Unremovable user.js script
I installed a user.js script to my profile, and even after deleting the file itself, the settings keep changing to what it wants, despite the file being deleted.
I've been troubleshooting this for a few hours now, and i surmise it got embedded in my firefox account somehow, because when i close firefox in task manager i can see a bunch of firefox processes doing stuff for about 30 seconds, and if i launch firefox again after that my browser is messed up.
In window's firewall i set a rule to not let firefox send and receive packets and while a block on receiving didnt do anything, the block on firefox sending data did prevent it from applying that fking user.js script. However, if firefox cant talk to websites its obviously useless, so im stumped.
I have deleted every single folder on my computer firefox uses, including cleaning the registry of its things aswell, so it has to be downloading that script from some server, but i havent been able to figure out from where. I assume its attached to my firefox account because, where else could it be getting the script from?
When i was installing the user.js script, i had no clue it would be so damn hard to get rid of. Thank fuck i have a backup of my profile.
All Replies (6)
You can check what .js files are present in the "defaults\pref" folder in the Firefox program folder. The channel-prefs.js file that sets app.update.channel is a legitimate file in this folder, any other .js file is suspicious. You can open this suspect file in a plain text editor like Notepad (Mac: TextEdit) and please post its content to see whether that allows to identify what software created the file. Also please post the content of the autoconfig.cfg file referenced in this autoconfig.js file.
There shouldn't be a autoconfig.cfg file present unless you've created it yourself to initialize some prefs.
If you have such an autoconfig.cfg file, best is to do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder to make sure that all files are removed before reinstalling a freshly downloaded copy of Firefox.
cor-el said
You can check what .js files are present in the "defaults\pref" folder in the Firefox program folder. The channel-prefs.js file that sets app.update.channel is a legitimate file in this folder, any other .js file is suspicious. You can open this suspect file in a plain text editor like Notepad (Mac: TextEdit) and please post its content to see whether that allows to identify what software created the file. Also please post the content of the autoconfig.cfg file referenced in this autoconfig.js file. There shouldn't be a autoconfig.cfg file present unless you've created it yourself to initialize some prefs. If you have such an autoconfig.cfg file, best is to do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder to make sure that all files are removed before reinstalling a freshly downloaded copy of Firefox.
Before making this i reinstalled firefox like 4-5 times in various ways, with various configurations like keeping settings, not keeping settings etc. channelprefs file: /* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
* License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
// // This pref is in its own file for complex reasons. See the comment in // browser/app/Makefile.in, bug 756325, and bug 1431342 for details. Do not add // other prefs to this file.
pref("app.update.channel", "release");
Its essentially empty.
There is neither an autoconfig.cfg nor a .js.
Since making this post i figured out that if i log out of my firefox account that solves the issue, because if i stay logged in, when closing firefox it downloads the script or the settings the script made 'from my account'.
You can see which settings are synced by going to about:config and searching for services.sync.prefs.
It is possible that this is about syncing prefs from other devices. Maybe disable syncing prefs.
You can check for problems with preferences. You can delete possible user.js and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename/remove the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in current Firefox releases.
You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).
- Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
zeroknight said
You can see which settings are synced by going to about:config and searching for services.sync.prefs.Okay, how do i remove the settings it syncs?
cor-el said
It is possible that this is about syncing prefs from other devices. Maybe disable syncing prefs. You can check for problems with preferences. You can delete possible user.js and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename/remove the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in current Firefox releases. You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).
- Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
This is great and all but as i said i already deleted the user.js file and reinstalled firefox several times. The settings i dont like are not on my computer. They get synced to firefox on my computer when im logged into my account and close the browser.
How do i clear the 'storage' on my account?
You can reset the password of the Sync account to clear/reset all data stored on the Sync server. Best is to reconnect the device with important data first and then possibly other devices. Make sure to reset the settings on suspect devices before reconnecting them to Sync.