No one should chastise you for asking questions here. They should give you an answer to the question, or tell you where to find the answer.

As to your problem, let's give this a try;

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

If there is still a problem,

Use these links to create a new profile. Use this new profile as is. Is the problem still there?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar.

Yahoooo! OMG!! Thank you so much FredMcD! I cannot believe how many days I spent in tears over this. And you, Mr Smarty Pants figures it out in a flash. I am really very impressed and incredibly greatful for my luck in you happening to read my sorry tale, and right after I posted it too. Gosh, I wish my doctors were this good, and I wish you got paid as well as they do for all your brain work. I am exhausted but very happy I never have to open chrome again. And that page you sent me to reminded me about the profile manager. I used it in the past but couldnt restore it after a really bad series of hddrive crashes 2 HP laptops ago. The second just got run over by my electric wheelchair - OOPS!  :) <3 to you my dear Fred. You are my favorite person in the world. (uh - except Orange Fox in DC) LOL - just a lovely bunch of people at Moz - worth your weight in Platinum ( and Orange Gold?) THANKS, I will sleep in peace tonight.... and I will come back and try and help out some easier problems if I can. PS- I had to do all of that stuff for it to work, but I dont mind a bit. The refresh button was the kicker!

• • • UPDATE- It didnt stay right, it changed right back on next starting of ffox.

I went thru same steps as yesterday and for a second - right where I said I could see both old and new profiles in same folder - right after 'refresh', then the old one disappears - RIGHT THERE IS THE PROBLEM. In a window ( behind the other's yesterday, but today on top for a brief moment) a window saying its transferring all the info from the old profile to the new one without any input from me - then BANG! its back to screwed up again. I have tried changing locations and names and went thru again - same damn result. FFox thinks its being helpful but its just screwing me over every time I try to fix it. I even tried offline (yeah, stupid idea but you never know) and BANG again. Exactly how is this going to help me - I cannot fix ffox errors if it keeps undoing them. I still dont know what th heck is in my profile that offends these sites. I worked earlier without any addons or protections just to get stuff done but frigging google is everywhere even tho it isnt in my search engines. This is nuts. I have had it.

• • • Update Below for the rest of the fix - more about FredMcD's solution

PS_ I had to do all of that stuff for it to work, but I dont mind a bit.

Was one of your (many) extensions causing this issue or was this about hardware acceleration (more likely)?

Otherwise it could have been a problem with the color settings.

Make sure you allow pages to choose their own colors.

• Options/Preferences -> Content : Fonts & Colors -> Colors : "Override the colors specified by the page with my selections above"

Try "Never" if the default "Only with High Contrast themes" isn't working.

Note that this setting affects background images.

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Website_colors_are_wrong

I'm very glad your problem is solved. Please let us know how you got things going again so others can also benefit from this.

Glad to help. Safe Surfing.

Uptown22 said

I will come back and try and help out some easier problems if I can.

Myself, cor-el, and many others started here asking questions. Now we answer them. Good luck.

cor-el, I didnt have any color enhancements or themes - just defaut til last week i tried one. I dont like to decorate desktops much and dont change windows default either. Boring you might say.

This first started several years ago when I combined certain ad-removals add ons with the no-google analytics. I tried different combinations til I thought I had it right but something along the way didnt want to stay proper and sort of slid back to a inner glitch reminiscent of the old combos that blocked the boxes and other stuff. I did this over a few different desktops and laptops, diff brands too. I found out about profile manager and that worked for a bit til after a virus it didnt install again. So by then tho out came a bunch of new security add-ons and new ad-removers and old ones werent available anymore so I was back to trying combos again. Then the last 2 years frustration prevented my brain from functioning in a helpful way and I just stopped banging my head against the wall. You can have a perfect balance between add-ons and then one update or newby comes along and the married man's eye's start to wander - sliding back to not working right/old habits etc. I wish I could say which it was but I would be guessing - and now they are gone with the refresh solution. Sorry. I hope I answered your questions.

FredMcD - yes, I will explain what I did before i forget so others can follow your steps. 1st- I started in Safe-mode like you said, by holding down the Shift key while starting FFox, answering 'start in safe-mode' button in dialogue box. It opened up but no luck - all three sight s were still box-less. 2nd- I went into History to find the page we were using in FFox with the instructions and I opened all 3 tabs you listed. 3rd - I went to the 1st tab and read how to find the profile. I traveled down that long path to where I found a profile file- it was all alone and its name was a mixture of alpha and numeric with no sense to it, just like it described it.. Before I went any further I made a shortcut for it and dragged the shortcut to the desktop cuz I didnt want to lose it - incase I needed it. 4th - I went to the 2nd tab - the create and remove profiles link - by using the steps and the FFOX Refresh Button. It didnt take long for it to refresh and when it did my old profile file disappeared and a new one was there instead. There is a moment when they are both there if you are watching but it disappears pretty fast. I made another shortcut and dragged it to the desktop so I could keep an eye on it while I checked my 3 sites. 5th- First I checked zoho mzil and everything was perfect, then messenger and their pics were back where they should be including the emoji's. Then gmail amd viola - everything is perfect - 3 for 3! I was so excited I didnt look at the 3rd tab. I guess I didnt need it but if it says it cannot find my profile - well I have a shortcut to both old (gone) and new to answer that query. 6th - I closed firefox and opened the start search box in the windows start menu. I had to try twice - typing firefox.exe -P (no space except before the hyphen or it doesnt find it. A window opens and has the options 'create, delete or rename " a profile buttons along with a 'default' profile listed in the box. I moved the cursor over it and it gave a different set of alpha-numeric characters than the new profile file I was still looking at in the open path & folder from earlier - I hadnt close it yet. So I chose the " create "button and selected the "choose folder "option since I wasnt sure if it had changed that on me. I gave it a name and on hovering after it took the default listed and changed its alpha-numeric name to match the new profile in the old folder I was keeping an eye on. and added my new name for it to the end. Then when I selected the file for it it displayed the same old path and folder that I had open from the beginning. So I left 2 names for the same profile. I figured better safe than sorry. It let me select to start firefox and it did it smoothly without any issues or questions. I didnt need the 3rd tab to fix any problems - there just wasnt any to fix. Does that help? Or do I go on too long? I guess it not just talking that I do too much of. lol  :)

• • • UPDATE BELOW - FredMcD had it right - just needed to go a few more steps

You did very well. When you did a refresh on Firefox, a new profile was created, and elements from the old (passwords, bookmarks . . . .) were copied to the new.

If you should think that something is missing in the new profile, the old one is on your desktop in a folder called Old Firefox.

FredMcd - I had to repeat this step a few times and change folders when creating new but it was a persistent problem until I deleted all my history and bookmarks that had a grey symbol beside them. HELP please - I think it was those specific sites and I think they were from Google Disconnect or from DDG? The grey globe-looking thing beside the bookmarked urls and for entries in history - do you know which of those 2 addons does that symbol??? Now that I copied only the passwords and lost most of the history and bookmarks and creating a new one after all the work and then deleted the default after declaring the new as default in order to use 'delete all files?' button - now I have boxes and lines and avatars and everything is normal. But I am starting from scratch like you said to use it 'as is'. So I have 2 questions for you please - 1 - which add-on was doing that? so i know to avoid it, and 2 - which ONE (1) add-on can I use to stop Google in its tracks and IBA/ads? I know I dont like using several if one or two will do most of the work and protect me - I am not big on fancy themes and unnecessary stuff, just the most important- ads/google and protection. PLEASE HELP ME NOW THAT I cleaned it up and working right, I dont want to go back to before. (Yes, I have backed up this profile and made sure both profiles open clean and proper multiple times)

I don't know about the gray bookmarks. Sorry.

Can you attach a screenshot of the bookmarks issue?

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem
• use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot

Note that if a bookmark is showing a generic favicon then opening this bookmark in a tab by clicking the bookmark should make Firefox retrieve the favicon from the website.

the 3 images right above the list of blue "G boxes" are what I am trying poorly to describe. they usually appear at the beginning of the address bar as well. the 1st entry 's address that starts with http://t1-, and you couldn't possibly see the whole thing in the pic is this: http://t1-members.wayfair.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTUmbXNpZD0xJmF1aWQ9Jm1haWxpbmdpZD00MDQ0MDkzJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD0xMzImZGF0YWJhc2VpZD04NTU0JnNlcmlhbD04Mzg5MjU5MiZlbWFpbGlkPXRpZ2dlcjIyQHpvaG8uY29tJnVzZXJpZD01XzExMDcxMiZ0YXJnZXRpZD0mbW49JmZsPSZtdmlkPSZleHRyYT12YXJpYXRpb249MSYmJg==&&&5690630&&&https://www.wayfair.com/Home-Improvement-C45342.html?&sm=1&refid=MKT_WF_US_EA&csnid=2953A764-3D96-4873-9CD1-6C67DE51EE88&mktem_link=667993E4-BD3C-4BF2-BE90-2D7F5F62116C, is the longest one . the 2nd you can see it in whole. but the other long one, the 3rd is: ; http://activities.mysurvey.com/Waypoint/waypoint/preinbound.wp?lc=en_CA&pnlId=1800&wav=10019892057&panelPartnerId=3-4&ac=1d7cdf4d4140c18c&sn=491176&userid=25655178&lang=E&s=GMI29&l=9&batchno=101

I had to delete them all in order to stop it replicating the copying over of whatever was blanking out my check-boxes and etc. They were the only thing left that transferred from old to new so I assumed it was part of the problem. I could still be way off base but I have had no issues since all the work I have described above and starting with only a handful of history or bookmarks that retained their own images/ symbols. I dont know why that may make sense only that I eliminated everything else first. I am not Sherlock but 'whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be...". I really hope you can figure it out because I really have many sites I want to visit but dont dare without some anti-google weapon for my privacy and safety. I really look forward to seeing what the answers are. Thanks Cor-el.