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Spinner box controls not displaying

  • 18 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by tomlut

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One installation of Firefox 38.0.5 on windows 8.1 does not display spinner box controls (see attached image). They are there but with 1 or 2 pix height as clicking the grey bar sometimes increases and sometimes decreases the numeric value.

Tried creating a new profile with no addons. Same problem. Haven't tried reinstalling Firefox yet.

This is not a problem with the website as this occurs on all sites with this type of form element.

It is also probably not a Firefox bug as I have Firefox 38.0.5 on Windows 7 at work that displays these form elements correctly.

Zoom (Ctrl +/-) does not change the erroneous appearance of the controls.

Any idea how to fix this?

One installation of Firefox 38.0.5 on windows 8.1 does not display spinner box controls (see attached image). They are there but with 1 or 2 pix height as clicking the grey bar sometimes increases and sometimes decreases the numeric value. Tried creating a new profile with no addons. Same problem. Haven't tried reinstalling Firefox yet. This is not a problem with the website as this occurs on all sites with this type of form element. It is also probably not a Firefox bug as I have Firefox 38.0.5 on Windows 7 at work that displays these form elements correctly. Zoom (Ctrl +/-) does not change the erroneous appearance of the controls. Any idea how to fix this?
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

You can try a different Windows them is case Firefox has a problem with the theme you currently use.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (18)

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Hello,

Starting in Firefox 23, if a secure page includes certain types of insecure content, Firefox blocks the insecure content and a shield icon will appear in the address bar. See this article for more information about the new mixed content blocker: Mixed content blocking in Firefox

To temporarily allow the mixed content to be displayed:

  • Click the shield icon Mixed Content Shield in the address bar and choose Disable Protection on This Page from the dropdown menu.
    Fx23MixedContentBlocker

To allow insecure content to be displayed in all secure pages, enter about:config in the address bar and double-click on this preference, to toggle it from true to false:

security.mixed_content.block_active_content

You can also use this add-on instead, to toggle the preference:

You may want to do this only for the current session, then reset the preference back to "true" and check back with the site to see whether it's been fixed, since this is a global setting that exposes you on all sites, not just the one you care about.

Let us know if this helps!

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Thanks but it is happening on unencrypted sites.

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Make sure that you allow pages to choose their own fonts.

  • Tools > Options > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced: [X] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"

You can open the Web Console (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer). Check on the Network tab if content like font files from a specific domain is blocked and has a file size 0 (zero).

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Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately the "Allow pages to choose their own fonts" box is checked and using the console to inspect the files as you described revealed that they have all downloaded ok.

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Can you post a link to a publicly accessible page (i.e. no authentication or signing on required)?

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Certainly, try this one: http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp?

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Works fine here.

That are input elements of type=number.


Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window
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Trtied that already by creating a whole new profile with no addons. But just in case I restarted in safe mode with the default theme enabled. No luck the spinners still arent visible in the number fields.

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Maybe one of Firefox's program files got damaged? You could try:

Clean Reinstall

We use this name, but it's not about removing your settings, it's about making sure the program files are clean (no inconsistent or alien code files). As described below, this process does not disturb your existing settings. Do NOT uninstall Firefox, that's not needed.

(1) Download a fresh installer for Firefox 38.0.5 from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ to a convenient location. (Scroll down to your preferred language.)

(2) Exit out of Firefox (if applicable).

(3) Rename the program folder, either:

64-bit Windows Vista/7/8

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox

Windows XP and 32-bit Vista/7

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files\OldFirefox

(4) Run the installer you downloaded in #1. It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

Does a cleanly reinstalled Firefox display the controls normally?

Note: Some plugins may exist only in that OldFirefox folder. If something essential is missing, look in these folders:

  • \OldFirefox\Plugins
  • \OldFirefox\browser\plugins
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Thanks for the suggestion. I couldn't find my (x86) program files folder until I remembered windows hides it. Renamed the Mozilla directory with my browser closed and did a fresh install. Unfortunately the controls are still not displayed.

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I just made a Mozbackup of my profile, uninstalled firefox and deleted the whole mozilla folder from my [user]\AppData\Roaming directory.

I reinstalled Firefox (without restoring the backup) so this should be a brand new vanilla installation. The problem still exists! Gah!

Totally stumped.

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Maybe some obscure registry setting that was not removed during uninstallation?

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Chosen Solution

You can try a different Windows them is case Firefox has a problem with the theme you currently use.

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It's hard to think of a reason for the buttons to be crushed together like that. On mine, the button height is 8px, including border and padding, which is very tiny, but does not seem to vary depending on zoom. I can't tell where that is set, or why it might vary.

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cor-el said

You can try a different Windows them is case Firefox has a problem with the theme you currently use.

Bingo! Changed to a default windows theme and the spinner controls are back. Thank you.

Very odd though. The only thing I remember changing in my last windows theme was the desktop background.

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More info if anyone else has this problem. I was using a Sychronised windows theme (so my other PCs had the same desktop backgrounds). Now at some stage I disabled onedrive and this theme was also from a previous windows installation. Not sure if any of that was the problem but it has now been deleted.

Thanks to all that replied for your help and suggestions.

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jscher2000 said

It's hard to think of a reason for the buttons to be crushed together like that. On mine, the button height is 8px, including border and padding, which is very tiny, but does not seem to vary depending on zoom. I can't tell where that is set, or why it might vary.

Yeah there's a bug report about the padding and spinner size.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1024078

Hopefully it will be rectified at some stage.