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After updating to Firefox 57, the browser window is invisible and I cannot interact with it

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  • 15 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Fedaj

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Hi,

Firefox updated itself to Quantum, and now trying to use my profile results in an invisible window. I'm on Win10, and using the task bar I can see the miniature of the tabs I had open, and I can even see the window itself by hovering on the miniature, but as soon as I move the pointer away and try to use the browser, it becomes invisible and I can't click on either the browser's chrome or the pages. I'm using Chrome to post this, in fact.

If I use keyboard shortcuts I can open a new tab and type a URL, and the page opens (I can check using the task bar trick), but I cannot interact. At first I thought the window was being rendered outside of the visible desktop area (it has happened in the past with other programs), but I can move it right-clicking on the task bar miniatures and still can't see it.

I have then tried creating a clean profile and that way it works. However, I'd rather not lose bookmarks, login credentials, start page personalization, etc. I'd also like to be able to at least check my list of add-ons so I can ensure all essential ones get re-installed (and then I can know which one, if any, is making my browser invisible). I could do the latter just opening the extensions menu, and the former should be achievable by using the "Refresh" functionality, but I can do neither as I cannot interact with the browser's menu or click on the "Refresh" button in "abbout:support".

Short of nuking my profile and starting over, is there any way to get out of this mess? My browser was working perfectly with the same tabs and extensions on Friday (this is the work laptop, hand't booted it since), and now this update does not only break many extensions by design, but has rendered my profile unusable. I'd very much like to fix the latter and not have to spent a lot of time rebuilding it, if at all possible.

Thanks in advance for any help any of you can provide.

Hi, Firefox updated itself to Quantum, and now trying to use my profile results in an invisible window. I'm on Win10, and using the task bar I can see the miniature of the tabs I had open, and I can even see the window itself by hovering on the miniature, but as soon as I move the pointer away and try to use the browser, it becomes invisible and I can't click on either the browser's chrome or the pages. I'm using Chrome to post this, in fact. If I use keyboard shortcuts I can open a new tab and type a URL, and the page opens (I can check using the task bar trick), but I cannot interact. At first I thought the window was being rendered outside of the visible desktop area (it has happened in the past with other programs), but I can move it right-clicking on the task bar miniatures and still can't see it. I have then tried creating a clean profile and that way it works. However, I'd rather not lose bookmarks, login credentials, start page personalization, etc. I'd also like to be able to at least check my list of add-ons so I can ensure all essential ones get re-installed (and then I can know which one, if any, is making my browser invisible). I could do the latter just opening the extensions menu, and the former should be achievable by using the "Refresh" functionality, but I can do neither as I cannot interact with the browser's menu or click on the "Refresh" button in "abbout:support". Short of nuking my profile and starting over, is there any way to get out of this mess? My browser was working perfectly with the same tabs and extensions on Friday (this is the work laptop, hand't booted it since), and now this update does not only break many extensions by design, but has rendered my profile unusable. I'd very much like to fix the latter and not have to spent a lot of time rebuilding it, if at all possible. Thanks in advance for any help any of you can provide.

Chosen solution

hi, can you get your prior firefox profile to launch in firefox safemode and stay on screen by pressing the shift key while it's starting? some users with similar symptoms have said it was due to one of their installed addons...

Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

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Chosen Solution

hi, can you get your prior firefox profile to launch in firefox safemode and stay on screen by pressing the shift key while it's starting? some users with similar symptoms have said it was due to one of their installed addons...

Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

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Hi philipp,

Thank you, that allowed me to both compile a list of installed extensions and use the refresh feature.

Weirdly, even manually disabling the extensions and restarting did not solve the issue, but after refreshing and reinstalling one by one everything works. I did have quite a few things modified on "about:config", so maybe it had to do with that...

Anyway, 15 minutes were enough to get me back on track thanks to you. Thanks a lot!