Firefox won't install (MacOS 10.15.2 Catalina)
Firefox initially popped open a window stating that I already had another copy open and so wouldn't open. After some investigating, I found a fix and followed the steps to delete profiles - possibly the cause of the errors. (I had applied this solution once months ago and it had worked then.) Subsequent to this attempt, I was unable to open Firefox - even with the creation of new profile(s). Given the situation, I deleted Firefox entirely by dragging into Trash and emptying the trash and re-logging in. Downloaded a clean new install from the Mozilla website. Although the DMG file downloaded fine, when I attempt to copy app to Applications folder, the system hangs. So now there is no way to re-install Firefox?!
This link /post seems to reflect my condition: https://support.mozilla.org/bm/questions/1240427 However at the given location on my computer, I only had a FB video plugin - even after i deleted that, there is no change, i.e. remain unable to implement a fresh new install of Firefox.
Suggestions? Thanks! RT12
p.s. Using a different computer to post this. When I get a chance, I'll go back to the one with this issue and see if I can post the "troubleshooting information".
Επιλεγμένη λύση
Hey Cor-el!
Short version: Good news - fixing permissions worked.
Long version: needed to set aside a chunk of time as there were several paths and time needed. First, Apple issued an OS update in the last week and that took some time to implement. Second, sadly several of the suggestions in the appletoolbox link don't apply to my OS sorry to say.
However in the "Reset Home Folder Permissions" section, I entered into an admin account and followed the following steps to the affected user "home" directory applying to all the enclosed items: 1. From the Finder menu bar, tap Go > Home (or Shift+Command+H)
2. Choose File > Get Info (or Command + I) 3. Open the Sharing & Permissions area (click the triangle next to it if you don’t see any information) 4. Check that your home folder permissions are unlocked (look at bottom right for lock icon) 4a. If you see a closed lock, tap the lock once and enter an administrator name and password to unlock
5. Once unlocked, select the Action menu at the bottom left corner of the window and choose to Apply to enclosed items
5a. Select OK to confirm that action 5b. You’ll see a progress bar at the top of the window as the action completes
6. Once the progress bar finishes, open Terminal from Utilities folder of your Applications folder (or press CMD + Space to open spotlight search, and type Terminal and hit return) 7. Paste or type this command in Terminal, then press Return: diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` 7a. For US keyboards, the ` character is just above the Tab key 7b. After entering the diskutil command, if Terminal says that permissions reset on user home directory failed (error -69841), enter chflags -R nouchg ~, then enter the diskutil command again: diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` 8. Once done, quit Terminal
This took awhile and once completed, I was not sure of the need of step 7 and did not apply step 7.
As a test, I tried to download and start Firefox from the admin account. All worked smoothly. Rather than delete the program, I exited and entered into the other non-admin/standard account. When I started Firefox (since it was already downloaded and installed from the admin account), the program did start - however asked for a profile. As previously stated, there were two active profiles: => default-release => NUser-2020-01-26 I selected the 1st one - default and program came up correctly. Then I closed and restarted with the checkbox selected not to recheck the profile every time.
Fingers crossed, but your suggestion to fix the permission seems to have been the random cause. Kudos and thanks!
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In the Library/Application Support/Firefox folder, I see the following:
last crash report submitted successfully: bp-25987776-0f15-4327-ade5-a25f70200126.txt
3 profiles in Profile folder: => 3vfgb4wx.default-release (contains lots of items) => 8sv9wcg9.NUser-2020-01-26 (contains only 1 item: times.json) => sj50hxpl.RT (contains lots of items)
file - InstallTime20200117190643
any other info that could be of use to troubleshoot?
Did you create the second and third profile in the list recently ?
What profile was used most recently if you look at the time stamps of files in each profile folder ?
Can you start Firefox with the 3vfgb4wx.default-release profile as that would be the preferred profile for a Firefox release ?
Τροποποιήθηκε στις από το χρήστη cor-el
Did you create the second and third profile in the list recently ? > Yes --3) "RT" profile shows creation date of Dec 19 and that fixed the problem then. 2) When I was unable this time around, I deleted all the profiles from the pop up panel and created the new one - as seen by the date in the name - NUser-2020-01-26.
What profile was used most recently if you look at the time stamps of files in each profile folder? > All three show "modified" date of 1/26/20
Can you start Firefox with the 3vfgb4wx.default-release profile as that would be the preferred profile for a Firefox release ? > Launch default-release profile - how? Unable to install Firefox at all; After opening the 72.0.2.dmg file, the system hangs in the process of "Preparing to copy Firefox" to Applications folder. (after 30 min remains in this "preparing to copy" state) The only way out is to Force Quit the Finder app.
Did you check for (write) permission issues ?
Going back to an earlier suggestion to launch Firefox, my email has Firefox as default and when I inadvertently clicked a web link, the system tried (& failed) to launch Firefox. I got the attached chooser panel even though I got the spinning ball that would not allow me to make a selection to move forward. Only way out was to kill both Finder and Firefox 'instance'. I'm only showing this to demo that it won't launch either way.
Your most recent suggestion sounds like a good possibility. I'll try that next but may be tomorrow before I can respond back with results. In the meantime, I'll also try another account on my same machine to see if that also points to the same permissions corruption as a cause.
Thanks!
Επιλεγμένη λύση
Hey Cor-el!
Short version: Good news - fixing permissions worked.
Long version: needed to set aside a chunk of time as there were several paths and time needed. First, Apple issued an OS update in the last week and that took some time to implement. Second, sadly several of the suggestions in the appletoolbox link don't apply to my OS sorry to say.
However in the "Reset Home Folder Permissions" section, I entered into an admin account and followed the following steps to the affected user "home" directory applying to all the enclosed items: 1. From the Finder menu bar, tap Go > Home (or Shift+Command+H)
2. Choose File > Get Info (or Command + I) 3. Open the Sharing & Permissions area (click the triangle next to it if you don’t see any information) 4. Check that your home folder permissions are unlocked (look at bottom right for lock icon) 4a. If you see a closed lock, tap the lock once and enter an administrator name and password to unlock
5. Once unlocked, select the Action menu at the bottom left corner of the window and choose to Apply to enclosed items
5a. Select OK to confirm that action 5b. You’ll see a progress bar at the top of the window as the action completes
6. Once the progress bar finishes, open Terminal from Utilities folder of your Applications folder (or press CMD + Space to open spotlight search, and type Terminal and hit return) 7. Paste or type this command in Terminal, then press Return: diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` 7a. For US keyboards, the ` character is just above the Tab key 7b. After entering the diskutil command, if Terminal says that permissions reset on user home directory failed (error -69841), enter chflags -R nouchg ~, then enter the diskutil command again: diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` 8. Once done, quit Terminal
This took awhile and once completed, I was not sure of the need of step 7 and did not apply step 7.
As a test, I tried to download and start Firefox from the admin account. All worked smoothly. Rather than delete the program, I exited and entered into the other non-admin/standard account. When I started Firefox (since it was already downloaded and installed from the admin account), the program did start - however asked for a profile. As previously stated, there were two active profiles: => default-release => NUser-2020-01-26 I selected the 1st one - default and program came up correctly. Then I closed and restarted with the checkbox selected not to recheck the profile every time.
Fingers crossed, but your suggestion to fix the permission seems to have been the random cause. Kudos and thanks!