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The Firefox home screen "Different by design" keeps popping up even after disabling it in preferences.

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by bigmex

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I have installed the new Firefox on my Mac, OSX 10.6.8 by dragging the icon into Applications folder. I launch the app and the Firefox "Different by Design" screen pops up. My previous home page is in a tab behind that. I select "No" on the help improve Firefox question and close the window. Each time I launch Firefox or open a new window then the Firefox home screen returns. I checked the preferences and my company site is set as the home page. It does not matter if I uninstall Firefox, restart the computer and reinstall Firefox. I even tried installing older versions and the same error keeps happening. Also these two solutions did not work: Type about:config in the address bar Click I'll be careful, I promise if prompted In the Filter input field type startup Double click on startup.homepage_override_url Delete the text string and click OK Close Firefox and reopen the window to verify that it has worked.

or this one http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
I have installed the new Firefox on my Mac, OSX 10.6.8 by dragging the icon into Applications folder. I launch the app and the Firefox "Different by Design" screen pops up. My previous home page is in a tab behind that. I select "No" on the help improve Firefox question and close the window. Each time I launch Firefox or open a new window then the Firefox home screen returns. I checked the preferences and my company site is set as the home page. It does not matter if I uninstall Firefox, restart the computer and reinstall Firefox. I even tried installing older versions and the same error keeps happening. Also these two solutions did not work: Type about:config in the address bar Click I'll be careful, I promise if prompted In the Filter input field type startup Double click on startup.homepage_override_url Delete the text string and click OK Close Firefox and reopen the window to verify that it has worked. or this one http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved

All Replies (4)

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Continued from: [/questions/920719] (now locked)

Did you try to remove the prefs.js (and possible user.js) file as suggested in the Preferences_not_saved article?

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Sorry cor-el but removing the pres.js file and restarting Firefox did not work either. I even tried combining the renaming of the preferences with going into about:config and it still did not work. Any other ideas?

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You can try to delete the compatibility.ini file in the Firefox profile folder.

If that still doesn't help then try a new profile.


Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":

There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.

If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

See:

Modified by cor-el

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I deleted the compatability.ini file and the error still happened. I will try creating a new profile next.