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How can I exit the "Customize" screen after I have changed my layout?

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After clicking on on the customize button in the new menu (with a + next to it), I cannot seem to get out of the customization screen. Clicking on "Customize" again (this time showing in green with a check next to it) does not exit the customization screen.

After clicking on on the customize button in the new menu (with a + next to it), I cannot seem to get out of the customization screen. Clicking on "Customize" again (this time showing in green with a check next to it) does not exit the customization screen.

Chosen solution

OK... got it fixed. One of the reasons I was so resistant to starting from scratch was that I had all my settings exactly as I liked them, all the extensions installed I needed and wanted. BUT I ended up using MozBackup to set up my FF browser at work the same exact way, since the Sync thing didn't seem to work for some reason. So dropped that into my Drop Box and after the update I noticed the Customized button worked just fine. So today I tried something.

1) I dragged and dropped the Profile folder with all it's contents onto my desktop 2) Deleted the Profile Config file that lives just outside the profile folder (we are talking about the AppData folder location) 3) Restarted FF to have it build a new Profile folder 4) Shut down FF 5) Dragged and dropped just the extensions folder along with any folder that belonged to them, also cookies.sqlite , formhistory.sqlite, signons.sqlite and the bookmarkbackups, storage, weave and jetpack folders into the newly created profile folder. 6) Restarted FF and tried the Customize button. That worked. But then I had to OK permission to install all the extensions but found it was easier to just say yes to all of them and then the last one that had a Restart FF need I hit that and let it restart.

Customize is fixed, my browser is good. The Bookmarks from Sync finally loaded in the bookmarks. So that's all done too.

Question... what is the name of the file for the bookmarks? Is it still stored in the AppData> Mozilla> ....Profile folder or is it kept somewhere else now? I certainly don't see it in the old or new profile folder!

Thanks!

Richard

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All Replies (10)

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What is supposed to happen is that when you click the green "Exit Customize" button, Firefox should close the Customize tab.

I believe your changes are saved as you go, so you may be able to simply close the tab yourself, the way you close any other tab.

But it's odd that the button doesn't work for you. I wonder whether it might be interacting with one of your extensions??

If you wouldn't mind doing a test, you could try using the Customize feature in Firefox's Safe Mode. That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using

Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled (Flash and other plugins still run)

In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)

Does the "Exit Customization" button work correctly in Safe Mode?

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Hi Jscher -- thanks for your response. The experiment did work, and the exit customization does work in safe mode with add-ons disabled. I see that one approach to fixing this is to disable any add-ons I have, however do you have any thoughts on how I might be able to continue with my add-ons?

Thanks again.

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Thanks for checking that. This is all very new, and some developers may not have issued updates for their extensions yet. Or maybe they have issued updates but Firefox didn't load them yet. Here's what I suggest.

Exit Safe Mode Firefox and start back up in normal mode. Use History > Restore Previous Session if needed.

Open the Add-ons page using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then click the "gear" button above the list and choose "Check for Updates". (I think it's still located there; I don't have Fx29 on this particular PC.)

If updating doesn't help, try disabling any nonessential or unrecognized extensions to see whether that does the trick.

When you are down to just extensions that are important, consider whether any of them change the way tabs work in Firefox. Those would be the ones I would be most suspicious of.

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You can also check for issues with the preferences and possibly the localstore.rdf file.

Delete a possible user.js file and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename (or delete) 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 the current Firefox release.

You can check for problems caused by a corrupted localstore.rdf file.

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Doesn't work for me either. This is a bug. I have to shut down FF each time but I loose all my tabs in doing so. Please look into this Mozilla.

Yes, I'm running the most up to date version. Interestingly the customizations are saved so that's a good thing at least.

PS.. THANKS for fixing the log on issue with Google Plus. I can now keep my multiple GMail's logged in and continue to work in Google Plus without being suddenly logged out. This brought me back to FF after I switched to Chrome. Please don't break this function.

Thanks

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Hi Richard, not to cause aggravation, but if you want to experiment a bit more:

When you start Customize, does it launch into a new tab, or take over the current tab?

When you are done with Customize, can you close the tab one of the usual ways, such as Ctrl+w or clicking the X on the tab?

When you restart Firefox, to restore your previous session windows and tabs, you could try the History menu:

  • Restore Previous Session
  • Recently Closed Tabs
  • Recently Closed Windows

This isn't available for private browsing windows.

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This installation of Firefox is brand new. When I quite and moved over to Chrome I uninstalled everything including all the app data folder stuff. So there should be NOTHING wrong with this installation. I really don't relish the idea of starting over again, esp since I spent a day installing all the extensions I need... on that note this was going on before I started installing extensions so it's not that either.

The customize button regardless of a right click on the bar and select "Customize" or clicking the settings icon and then selecting the "Customize" button on the bottom there. It seems to NOT open in a new tab. The entire interface becomes very minimal with all the dotted outlines to select elements.

PS.. I'm no newbie, been working with FF since it was a beta years and years ago...

Thanks, Richard

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Chosen Solution

OK... got it fixed. One of the reasons I was so resistant to starting from scratch was that I had all my settings exactly as I liked them, all the extensions installed I needed and wanted. BUT I ended up using MozBackup to set up my FF browser at work the same exact way, since the Sync thing didn't seem to work for some reason. So dropped that into my Drop Box and after the update I noticed the Customized button worked just fine. So today I tried something.

1) I dragged and dropped the Profile folder with all it's contents onto my desktop 2) Deleted the Profile Config file that lives just outside the profile folder (we are talking about the AppData folder location) 3) Restarted FF to have it build a new Profile folder 4) Shut down FF 5) Dragged and dropped just the extensions folder along with any folder that belonged to them, also cookies.sqlite , formhistory.sqlite, signons.sqlite and the bookmarkbackups, storage, weave and jetpack folders into the newly created profile folder. 6) Restarted FF and tried the Customize button. That worked. But then I had to OK permission to install all the extensions but found it was easier to just say yes to all of them and then the last one that had a Restart FF need I hit that and let it restart.

Customize is fixed, my browser is good. The Bookmarks from Sync finally loaded in the bookmarks. So that's all done too.

Question... what is the name of the file for the bookmarks? Is it still stored in the AppData> Mozilla> ....Profile folder or is it kept somewhere else now? I certainly don't see it in the old or new profile folder!

Thanks!

Richard

Modified by Richard McWolff

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Good work. In the old days, extensions often saved data in prefs.js, so if you find you are missing extension data, you could take a look in the old one (check the preferences starting with extension).

The active copy of bookmarks and history is in the places.sqlite database file. Bookmarks are regularly backed up to the bookmarkbackups folder; if you wanted to restore one of those, this article has the steps: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.

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Thanks so much for your help and all the hints found in this thread!  :-)