Icons placed in customized navigation toolbar keep dropping off
I"ve customized my navigation toolbar, using the right click - Customize option, to hold the icons I want. Firefox randomly keeps dropping the icons back into the customize window and I have to subsequently rebuild the toolbar.
Usually it happens in response to a crash (of FF, not the OS), sometimes not. Other times it happens when I mistakenly click my desktop icon a second time to open Firefox, when it's already loading in the background. Other times it happens when I reopen FF after Vista comes out of hibernation , other times not. If FF stalls during close but then closes on its own, as when my CPU is running high, seems to be anothert time it's more likely to happen.
The only common denominator is a difficult open or close.
I'm prety tired of doing this, especially since the icons are essential to my work. The nav bar reverts to the back/forward arrows, reload, stop and home buttons and the address and search bar.
In response to searching the forums I tried deleting the localstore.rdf file so it could regenerate. That hasn't helped. I think when this first started I migrated my profile. I can't remember if it helped temporarily, but obviously I now have the problem again.
If there is no solution for this beyond rebuilding my profile again or turning off the extensiosn and hoping this somewhat random problem occurs again, is anyone aware of an add on that can "lock" my navigation bar, or take a picture so I can restore it with one click. I have FEBE but it doesn't cover personalizations like this.
Chosen solution
Make a copy of the localstore.rdf file when the icons are in the correct place, and when the Nav bar gets broken again, copy that file back into your Profile folder. That will at least save you the time it takes to re-Customize your toolbars.
With as many extensions as you have installed, there is probably a conflict between some of those extensions, which is causing that problem. IMO, trying to pinpoint exactly which extension (or two, or three) are the base cause of that problem would be real time consuming. (Been there, done that a number of times over the last 9 years.)
As far as trying to really fix the cause, it might be in your best interests to create a new Profile and install only the extensions that you are currently using - you seem to have number of disabled extensions, but are still installed. Using this article as a guide - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions - avoid extensions that have been reported as problematic. If there are any on that list that are "must have" for you, install those last after you have the others installed and have used the new Profile to make sure you're nit having that same problem.
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I should also mention that I keep all my toolbars hidden except for the navigation and bookmarks toolbar, and I've moved two icons from the Google toolbar and a couple for ad-ons to the bookmarks bar. Sometimes those icons disappear also, sometimes they stay in place even though the ones on the navigation bar disappear.
Chosen Solution
Make a copy of the localstore.rdf file when the icons are in the correct place, and when the Nav bar gets broken again, copy that file back into your Profile folder. That will at least save you the time it takes to re-Customize your toolbars.
With as many extensions as you have installed, there is probably a conflict between some of those extensions, which is causing that problem. IMO, trying to pinpoint exactly which extension (or two, or three) are the base cause of that problem would be real time consuming. (Been there, done that a number of times over the last 9 years.)
As far as trying to really fix the cause, it might be in your best interests to create a new Profile and install only the extensions that you are currently using - you seem to have number of disabled extensions, but are still installed. Using this article as a guide - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions - avoid extensions that have been reported as problematic. If there are any on that list that are "must have" for you, install those last after you have the others installed and have used the new Profile to make sure you're nit having that same problem.
Thanks, ed, as usual you are quick and right on target.
I checked the problematic extensions list as recently as three or four months ago and had none of the versions that were reported as being problems. I'll look it over again later this evening.
I also know that the large list of extensions may be causing this. However, I've installed relatively few extensions since this problem started, and most of those *after* this started happening, which was why I thought this might not necessarily be an extension conflict.
I'll also see if some disabled extensions might be installed. I know I have a reason for keeping a few of them, but most can probably be uninstalled.
I'll take your advice about locastore.rdf, but one last question: If I replace localstore with a backup, is there anything else that might be affected? What else that I've made a change to in the browser might be undone if I copy in a saved locasltore file?
Basically that file just saves all the user customizations to the User Interface.
It's not always from newly installed extensions. I had enough of problems after upgrading to a new major version of Firefox in the real early days, so since then I always create a new Profile for each new version that comes out. 1.5 to 2.0 to 3.0 to 3.5 to 3.6 to 4.0 But I have had "incompatibility" between extensions show up after a minor version update, too. I stay away from extensions that "do too much" like All in One Sidebar and Tab Mix Plus; I stick more with single purpose extensions, that might only add one or two features, but they don't come into conflict with other extensions I may have installed. 56 with 8 disabled on this Profile that I have been using for 14 months.
That's a good idea (new profile with each upgrade). I'll do the same. Thanks again.
You're welcome.
localstore.rdf !!!
I don't want to have to do this. I want - make that expect - Firefox to work properly. This isn't a beta version. They've taken months over this and it's the most unstable-on-release version yet. And the yahoo toolbar, which I hate keeps appearing. Aaagh! What a shocking product! Is anyone in charge at Mozilla, or what?
Modified by JohnTruman
I was having this exact problem after I upgraded to ff4. After trying various things that did not work, finally for some reason, I forget what, I began to suspect the Google toolbar, which I don't use much at all but keep hidden for when I want to use something on it. Well, I decided to dump Google toolbar altogether and everything has been running just perfect since then (about 2 days of heavy use). Luckily, I don't miss it at all. No more sneaky tricks with my stuff, they all stay put. I think there is some incompatability between ff4 and the Google toolbar.
This problem was for Firefox 3.6.12. Maybe it would be better to start a new thread since this problem, for a version of FF completely different from 4, has been marked as solved.
I stay away from the majority of the tool bars created by 3-party companies if I can help it. I try and create my own. Especially the search engines tool bars.
The search bar underneath FF3.6+ and FF4 can be customized to your choosing. I use Google SSL for my primary search engine and I use one of the add ons to customize my search engines as well.