Sorry to hear about the problem.

What website is on your new tab page now? If the address does not show in the address bar, you can pull it out using the Page Info dialog. Either:

• right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank area of the page and choose View Page Info
• (menu bar) Tools > Page Info

On that "General" tab, you can triple-click the address to select it and then copy it using Ctrl+c.

One possible culprit would be an extension. You can view, disable, and often remove unwanted or unknown extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then cast a critical eye over the list on the right side. All extensions are optional. If in doubt, disable.

Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.

Any improvement?

This is what I get when I click on New Tab. http://search.directionsandmap.com/?uid=2decf913-d9cd-41d5-82fe-486b8b604a76&uc=20170501&ap=appfocus1&source=g-c

I do NOT have a Tools option on the menu bar.

When I click on New Tab, I want a blank, and I want to see my nine pre-selected Favorites that used to show up on my monitor.

Thanks for trying to help.

You can open the Scratchpad (Shift+F4) and run the below posted code to check the current new tab page. Open the Environment menu and select Browser to run the code in Browser environment.

• paste this code in the editor area.
• click Run to run this code.
• click Inspect to see the result.

Components.utils.import("resource:///modules/NewTabURL.jsm");
NewTabURL.get();

See also:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/Tools/Scratchpad

jozone said

I do NOT have a Tools option on the menu bar.

Are you displaying the classic menu bar -- File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, Help ? If not, tap the Alt key or the F10 function key to display it temporarily.

But you can view the Add-ons page without using the Tools menu... anything listed under Extensions that you don't remember installing?

See:

• https://malwaretips.com/blogs/?s=directionsandmap

none of this helps. When I click on NEW TAB, I get a LONG address in the address bar...http://search.directionsandmap.com/?uid=2decf913-d9cd-41d5-82fe-486b8b604a76&uc=20170501&ap=appfocus1&source=g-ccc1-googlesearch-bb8&page=newtab&implementation_id=maps_4.0.

I do NOT want this. First thing to do is get rid of this, so I have a blank address bar.

Then, I can lament the fact that my saved preferences are gone...apparently forever. I will change to Chrome or something if I can't get them back.

Thanks for whatever help you can give me.

No unwanted add-ons or extensions.

jozone said

No unwanted add-ons or extensions.

Could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement? (More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode)

jozone said

Then, I can lament the fact that my saved preferences are gone...apparently forever.

Do you mean settings like your home page, privacy preferences, etc.? You said "I didn't do anything" but did you notice any system events (software updates or installations) or severe Firefox crashes? Here's a general checklist for unexplained settings loss:

The most likely scenarios are:

(1) A Refresh occurred but the migration of data from your old profile to your new profile was incomplete, or
(2) Your old profile was locked, so Firefox ignored it and created a new one

Here's how to investigate those two possibilities:

Did Firefox perform a Refresh?

Unless it was interrupted in progress, you should find a folder on your desktop named Old Firefox Data. Inside would be a semi-randomly-named folder with freshly updated files. Do you see anything like that?

If not...

Does the Profile Manager list your immediately previous profile folder?

To check on that, inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list all the profiles Firefox is currently aware of. If you see a profile that is not currently set as default that looks promising, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the other profile. Is that the right one?

If it's not there...

Did Firefox orphan your old profile folder?

Here's how to check whether there are additional profile folders in the standard location in addition to the one you're using. Start by opening your current Firefox profile folder using either:

* "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
* (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
* type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the first table on the page, click:

* Windows: the "Open Folder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.
* Mac: the "Show in Finder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Finder.

In the Windows Explorer address bar, click the capitalized word Profiles to move up one level in the folder hierarchy. More than one folder here by any chance? Do the files in those folders look like they were last updated around the time of the update?

(Mac users: please do what you need to do in Finder to check up one level...)

If you've got any promising looking folders, we can discuss next steps to recover use of them.

FINALLY! YES! perfect in safe mode, so now what to do?

Usually if all is well in Firefox's Safe Mode, one of your extensions is the culprit. Even though you recognized and took responsibility for installing or enabling all the extensions you saw on the Add-ons page, one of them may be deceptive. Could share your list of extensions with us? In order to include all hidden extensions, I suggest doing that this way:

Open the Troubleshooting Information page using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter/Return

Then scroll down to Extensions and just below that heading, select the table with your mouse and copy it (either Ctrl+c or right-click > Copy), then paste it into a reply (either Ctrl+v or right-click > Paste). It will look a bit messy, but we're used to it. Thanks.

Unable to follow your instructions exactly, bc I do not have a ? button, nor troubleshooting. These are the add-ons I see:

Adobe Acrobat DC-Create PDF Dragon Web Extension Maps Pin It button Roboform Toolbar.

That's it.

For future reference, the "?" button is at the bottom of the menu next to the "Customize" button.

"Maps" jumps out at me at something that could be associated with a mapping page. Did you try disabling that one?

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That did it! I have NO idea what maps is or how it became an add-on, but I removed it! Problem solved...much appreciated!