Cannot use Reply, Reply All, Forward or New in hotmail/outlook
It's happened again!
Every 2 or 3 months I cannot use Reply, Reply All, Forward or New in hotmail/outlook in FireFox. Usually it starts working again after 5 to 10 days. BUT WHY? Sweep works; Move to works, in fact all the others work. All works in ie 11.
Symptom: press button, changes colour tone slightly, little white balls slide across screen above outlook bar, nothing happens.
So, what is different about the first two, New & Reply? Surely some smart programmer can work out what is different, and therefore what the common denominator is about New & Reply. Is it clear that New & Reply invoke/create an email; the others don't. Yes ! I have done ALL the recommended fixes, cleared cache, refreshed FireFox, restarted. No, I haven't tried Safe mode because that's not a fix; fixing it mean it working correctly in full-on full-fate all-on mode. The fact that this happens every 2 or 3 months means that something is TEMPORARILY incompatible.
Was working 2 days ago. Yesterday, fault started, I had multiple updates; Windows/MS, adobe Air, adobe reader, flash player, apple software update (NOT iTunes, I don't use iTunes). ANY of these used in hotmail's/outlook's functions?
So, Mozilla coders', try and work out what's going on...... and fix it permanently. Clue: A SCRIPT's NOT WORKING, and I'm not going to fix it because I don't know how to.
FireFox 45.0 Windows 7 64 bit, all up-to-date quad core 3.4GHz 16 Gb DDR2 RAM SSD & HDD Norton Security with Backup
Chosen solution
PROBLEM SOLVED:
But why?
I did yet another Refresh, and everything is now working. HOWEVER.....
Refresh looses all add-ons and customs settings I have made in Options. This is a pain in the a**e. I have to try to remember what add-ons I had and I have go through EVERY Option option to change things to the way I like. Furthermore, having reset and re-installed everything, it's still working, so there is no difference NOW with the way it was BEFORE the refresh.
This is not good enough. What is going wrong that makes a Refresh necessary?
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (8)
Hi FlyBoy.
Sorry, I don't know which of the products you've updated are used in Hotmail and might be incompatible. But most of the issues in Firefox can be troubleshooted using safe mode.
Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:
- Click the menu button
, click Help 
and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
- On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.
To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.
Michal
I've tried Safe Mode and it didn't solve the problem; in fact it made things WORSE because in Safe Mode I cannot open an email.
Please note my comment about the problem always going away after 5 to 10 days.
Furthermore, I have just remembered that my partner's desktop, almost identical setup, has exactly the same problem. It's 80 Km away.
When was the last FireFox update??? Do these functions use JAVA?
Modified by FlyBoy
Chosen Solution
PROBLEM SOLVED:
But why?
I did yet another Refresh, and everything is now working. HOWEVER.....
Refresh looses all add-ons and customs settings I have made in Options. This is a pain in the a**e. I have to try to remember what add-ons I had and I have go through EVERY Option option to change things to the way I like. Furthermore, having reset and re-installed everything, it's still working, so there is no difference NOW with the way it was BEFORE the refresh.
This is not good enough. What is going wrong that makes a Refresh necessary?
What was re-installed: Adblock plus English UK dictionary and English UK language pack. Norton enabled. There may be more, I may have forgotten.
Hi FlyBoy.
Tl;dr your old settings (the whole Firefox profile) can be found in a folder on your desktop with (see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings).
Honestly, the list of possible causes are plenty and I cannot test them, as I never used Hotmail, so do not know what technologies it requires. Can be caused by an add-on, Firefox misconfiguration, disabled plugin (if any required) or a third party application hooked somehow in Firefox.
Anyway, I am glad it works again. If you need any assistance with data or settings restoration from the old profile, please let us know.
Michal
Michal,
Firstly, although you don't use hotmail.com/outlook.com, many millions do. Millions.
It's not the old settings that the problem, it's this list: Extensions and themes, modified preferences, added search engines, device settings, download actions, plugin settings, toolbar customizations, user styles.
These are most of the things REMOVED during Refresh.
Refresh needs an additional function, with lots of tick boxes, that asks if the user wants to also Refresh these Items and Settings, going to get them "as new" from their source, i.e. newest versions. That would make Refresh a fully fledged and complete process.
Yes, maybe millions, but I was able to find only one similar report https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1113636, so the cause is probably not in Firefox itself.
If Refresh offers a lot if options, it won't be as helpful as it is when solving issues. The most frequent cause of issues are settings, but each user would tick to preserve the settings (or something else what he/she deems at least a little important).
All the extensions etc. you can find in the old profile folder on your Desktop. If you want to recover anything from it, please follow the instructions here. Information about what data are in which files are below on that page, or here.
These can't get your data back, but will help in the future.
These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox
FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) {web link} FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backups of files that you choose.
OPIE {web link} Import/Export extension preferences