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Tab/tool bar for some websites is now empty

  • 20 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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espn.com has bar at the top for showing the latest scores, and a tab bar below it for choosing specifics sports and some other things. Likewise, free.com has a tab bar at the top for choosing newspaper sections. They are now all empty (although the space is still present) when using Firefox. They display properly with Safari. This happened in the past few days. I think it happened when I upgraded to 66.0.3, although at that time I also played around with some settings try to fix a problem related to the upgrade (Firefox crashed during the upgrade and I lost my tabs as a result).

espn.com has bar at the top for showing the latest scores, and a tab bar below it for choosing specifics sports and some other things. Likewise, free.com has a tab bar at the top for choosing newspaper sections. They are now all empty (although the space is still present) when using Firefox. They display properly with Safari. This happened in the past few days. I think it happened when I upgraded to 66.0.3, although at that time I also played around with some settings try to fix a problem related to the upgrade (Firefox crashed during the upgrade and I lost my tabs as a result).

All Replies (20)

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Make sure you are not blocking content.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link}

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?


One issue that seems more common lately is Firefox's Tracking Protection feature. When it is blocking content in a page, a shield icon will appear at the left end of the address bar next to the padlock icon. This article has more info on managing this feature: Tracking Protection {web link}

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I should have mentioned I already tried safe-mode and that did not help.

I don't see a shield icon at the left end of the address bar.

I just noticed a typo in my original post. The 2nd website I mentioned that I'm having the issue with is freep.com, not free.com.

Modified by seejp

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Many site issues can be caused by corrupt cookies or cache.

Warning ! ! This will log you out of sites you're logged in to. You may also lose any settings for that website.

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Clearing cache and cookies did not help.

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https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clear+Recent+History#w_how-do-i-remove-a-single-website-from-my-history

Remove History For One Site

Open the History Manager <Control><Shift> H. In the search bar, enter the name of the site. Right-click on one of the listings and select Forget About This Site. This should remove all information, including any settings.

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Forgetting about the site didn't help either.

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I called for more help.

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Found another site with an issue. On homedepot.com, the tab bar does appear. However, normally when you hover over a tab item (for most of the items) you will see a popup with a bunch of subcategories. Works with Safari but not Firefox.

Also go to https://www.homedepot.com/StoreFinder/, enter a zip code and press the search icon. No stores are found. On Safari, even though I cleared out cookies and denied info about my location, it shows a default list with stores in the vicinity of my ISP, and allows my to enter a zipcode for a more directed search.

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I used Firefox versions 54 and 66. I had no problem.

seejp said

I should have mentioned I already tried safe-mode

Start your Computer in safe mode with network support. Then start Firefox. Try Secure websites. Is the problem still there?

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Linux+Safe+Mode Starting Any Computer In Safe Mode; Free Online Encyclopedia

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Can you attach a screenshot?

You can check the Web Console (Tools -> Web Developer) for messages about blocked content and about the presence of mixed or unsafe content.

You can check the Network Monitor to see if content is blocked or otherwise fails to load.

If necessary use "Ctrl+F5" or "Ctrl+Shift+R" (Mac: Command+Shift+R) to reload the page and bypass the cache to generate a fresh log.

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Weird. The problem has suddenly gone away. Not sure what I did to fix it. I just now switched to a different user on this machine that hasn't been logged into in months. Restored a month old version of FireFox. Didn't see the problem. Ran current version and still didn't see the problem. Went back to my main account, turned on the debug console, and noticed that the page was displaying normally.

I'm not exactly sure when the problem went away since I did not verify it was still happening before doing any of the above. Could be it has nothing to do with what I did above, and just resolved itself somehow the past 24 hours without me realizing it.

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That was very good work. Well done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem so others will know.

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I spoke too soon. homedepot.com seems to be fixed, but freep.com is not. However, it works fine when I use the other account on the same machine. There were a couple of suggestions above that I haven't gotten to yet. I'll give them a try over the weekend.

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The freep server uses the DigiCert SHA2 High Assurance Server CA intermediate certificate. I've lately seen issues reported with servers that use the certificate.

If you can locate this certificate in the Certificate Manager under the Authorities tab (scroll down to DigiCert) then try to remove this certificate. It should have a "Software Security Device" designation.

If this didn't help then try to rename the cert9.db (cert9.db.old) file and remove the previously used cert8.db file in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed to remove intermediate certificates and exceptions that Firefox has stored.

If this has helped to solve the problem then you can remove the renamed cert9.db.old file. Otherwise you can undo the rename and restore cert9.db.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:preferences page.

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If I simply drag the cert8.db and cert9.db files out of the profile folder, then it seems every site I go to has problems. Anything from refusing to connect for security reasons, to displaying a badly garbled web page.

I'm thinking of starting anew with a new profile, but before doing that was wondering if there is some sort of security reset I could do that would allow deleting cert8.db and cert9.db without the above issues.

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Did you try to remove only the specific certificate in the Certificate Manager?

It sounds that you have security software that adds its certificate to Firefox. Is your security software covered in this article?

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Yes, I did try removing DigiCert SHA2 High Assurance Server CA to resolve the freep.com issue. No help.

I am using Avast. I just disabled its web shield and that seems to have resolved a lot of issues, including those I saw when throwing out cert8.db and cert9.db. Among the issues resolved is a website with a table of measurements, and little buttons to toggle between inches and mm. Clicking on mm used to not work, but now does. On another commerce website I was having issues with "Add to cart" not doing anything. That seems to also work now, although I've also gotten it to work in the past by clearing the cache and cookies.

What still doesn't work is the original issue I mentioned with the tab bar not appearing on freep.com. Also what doesn't work is previewing a song on itunes.apple.com. Clicking on the play button does nothing. It works fine with the same version of Firefox when I use a different account on the same machine.

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Correction with the preview issue on itunes.apple.com. This was with the old cert8.db and cert9.db. I just removed them again, and now previewing works. Still have the tab bar issue with freep.com.

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Ugh. And after clearing the cache (hoping the resolve the freep.com issue), the issue with the table in mm and inches is back. Can no longer toggle to mm. And the itunes preview button issue is also back. :(

Restoring in safe mode fixed both these issues, but then I restarted again not in safe mode and they are still resolved. Will see how long that lasts.

Modified by seejp

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If you only clear the browsing cache then you shouldn't lose website settings. Website settings are usually stored in cookies on your computer, so as long as you do not clear these cookies you shouldn't lose these settings. If you need to recover from some errors then you may have to clear the site's cookies as well. As a last resort you can try "Forget About This Site".

You can remove all data stored in Firefox from a specific domain via "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of an history entry ("History -> Show All History" or "View -> Sidebar -> History").

Using "Forget About This Site" will remove all data stored in Firefox from this domain like history and cookies and passwords and exceptions and cache, so be cautious. If you have a password or other data from that domain that you do not want to lose then make sure to backup this data or make a note.

You can't recover from this 'forget' unless you have a backup of involved files.

If you revisit a 'forgotten' website then data from that website will be saved once again.