Why is my browser spawning invisible windows?
Operating system: OS X 10.9
Starting about four months ago, I began to see untitled and non-selectable windows spawning after my browser had been open for a while (i.e. after I visited a few sites). The number of these invisible windows grows over time, but are removed if I close the browser and start a new session. This has persisted through many new versions of Firefox.
I tried turning off all of the add-ons. Still happened.
I tried keeping track of what sites caused the problem. No correlation.
Today I uninstalled Firefox, using AppZapper -- which should have removed everything -- then did a new install. The only thing that I imported were bookmarks from the backup directory in my old Profile folder.
...and it's happening again. Here is a screen shot: http://imgur.com/ojcODd1
Any help would be appreciated.
Chosen solution
By default "privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies": false, is usually true. and network.cookie.lifetimePolicy": 1, is usually 0.
I do not know exactly if this is the result of cookies not being removed, however these are the about:config entries that stand out from version 34.
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I did have Adblock Plus installed. Currently I am running Adblock Edge.
Have you tried the mal-ware scan?
Yes. ClamXav found heuristic matches in gmail archives, but nothing that seemed like an active threat.
I believe that I have found a clue:
If I leave only a single tab open, I do not get the invisible windows. It's only when there are multiple tabs. This leads me to believe that opening a new tab creates this window instance.
Now I'm just not sure what to do with that information...
Your System Details shows;
Installed Plug-ins
RBlue Jeans Installation Plugin RBlue Jeans Video Plugin
Blue Jeans Video Plugin Blue Jeans Installation Plugin
Having more than one version of a program may cause issues.
That's really interesting. App Zapper was supposed to remove everything related to my previous installation, but it appears that all of my plug-ins are there. I'm going to manually delete those and see if that helps.
Thanks! I'll report back.
I removed the earlier instance of BlueJeans plug-in and everything seemed to be going well, but today the invisible windows are back :-(
I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.
Does your sessionstore file have a large number of blank entries? (textedit or notepad) Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data
Looks like this is a test version of Blue Jeans? https://community.bluejeans.com/bluej.../firefox-equivilant-of-google-chrome-extension
The file called sessionCheckpoints.json has this in it:
{"profile-after-change":true,"final-ui-startup":true,"sessionstore-windows-restored":true}
and, interestingly enough, I do not see a file called "sessionstore.js" in my profile folder. Other .js files are not hidden. Could that be the issue?
You are right that there is a more recent version of the bluejeans plugin. I have installed it, and hopefully there won't be two versions this time (though now I know how to manually remove the old one).
That is because they moved to session-backups folder. There are the last 5 or 6 sessions.
Mine says the same, sorry wrong path: {"profile-after-change":true,"final-ui-startup":true,"sessionstore-windows-restored":true}
Ok, what else can we try as I type aloud. Try to rename recovery.js to recoveryold.js and rename the recovery.bk to recovery.js and restart Firefox.
No luck. I'm going to try removing everything - the app, the extensions, the add-ons - whole shebang - then reinstall.
If that doesn't work, do you have an exorcist on duty?
- -( I deleted all of my add-ons. Removed any folder in both the all users and my username's Libraries that was related to Mozilla or Firefox. I used AppZapper to remove the application and its associated files.
The only thing that I put back in was 1Password.
STILL getting spawned windows.
Here is the Troubleshooting dump:
{
"application": { "name": "Firefox", "version": "33.1.1", "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.9; rv:33.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/33.0", "supportURL": "https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/33.1.1/Darwin/en-US/", "numTotalWindows": 65, "numRemoteWindows": 0 }, "crashes": { "submitted": [], "pending": 0 }, "modifiedPreferences": { "browser.cache.disk.capacity": 358400, "browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run": false, "browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max": false, "browser.cache.frecency_experiment": 4, "browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion": 7, "browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID": "20141113143407", "browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone": "33.1.1", "browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID": "20141113143407", "dom.mozApps.used": true, "extensions.lastAppVersion": "33.1.1", "media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate": 1417211654, "media.gmp-gmpopenh264.version": "1.1", "media.gmp-manager.lastCheck": 1417211654, "network.cookie.prefsMigrated": true, "network.cookie.lifetimePolicy": 1, "network.cookie.cookieBehavior": 1, "places.history.enabled": false, "places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages": 104858, "plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types": "application/pdf", "plugin.importedState": true, "privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown": true, "privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies": false, "privacy.donottrackheader.enabled": true, "privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs": true }, "lockedPreferences": {}, "graphics": { "numTotalWindows": 65, "numAcceleratedWindows": 1, "windowLayerManagerType": "OpenGL", "windowLayerManagerRemote": true, "adapterDescription": "", "adapterVendorID": "0x8086", "adapterDeviceID": "0x 166", "adapterRAM": "", "adapterDrivers": "", "driverVersion": "", "driverDate": "", "webglRenderer": "NVIDIA Corporation -- NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M OpenGL Engine", "info": { "AzureCanvasBackend": "quartz", "AzureSkiaAccelerated": 0, "AzureFallbackCanvasBackend": "none", "AzureContentBackend": "quartz" } }, "javaScript": { "incrementalGCEnabled": true }, "accessibility": { "isActive": false, "forceDisabled": 0 }, "libraryVersions": { "NSPR": { "minVersion": "4.10.7", "version": "4.10.7" }, "NSS": { "minVersion": "3.17.2 Basic ECC", "version": "3.17.2 Basic ECC" }, "NSSUTIL": { "minVersion": "3.17.2", "version": "3.17.2" }, "NSSSSL": { "minVersion": "3.17.2 Basic ECC", "version": "3.17.2 Basic ECC" }, "NSSSMIME": { "minVersion": "3.17.2 Basic ECC", "version": "3.17.2 Basic ECC" } }, "userJS": { "exists": false }, "extensions": [ { "name": "1Password", "version": "4.2.5", "isActive": true, "id": "onepassword4@agilebits.com" } ], "experiments": []
}
Chosen Solution
By default "privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies": false, is usually true. and network.cookie.lifetimePolicy": 1, is usually 0.
I do not know exactly if this is the result of cookies not being removed, however these are the about:config entries that stand out from version 34.
I will change those entries and see if it makes a difference.
Definitely an issue on shutdown as well. I will ask someone to take a look at this too/
I have been running the browser all morning and thus far no invisible windows :-)
It did delete all of my cookies after I shut down the browser, which meant any two-factor sites that I signed into previously were once again suspicious of me. I will undo that bit of privacy control and see if the problem returns.
Still no spawning invisi-windows for a couple of days. I'm re-adding add-ons one by one (but only the most critical - some of those were leftovers that should have been deleted a long time ago).
I am adding Adblock and will see how that goes.
Thanks!!!!
Problem seems solved. Thank you muchly for sticking with this one until the end.