My add-ons stop working, tabs appear suggesting I add them
On the upper right of the browser are icons for several add-ons. For the past couple of days, I have opened and closed Firefox (41.0.2) several times during the course of a day. It seems like every fifth or sixth opening of the browser my screen fills with several tabs, each one suggesting I add a specific add-on (add-ons that are supposedly already installed), and if I just close those tabs, none of the add-ons are operating, and their icons have disappeared from the menu bar. If I go through the process of adding in all the add-ons again, they soon disappear and my screen is full of the tabs suggesting I add them. I have uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled it; add-ons again disappeared. I have uninstalled Firefox and my profile, reinstalling and creating a new profile; add-ons again disappeared. This all started happening after I installed a program designed to create flip books; the program did not do what I needed, so I uninstalled it. Immediately, Firefox, IE and Chrome opened to a new home page (Yahoo search) even though I had not changed my home page. I changed all the home pages back to what they were, and that seems to have stuck. This may be coincidence, but maybe it isn't. Anyone have any ideas; am I missing something obvious?
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What security software do you have?
Sounds that some files get corrupted or aren't updated properly.
It is possible that there is a problem with the file(s) that store the extensions registry.
Delete the extensions.* files (e.g. extensions.json, extensions.sqlite, extensions.ini) and compatibility.ini in the Firefox profile folder to reset the extensions registry.
New files will be created when required.
See "Corrupt extension files":
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_install_themes_or_extensions
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Unable+to+install+add-ons
If you see disabled or not compatible extensions in "Firefox menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" then click the Tools button at the left end of the Search bar to check if there is a compatibility update available.
If this didn't help then also delete the addons.json file and possibly prefs.js to reset the prefs.
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
All good suggestions, but no change. I even got rid of most of the apps in case one was bad. I'm now down to two. I ran Norton on the registry and found a couple of extension problems, but that still didn't fix things. BTW, running Windows 7, Firefox is latest update.
A further follow-up: It now seems as if timing has something to do with it, i.e. how long between sessions with Firefox. If there's a long time gap between uses of Firefox, more likely for the add-ons to disappear and to see a request to add the add-on. Also, when I do reinstall, as well as Firefox opening, a tab remains visible on top, but when I click on it to open it, it disappears.
You can check for problems with the sessionstore.js file in the Firefox profile folder that stores session data. When sessionstore.js is deleted you lose App Tabs and Tab Groups and open tabs and you will have to recreate them, so if necessary make a note or bookmark them.
You can also try to delete the prefs.js file.
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
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problem.
See "Creating a profile":
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.