Hello idiotinMN,

Stab in the dark, but would you do this please :

Type in the address bar about:config and press Enter (promise to be careful, if asked)

Type in the search bar and look for the preference :

browser.privatebrowsing.autostart

And make sure its value is set to false

If you had to change the value, then close and restart Firefox.

Any luck  ?

Good Morning McCoy,

I did see that issue among the search results. For me when the box is checked on the always private option the value is TRUE. When I remove the check from that option then the value does change to FALSE.

I still cannot reach the inter-tubes unless I have the always private checked.

Thank you for your help!

-me

Maybe check the permissions for the data stored in the secondary location used for the disk cache as well as the permissions in the primary location.

Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder, so make sure to look in the correct location. Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).

• ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile>/

Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).

• ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/

Both profile folders have R/W permissions for my account. The local profile folder is empty while there is the usual default profile and data in the root profile folder.

I am assuming there should also be a profile in the local path that matched the profile name in the root file?

Maybe the simplest approach here is just to clean and reinstall?

Thank you for the help!

There should be a lot of files and folders in the profile folder in the local location.

• https://appletoolbox.com/2016/07/fix-corrupt-user-accounts-macos/

Please clarify; are you suggesting a general OS permissions corruption or just Firefox. This is a 2013 box so it has seen a few updates and programs come and go. Right now, however, my only issues appears to be with Firefox. I learned a long time ago to tread lightly when making widespread permission changes.

I am thinking a reinstall of Firefox might be a prudent first step.? Any thoughts?

Again; thank you for taking the time to help.

There is obviously something wrong on the OS level if Firefox isn't able to create file in the ~/Library/Caches/ folder. You can consider to ask for help on a Mac oriented forum (Mac Support) to see if they have suggestions about how to fix this. I do not know enough about permissions on Mac to be able to fix this.

If there is a Firefox or Firefox/Profiles/ folder then try to remove this folder to see whether Firefox is able to create a new folder structure.

• ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/

In Mac OS X v10.7 and later, the ~/Library folder in the Home directory is a hidden folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders#Mac_OS_X

Ugh; completely forgot about show/hide files! My day job in windows is screwing up my Mac skills. I even have a alias defined for both show and hide.

Showing files does reveal all the profile files. i deleted the profile and Firefox immediately restored it when I restarted the app.

Unfortunately; no change in behavior.

I must now head back to work and I work extended periods. I do not know what the proper protocols is here but I will be unable to answer for a while. I will return after my work period.

Thank you for your time in looking at this!

-me

Good Morning,

I was going to reload the entire Firefox but I thought I would try to start it in Safe-mode one more time. Sure enough this time it worked in non-private mode; it had not worked the first time I tried it. (I am guessing that was due to a user ID10T error!!)

I added each add-on one at a time until it failed, (I only use a few).

Turns out that enabling uBlock Origin resulted in non-private mode failing while disabling it allowed me to browse. I deleted the add-in and reinstalled it and now the browser functions in both modes.

For some reason your comment about show/hide files triggered the proper debugging response and I started from the beginning. Getting old sucks!

Thank you all for taking the time to help!

Have a great week!