Why does Firefox not store my preferred window height along with the window width and position?
When I open Firefox, the window appears where it was last opened and it is the same width as before. The window height, however, is much shorter. I do not use full screen mode; I do prefer the window to be the full height of the 23" monitor so I can see all the data. It has always annoyed me that IE can remember the last window height but Firefox can not.
All Replies (5)
You may have a corrupt xulstore.json file. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/changes-toolbars-and-window-sizes-are-not-saved
Try to rename (or delete) the xulstore.json file in the Firefox profile folder.
You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
FredMcD said
You may have a corrupt xulstore.json file. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/changes-toolbars-and-window-sizes-are-not-saved
cor-el said
Try to rename (or delete) the xulstore.json file in the Firefox profile folder. You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
Over the last 10 years, I have done a clean install on 4 different computers and have _never_ seen Firefox save the height information. I have tried all the troubleshooting suggestions to no avail. I have tried add-ons but it is quicker to resize the window with the cursor.
My question is: why do you bother saving the position and width info? If saving these parameters is useful to the users, why not save the height info as well? Sorry, that is 2 questions.
Firefox should save the height and width settings in the xulstore.json file and use this on the next start. I see this information:
"chrome://browser/content/browser.xul": {
"main-window": {
"screenY": "0",
"height": "991",
"sizemode": "normal",
"width": "1162",
"screenX": "0"
}}
A possible cause of this not working could be pop-up type windows or tabs.
You can toggle dom.disable_window_open_feature.* prefs to true on the about:config page to prevent websites from disabling new window features.
See also:
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.link.open_newwindow
- 1: current tab; 2:new window; 3:new tab;
For links opened via JavaScript you can look at this pref:
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
Modified by cor-el
cor-el said
Firefox should save the height and width settings in the xulstore.json file and use this on the next start. I see this information:"chrome://browser/content/browser.xul": { "main-window": { "screenY": "0", "height": "991", "sizemode": "normal", "width": "1162", "screenX": "0" }}A possible cause of this not working could be pop-up type windows or tabs.
You can toggle dom.disable_window_open_feature.* prefs to true on the about:config page to prevent websites from disabling new window features.
See also:
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.link.open_newwindow
- 1: current tab; 2:new window; 3:new tab;
For links opened via JavaScript you can look at this pref:
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
Thank you for your suggestions Cor-el. I went through most of them without resolving the problem. Then I noticed that the file xulstore.json was not updating when I closed a window with a height of 1080 and then opened a new one that had a shorter height of 728: 1. I opened a new window from desktop icon – home page is blank, the previous Firefox window had been annoyingly short so the file xulstore.json had the actual size of the window "main-window": {
"width":"848", "height":"728", "screenX":"1429", "screenY":"0", "sizemode":"normal"}
2. I resized the window using the cursor to drag the bottom edge down and the file immediately updated to read
"height":"1082"
3. I closed the window, the file did not update. 4. I opened a new window which was definitely not the same height as the one I closed. The file had not updated since the last resizing and still read
"height":"1082"
5. I selected a webpage from the bookmarks - oops, the file updated to show the current size:
"height":"728"
Then I realized the "height":"728" was perfect for the primary monitor on my laptop (17" screen) , even though I always use the axillary 23" monitor for the browser.
My conclusions:
- 1 Firefox does store the browser size and position correctly.
- 2 The function that opens the window incorrectly overrides that information and calculates a new size based on the primary monitor that is not used to display the window.
Other browsers get it right, so Firefox should too!