Changes to toolbars and window sizes are not saved

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  • Revision id: 28886
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  • Creator: Michael Verdi
  • Comment: made reset firefox the solution for fx 13+
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  • Reviewed by: Verdi
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  • Readied for localization by: Verdi
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In some instances, Firefox may not remember changes you've made to your toolbar settings or certain other configuration changes.

Note: If toolbars or toolbar items are missing, see Restore the Menu bar in Firefox and Navigation buttons like back, home, bookmarks and reload are missing.


This article explains how to fix the underlying problem that may result in one or more of the following symptoms:

  • Changes that you made to your toolbars are not saved when you restart Firefox.
  • Changes made to the browser window's size and position are not remembered when you restart Firefox.
  • You cannot save new bookmarks.

Reset Firefox to fix the problem

Firefox's reset feature will reset toolbar preferences and disable add-ons that could be interfering.

Note: When you refresh Firefox, your bookmarks, browsing history, open tabs, windows, passwords, cookies and web form auto-fill information will be saved. However, your extensions and themes will be removed and your preferences will be reset. Learn more.
  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Help and select More Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click Refresh Firefox… then Refresh Firefox in the confirmation window that opens. Firefox will close to refresh itself.
  3. When finished, a window will list your imported information. Click the Finish button. Firefox will open.
  4. Select whether you want Firefox to restore all or some windows and tabs and click the Let's go! button.
Note: There's a Refresh Firefox button in the Firefox Troubleshoot Mode window, if you can't start Firefox normally. You can also do a manual refresh by creating a new profile and transferring your important data to the new profile.

Causes

The above symptoms are usually caused by a corrupted file in your Firefox user data, called localstore.rdf. This file is maintained by Firefox to manage some of your configuration settings.

Another possible cause is a misbehaving Firefox extension.

Fixing the problem

Resetting localstore.rdf

  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Help, select Troubleshoot Mode… and click Restart in the Restart Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode? dialog.

    Note: You can also start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode by holding down the Shift key while starting Firefox.holding down the option key while starting Firefox.quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode
    You may need to specify the Firefox installation path (e.g. /usr/lib/firefox).
  2. In the Firefox Safe Mode dialog, select Reset toolbars and controls and click Make Changes and Restart.

    50c17976d1bd6a4a7608e862ce87cf56-1259976743-499-1.png 50c17976d1bd6a4a7608e862ce87cf56-1238098942-151-2.jpg 50c17976d1bd6a4a7608e862ce87cf56-1263704014-536-1.png

You should now be able to customize your toolbar settings and controls, change the browser window size or position, and save new bookmarks, and those changes will be remembered when you restart Firefox.

Disabling extensions

If the previous solution did not help, you can temporarily disable all extensions and then restart Firefox. If the symptoms go away then one of your extensions was causing the problem. For more information, read Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems.



Based on information from Corrupt localstore.rdf (mozillaZine KB)