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New tab page rows problem

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Upon the update to the new Firefox Quantum 57.0, i immediately change the new tab page to the classic version as shown here (https://support.mozilla.org/pt-PT/questions/1183195). The problem is in the fact that whenever i restart the firefox, while the number of columns remains as i chose , the number of rows goes back to the default 3. Thank you

Upon the update to the new Firefox Quantum 57.0, i immediately change the new tab page to the classic version as shown here (https://support.mozilla.org/pt-PT/questions/1183195). The problem is in the fact that whenever i restart the firefox, while the number of columns remains as i chose , the number of rows goes back to the default 3. Thank you

All Replies (10)

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Bumped. Isn't there anyone out there who knows how to fix this problem?

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Show a screen of the error. I don't see the columns that your referring to.

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WestEnd disse

Show a screen of the error. I don't see the columns that your referring to.

I change the number of rows from 3 to 4. When i close and then reopen the firefox, the number or rows is again 3.

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Firefox stores the changed value of browser.newtabpage.rows in the prefs.js file in your profile folder. Normally other software doesn't touch this file and your changes are retained indefinitely, unless you use the Refresh feature.

The following article lists some reasons for problems retaining changes in prefs.js, and also beware of external utilities that either clean up browser settings or protect against unwanted changes (they can't distinguish wanted from unwanted changes) such as Advanced SystemCare.

How to fix preferences that won't save

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jscher2000 disse

Firefox stores the changed value of browser.newtabpage.rows in the prefs.js file in your profile folder. Normally other software doesn't touch this file and your changes are retained indefinitely, unless you use the Refresh feature. The following article lists some reasons for problems retaining changes in prefs.js, How to fix preferences that won't save

That didn't solve the problem. The strange thing is that when i change the number of columns and then quit/restart the firefox, the changes are still there. The same thing doesn't happen to the number of rows.

jscher2000 disse

The following article lists some reasons for problems retaining changes in prefs.js, and also beware of external utilities that either clean up browser settings or protect against unwanted changes (they can't distinguish wanted from unwanted changes) such as Advanced SystemCare. How to fix preferences that won't save

In the previews version of firefox i didn't have this problem.

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Wonder21 said

jscher2000 disse
Firefox stores the changed value of browser.newtabpage.rows in the prefs.js file in your profile folder. Normally other software doesn't touch this file and your changes are retained indefinitely, unless you use the Refresh feature.
The following article lists some reasons for problems retaining changes in prefs.js, How to fix preferences that won't save

That didn't solve the problem. The strange thing is that when i change the number of columns and then quit/restart the firefox, the changes are still there. The same thing doesn't happen to the number of rows.

In the previews version of firefox i didn't have this problem.

Now that I test it myself, mine behaves the same as yours. One typical workaround -- creating a text file in the profile folder named user.js in the profile folder with this line:

user_pref("browser.newtabpage.rows", 4);

-- doesn't have the anticipated effect of forcing the value.

When I look at the source code, the problem appears to be a "migration" feature which computes the number of "Activity Stream" top sites tiles by multiplying the browser.newtabpage.rows preference by 6. So most likely you have

browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount = 24

instead of the default value of 12. But the migratePref() function then resets the browser.newtabpage.rows value back to default. There's yer trouble.

I don't understand the code well enough to figure out whether there is a way to stop the migratePref() function from running.

Possible Workarounds

(A) Since the tiles "wrap" to fit the available space, can you work around this behavior by increasing browser.newtabpage.columns to multiply out to approximately the same number of tiles you wanted?

(B) Switch to using the New Tab Tools extension.

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There is a bug on file for this, and one comment indicated that you can override the value reset by using an Autoconfig file to lock the preference.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1406088#c2

I added a comment to the bug with references to where it happens in the source code. Hopefully that will advance the ball.

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See also: