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Firefox 44.0.2 problem loading Google as home page (in Win 7) ...

  • 4 replies
  • 16 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Google search page will NOT load as home page, despite being set up in Options exactly as per instructions in FF Help. When I fire up FF, the surroundings all come up OK, but no home page - just 'blank screen'. Sometimes if I mess with FF, like close it and open it again likketysplit, it works - very slowly - but usually not. But if I open a new tab and call up Google from Bookmarks or manually type in the URL (as specified in Options entry), it loads up right away no problem. Even if I overtype 'blank screen' with the call to Google at the home page (sic) stage, Google loads up OK right away. I've checked the shortcut details on my desktop, which is all fine. Why won't this pretty simple requirement work?

Google search page will NOT load as home page, despite being set up in Options exactly as per instructions in FF Help. When I fire up FF, the surroundings all come up OK, but no home page - just 'blank screen'. Sometimes if I mess with FF, like close it and open it again likketysplit, it works - very slowly - but usually not. But if I open a new tab and call up Google from Bookmarks or manually type in the URL (as specified in Options entry), it loads up right away no problem. Even if I overtype 'blank screen' with the call to Google at the home page (sic) stage, Google loads up OK right away. I've checked the shortcut details on my desktop, which is all fine. Why won't this pretty simple requirement work?

Chosen solution

Apparently there is an issue when Firefox is set to clear history at shutdown and doesn't finish the job, it may resume at startup and run into a failure that prevents Firefox 44 from showing the home page. That issue is likely to be fixed in Firefox 45, scheduled for release next month.

To try to ensure Firefox completes the job at shutdown, it's best to exit from the menu, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

If you typically close Firefox using the "red X button" on the title bar or other methods where Windows may kill Firefox prematurely, please give that a try and see whether it makes any difference.

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All Replies (4)

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I wish I knew. We have had a couple other reports of Firefox 44 starting up to a blank page instead of loading the home page. The page would load if they clicked the Reload button in the address bar Home button on the main toolbar or pressed Ctrl+r (keyboard shortcut for Reload) Alt+Home (keyboard shortcut for the Home button). In both cases, users solved the problem by renaming or removing the prefs.js file, which often contains dozens of settings, and we didn't learn which particular setting was causing the issue.

I don't know whether you would want to jump right to that or wait for further suggestions. I guess it depends on how many times a day you restart Firefox and have to deal with this annoyance.

Edit: Whoops, I was thinking of a different problem with reload.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Chosen Solution

Apparently there is an issue when Firefox is set to clear history at shutdown and doesn't finish the job, it may resume at startup and run into a failure that prevents Firefox 44 from showing the home page. That issue is likely to be fixed in Firefox 45, scheduled for release next month.

To try to ensure Firefox completes the job at shutdown, it's best to exit from the menu, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

If you typically close Firefox using the "red X button" on the title bar or other methods where Windows may kill Firefox prematurely, please give that a try and see whether it makes any difference.

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Sterling work, jscher2000! Thank you for your time and trouble in doing the research to solve my problem. Until FF45 is released, I guess I'll have no more trouble. Thanks again!

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