Startup opens blank page instead of homepage
My homepage is set to open a customised page on Startdotme This worked fine until a few weeks ago. However, now when I open Firefox it opens on a blank page. I can go to my homepage manually by clicking the homepage icon.
If I use safe-mode to start Firefox my home page loads correctly. However, even if I disable all my add-ons I still have a blank page on normal start up.
I have worked through the checks that have been suggested elsewhere on the forum for similar problems but without any success, which is why I have now posted this as a new question. I do not have Advanced SystemCare which has been suggested elsewhere as one potential cause of this sort of problem.
Any help gratefully received!
All Replies (11)
Hello Chris,
Just to make sure :
On the "about:config" page, the value of the preference browser.startup.page should be 1 - would you please make sure that it is ?
A value of "0" (zero) opens a blank page ....
If that's not it; would you mind telling us what extensions you have installed ?
Even though it's very unlikely, but some extensions still cause problems, even when they're disabled.
(just trying to make sure that we don't overlook anything ... )
Thanks McCoy
Yes the value of the preference browser.startup.page is 1
The only extensions I have installed at the moment are: Facebook Container LastPass Startdotme
This add-on :
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/startme/?src=search
Something tells me that you should contact the developer (under
"More information" => Support Email)
But maybe you'd better wait and see if someone else will come up with
a brilliant idea .....
McCoy said
This add-on :
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/startme/?src=search
Something tells me that you should contact the developer (under
"More information" => Support Email)
But maybe you'd better wait and see if someone else will come up with
a brilliant idea .....
Thanks, yes I've tried that and had a useful email exchange with them, but they haven't come up with anything that helps yet.
You have set this URL : https://start.me/p/nRrMpL/startpage
as your homepage in Options => Home, which is also the value of this
preference on the "about:config" page: "browser.startup.homepage".
And yet at startup you get a blank page.
I'm hoping that someone will know what's going on here .....
You know, I've been thinking :
We are getting more and more reports about Firefox opening a blank homepage at startup; maybe I've been focussing too much on the fact that for you it works okay in Safe Mode ....
Unless someone comes up with a solution in, let's say less than 24 hours; maybe you could file a bug report :
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi
https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines
This startup problem seems related to cached data. Users who cleared their cache before exiting Firefox generally report the home page can load at the next startup. However, that doesn't seem to last very long, and it might or might not load at the next startup.
It is unclear what might have changed in Firefox 77, or in a reasonably popular add-on or security package, that might be causing this issue. I think we've had nearly four weeks of scattered reports (mostly focused on Yahoo and Gmail) here without discovering the source of the problem, although I admit I can't read every thread.
As you may know, changing from a full URL to just yahoo.com is an effective workaround for Yahoo users, perhaps because Firefox needs to do a redirect and can't just re-use files from its cache. I don't think that kind of extreme shortening is an option with your URL because you want a custom page instead of the home page, so hopefully a real solution will be found.
Are you using external cleanup software that might be causing problems ?
If you use external cleanup software (CCleaner) then check the settings for Firefox.
McCoy said
You know, I've been thinking :
We are getting more and more reports about Firefox opening a blank homepage at startup; maybe I've been focussing too much on the fact that for you it works okay in Safe Mode ....
Unless someone comes up with a solution in, let's say less than 24 hours; maybe you could file a bug report :
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi
https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines
That sounds like a plan. I'll do that.
jscher2000 said
This startup problem seems related to cached data. Users who cleared their cache before exiting Firefox generally report the home page can load at the next startup. However, that doesn't seem to last very long, and it might or might not load at the next startup. It is unclear what might have changed in Firefox 77, or in a reasonably popular add-on or security package, that might be causing this issue. I think we've had nearly four weeks of scattered reports (mostly focused on Yahoo and Gmail) here without discovering the source of the problem, although I admit I can't read every thread. As you may know, changing from a full URL to just yahoo.com is an effective workaround for Yahoo users, perhaps because Firefox needs to do a redirect and can't just re-use files from its cache. I don't think that kind of extreme shortening is an option with your URL because you want a custom page instead of the home page, so hopefully a real solution will be found.
Thanks. It's helpful to be clear that it is probably not specific to my system or particular homepage. If nothing turns up shortly I'll try filing a bug report as McCoy suggested.
cor-el said
Are you using external cleanup software that might be causing problems ? If you use external cleanup software (CCleaner) then check the settings for Firefox.
Thanks for the suggestion. I usually run CCleaner every few months or so, but haven't used it recently and certainly no time near when this problem started or since, so I don't think that's the problem. I haven't run anything else recently either.