it has been in the past with previous versions.

Please refer back to my original post for the other, more important aspects of my problem with the functioning of the browser these days.

You can try to drag Firefox off the dock and uninstall Firefox (drag the Firefox application to the trash) to do a clean reinstall.

You can find the full version of the latest Firefox 26.0 release in all languages and for all Operating Systems here:

• http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html

You can also try to remove the Firefox plist file (org.mozilla.firefox.plist).

• http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060606082246983 How .plist files become corrupt and troubleshooting the results

Go to "~/Library/Preferences" and remove the plist file for Firefox (org.mozilla.firefox.plist)

Cor-el, If I do either of those procedures, do I risk losing all bookmarks and settings? I wouldn't want to lose those at this point. Thanks.

Tim

Your personal data is stored elsewhere in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data when you uninstall and (re)install Firefox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Backing+up+your+information

Thanks, that seemed to restore the icon to its more standard Firefox appearance. But the browser still doesn't open its main page when I click on an active Firefox icon in the dock. It shows the Firefox menu bar at the top but doesn't open a Firefox/Google page or anything else unless I click on something in the menu bar or close out of the app in the dock and then reopen it again. This is strange, and not the way it's worked in the past.

You can try to disable IPv6 in Firefox.

See this mozillaZine knowledge base article for more suggestions:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites

You can also try to reset (power off/on) the router.

I looked at the link, and it didn't seem as if the browser issues I'm describing are ones that are to be fixed with those methods. I don't see this problem as an "error loading websites" since I don't have the problem loading any of the usual web pages, just initiating the main Firefox page upon opening. I'm not a tech person and find this baffling that the browser is failing to work as it did before.

Thanks for the assistance.