How often should a cloned Firefox profile in a company environment be refreshed?
I'm not sure why, but several users in my company had Firefox blow up first thing in the morning. I suspect an issue with the Firefox App Data profile, but it is uncertain if anything was wrong with the profile itself, something that saved in the profile after the fact, or something in tandem caused Firefox to crash.
We operate only in a Windows environment. Our version we current deploy via GPO is 40.0. We only update Firefox if our software development team recommends an upgrade to address compatibility issues with our internal websites, and we have used this version since October 2015. We duplicate the App Data profile into the hidden Default User directory so the profile clone is mapped to anyone logging into the computer for the first time. We've essentially been using the same profile since version 28.0, and only making minor updates in the configuration settings without any refreshing form Firefox.
When the crashing began, our users either stated Firefox would either continuously load or have the plugin container report a problem and crash. Restarting computers, testing Firefox in Safe Mode, choosing the Firefox Refresh option, and clearing Internet cache didn't help, but testing Firefox as an admin account worked without any issues. I did notice most users showed an available update for software, such as Adobe Reader or Java, but there were a few that didn't have anything pending. If I uninstalled the pending software for those that had it, Firefox would work until I reinstalled the same software. Reinstalling Firefox didn't work either. If I either have Firefox rebuild the profile or I revert to our default clone profile, the issue goes away.
Everything had been working just fine for users last week, and we did not push any software or updates to computers over the weekend. My guess: something had been cached in the profile folder that expired after 'x' amount of time and caused problems across the board. Am I on the right track? Is there something else we should be or not be doing in this scenario to avoid this sort of problem? This is the first major issue where I had to access each computer and resolve the issue on a per user basis.
I can provide any other information that might be helpful. I have backups of the problematic profiles if reviewing those would be helpful, but my attempts to recreate the scenario with those same profiles have so far been uneventful. Also any other advice for managing and deploying Firefox in a corporate environment would be helpful. Our setup had been working great up until today. Thanks in advance for your help.
Alle svar (20)
On each of the crashed computers, do the following; (Please separate the reports by; system 1, system 2 . . . .)
In the address bar, type about:crashes<enter>. Note: If any reports do not have BP in front of the numbers/letters, click it to submit them.
The crash report is several pages of data. We need the report numbers to see the whole report.
Using your mouse, mark the most resent 7 - 10 crash reports, and copy them. Now go to the reply box below and paste them in.
Some of your crash reports weren’t sent to the Mozilla Servers.
These can't get your data back, but will help in the future.
These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox
FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) {web link} FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backups of files that you choose.
OPIE {web link} Import/Export extension preferences
Please inform your software development team; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/update-firefox-latest-version 46.0.1
It says Firefox 40 in the System Detail list, but the user agent shows a Firefox 45 version.
Is that the Firefox 45.1.1 esr release and on what release channel are the other users?
- Help > Troubleshooting Information
- https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/
What files are in the cloned profile?
Note the the hardware acceleration setting is stored as a pref in the prefs.js file and this file also stores the plugin state settings like "Never Activate" or "Ask to Activate".
FredMcD:
I am unable to access the crashed reports from the old profiles because Firefox will not launch. Reverting back to our original clone profile won't show the crash reports of the old profile. Is there another method you would advise for extracting that data. We had at least 20 people report this issue yesterday.
cor-el:
Yes, our users currently use 40.0. The user agent picked up my version, which I usually keep relatively updated to test our in-house software.
We clone the profiles mostly to distribute the following about:config properties:
browser.cache.memory.capacity;65536 browser.cache.memory.enable;false browser.cache.memory.max_entry_size;15000 content.interrupt.parsing;true content.max.tokenizing.time;2250000 content.notify.interval;750000 content.notify.ontimer;true content.switch.threshold;750000 dom.popup_maximum;999999999 dom.successive_dialog_time_limit;0 network.dns.disableIPv6;true network.http.pipelining;false network.http.pipelining.maxrequests;8 network.http.proxy.pipelining;false network.http.use-cache;false nglayout.initialpaint.delay;0
Also, we disable Firefox's ability to allow updates via GPO.
If you can't get Firefox to open, you will have to do this the hard way. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozillacrashreporter Open the file browser / explorer on your computer. Note: You may have to enable Show Hidden Folders / Files. Enter this in the address bar;
Windows: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Crash Reports\submitted Win 7/Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Crash Reports\submitted Win XP/2000: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Crash Reports\submitted
Mac OS: /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Crash Reports/submitted Linux: /home/<username>/.mozilla/firefox/Crash Reports/submitted
Copy the last 5-7 Recent File Names in the folder. Post the information in the reply box below.
Remember to group the reports; system 1, system 2 . . . . .
Note that it is normally not recommended to modify prefs like nglayout.initialpaint.delay (0) as this causes extra reflow actions. The defaults of most prefs are chosen so then do not have negative effects on the performance (speed) in most cases. Changes like you make might work on some pages, but may impact the performance on other cases. I also see that you have disabled some caches. I'm not sure why you are disabling the memory cache and the HTTP cache. I'm not seeing any pref apart from network.dns.disableIPv6 = true that would be useful. Others like pipelining are either default or are unnecessary (known tweaking prefs that can have negative impact are best left at their default).
FredMcD:
Not all computers with Firefox issues failed to the point of generating reports. Here's what I've been able to gather.
System 1 bp-c5743cd8-6fcd-4314-838d-89f992160510
System 2 bp-b632f249-7c63-4b3a-aa9c-2fbb22160509
System 3 bp-cad789ea-9f62-4dae-b07b-48ec02160509
System 4 bp-4d1efbf2-7c3f-4c01-a17c-3300e2160509
System 5 bp-893ee2bc-b9de-45f2-a888-9465e2160509
System 6 bp-034f8593-7283-4a46-afd6-6e1db2160509 bp-ea481f74-32f8-4ca3-b6e0-cdb342160509
System 7 bp-d92de630-6315-4211-9d30-ad3452150810
System 8 bp-fd90141f-9453-4be8-b599-86fe42160509
System 9 bp-41f4278d-5389-4e5a-9791-e1a122160509
System 10 bp-5f8bb159-6954-4776-9a1c-bd0732160509 bp-6c09951d-e362-4764-bdfc-aa8d72160509
System 11 bp-1a3b165e-1bd9-4fb1-8f89-771662160509
System 12 bp-e6efd865-2084-40d2-b2f3-dd80f2160510
cor-el:
I'll have to notify the techs on my end involved with choosing the Firefox configurations we made and provide their reasons for us to make these modifications for our internal website.
System 1
Product Firefox Version 40.0 Build ID 20150807085045 Release Channel release OS Windows 7 OS Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
Signature shutdownhang | WaitForSingleObjectEx | WaitForSingleObject | PR_Wait | nsThread::ProcessNextEvent
Sophos_detoured.dll = Sophos Anti-Virus or 3500 Rack Configuration or Installer HP Backup and by Sophos Plc (www.sophos.com) or Sophos. http://www.file.net/process/sophos_detoured.dll.html Description: Sophos_detoured.dll is not essential for Windows and will often cause problems. The sophos_detoured.dll file is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files".
This is for Sumo's Related Bugs 1186276 ASSIGNED --- Firefox keeps crashing: shutdown hang in the storage service
Can you disable the above?
System 2
Signature shutdownhang | RtlpWaitOnCriticalSection | EtwEventEnabled | winMutexEnter
swi_filter.dll = Sophos Anti-Virus
Sophos_detoured.dll = Sophos Anti-Virus or 3500 Rack Configuration or Installer HP Backup and by Sophos Plc (www.sophos.com) or Sophos. http://www.file.net/process/sophos_detoured.dll.html Description: Sophos_detoured.dll is not essential for Windows and will often cause problems. The sophos_detoured.dll file is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files".
Disable the above
System 3
Signature shutdownhang | WaitForSingleObjectEx | WaitForSingleObject | PR_Wait | nsThread::ProcessNextEvent
Sophos_detoured.dll = Sophos Anti-Virus or 3500 Rack Configuration or Installer HP Backup and by Sophos Plc (www.sophos.com) or Sophos. http://www.file.net/process/sophos_detoured.dll.html Description: Sophos_detoured.dll is not essential for Windows and will often cause problems. The sophos_detoured.dll file is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files".
This is for Sumo's Related Bugs3 1186276 ASSIGNED --- Firefox keeps crashing: shutdown hang in the storage service
Disable . . . .
System 7
Product Firefox Version 27.0.1 Build ID 20140212131424 Release Channel release OS Windows 7 OS Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
The other systems are v40
Signature: hang | BaseGetNamedObjectDirectory | RealMsgWaitForMultipleObjectsEx | CCliModalLoop::BlockFn
Process Type plugin AlternaTIFF Version: 2.0.6.1
npzzatif.dll – unknown
swi_ifslsp.dll = Sophos Anti-Virus
mso.dll = Microsoft Office XP component
Olmapi32.dll which is meant for MS Outlook
Disable Sophos.
Perform a System File Check to fix corrupted system files Win 7, 8, 10, Vista: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833 Win XP: https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/system_file_checker.mspx?mfr=true
See if there are updates for your graphics drivers https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration
All the other reports are the same as systems 1, 2, and 3.
Well, I am aware Sophos, our company's Anti-Virus, did push an update in the past week. I'll review further how and why that might have caused some computers to have Firefox issues all at once but not others. It also isn't clear why reverting our Firefox profile back to our company's base Firefox profile resolved the issue. Also, this issue occurred on multiple computer models, so would an outdated graphics driver, if any are found on the affected computers, create a relationship issue with Firefox and our Anti-Virus software? It should be noted neither Internet Explorer nor any other software had any performance or integrity issues while this was occurring.
I am still waiting to hear back from our programmers who requested the deployment of our particular configurations; is this even necessary to find out anymore?
Until the real cause is discovered, it's hard to say why one but not another.
You should contact Sophos support and ask questions.
Did you notice that system 7 is using an older Firefox then the others?
Yes, I am planning on contacting Sophos to get their insights on this issue. I'll post their response once I get it.
By the way, I had another user have the same problem with Firefox yesterday, so I tried disabling Sophos. The problem persisted, so then I tried uninstalling anything Sophos related and restarted the computer. Firefox continued to hang and/or have it plugin container crash. Reverting back to the default company Firefox profile we cloned worked again in this situation. It is possible those .dll filles you referenced already caused some change in the Firefox profile. Have other anti-virus software cause this sort of scenario before? We used to use McAfee a while back, and one particular update crippled our dual monitor users because it marked the driver we used as invalid.
It also turns out far more people were affected than were reported. Once they heard they could use Internet Explorer as a work-around, they didn't bother contacting our IT department.
No, I did not notice one of the computers was out of date with Firefox. We typically push out our Firefox GPO for a couple of days and deactivate it. If the computer was off, it might have been overlooked. We typically push Firefox updates once or twice a year.
I'll also continue reviewing if any of the reported users have outdated graphic drivers.
As I review these computers, they all have been up to date with their graphics driver. I'm still working with Sophos to review those .dll files.
Sophos response thus far is Sophos might not be the one causing the issue if the issue persists while all Sophos components are uninstalled. They did, however, reference those .dll's in the crash reports that generated on some computers belong ot the Sophos Web Intelligence component. Are you familiar with how anti-virus software, in general, interacts with Firefox's application data with its web protection software? I've sent the same question to Sophos as well.
Also, I came across some more users with Firefox problems last week, except their problem was Firefox ceased to keep a user's history. While Firefox functionally worked and bookmarks were kept, the history would be zapped once the browser closed despite all history settings correctly set. Reverting the Firefox profile *did not * resolve this issue, but reinstalling the same Firefox 40.0 did.
Can someone provide an update to my above post? This issue now seems to fall in two camps; users either had their Firefox crash or Firefox would cease keeping a user's history.
I also sent a reminder to Sophos to contact me. They haven't provided any updates since my last post here.
In addition, my programming team have held off providing details about our Firefox configuration choices ever since the issues began veering toward a Sophos issue. Is our Firefox configuration still a suspect for these issues, and would further insight from our developers help at this point?