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Tab group editor does NOT open on FF 17.0.11

  • 13 ŋuɖoɖowo
  • 1 masɔmasɔ sia le esi
  • 2 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ pihmpdaddi

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My company got wise and finally migrated us from FF 3.xx to 17.0.11. Hooray! Now I can use the Tab Group Editor (aka Tab Candy) that I use at home. Unfortunately after adding the button to the toolbar, I can't get the editor to actually come up. The button "depresses" but nothing happens.

I have tried deleting the localstore.rdf, and starting in Safemode, neither has worked.

What could be causing the problem?

My company got wise and finally migrated us from FF 3.xx to 17.0.11. Hooray! Now I can use the Tab Group Editor (aka Tab Candy) that I use at home. Unfortunately after adding the button to the toolbar, I can't get the editor to actually come up. The button "depresses" but nothing happens. I have tried deleting the localstore.rdf, and starting in Safemode, neither has worked. What could be causing the problem?

pihmpdaddi trɔe

All Replies (13)

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The tab groups sent me here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session#w_troublesh...

However if you create a new profile and see if the issue persists as well. Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

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Also awesome for updating! I hope you use 26 soon too!

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guigs2,

I followed the links for "Tabs help" before I posted the question (even though i posted it wrong in the title).

I have no problems restoring the session tabs when I restart FF, and the best solution was to delete localstore.rdf, which I did to no effect.

The profile is practically brand new, essentially untouched except for a few preferences, no add-ons, no toolbars, etc. I don't believe creating a new profile will do anything different than the localstore.rdf.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

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Yes I know FF 17 is old. I cannot control what my company rolls out. That being said, Tabs worked just fine when I used 17 at home.

No, Shift+Cntl+E does not work either.

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Does this method work?

  • toggle the devtools.chrome.enabled pref to true on the about:config page.
  • open the Scratchpad (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer;Shift+F4)
  • select Browser in the Environment menu
  • paste this command in the Scratchpad editor window: TabView.toggle();
  • execute the command via: Execute > Run

You can reset the devtools.chrome.enabled pref to false afterward.


Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem.

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cor-el,

I would like to pursue this test, but in doing so I have found that my company has locked some prefs and specifically the devtools.chrome pref. I attached a screenshot of the locked prefs. Could one of these be causing the problem?

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The TabView.toggle(); code also works in the Browser Console (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer;Ctrl+Shift+J).

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I used the Web Console; Ctrl+shft+K (not J). The menu doesn't show Browser Console. If this is the same thing, when I enter the TabView.toggle(); command I get

ReferenceError: TabView is not defined

Now I think we're getting somewhere. Why is it not defined?

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The Web Console can't access built-in functions at chrome level and you need permission to run code at chrome level in this case.
That is why you need to set devtools.chrome.enabled pref to true and select the Browser environment in the Scratchpad. The default is to run code for web content only.

Does the Browser Console open via Ctrl+Shift+J or is this console disabled as well?

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No, no console opens when I use Ctrl+Shift+J and there is no menu option.

If I can get an admin to help, I would have to figure out how to unlock devtools.chrome.enabled pref. From what I'm reading, this seems to be pretty well controlled from .js files. Perhaps I can "run as...." an admin and it would give me access?

Any suggestions? And thanks for the help so far.

In the meantime I have brought my IT guy on board and am sending a question to my company's software deployment team.

pihmpdaddi trɔe

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Hi pihmpdaddi,

I just wanted to follow up to see how it went with the IT professional you contacted about this.

The folder that locks the preferences can be read about in Mozilla Zine: Locking Preferences http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences

localstore.rdf , you will need writing access to this file. The profile folder can be found in this article Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

Hope this helps.

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Thanks...I'm still waiting for a response from the IT dept. It could take a while.