dave9 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:40 pm
Is this the correct syntax? "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -purgecaches
Looks right to me.
dave9 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:40 pm
starting over with a new profile
That's not how I roll.
It sounds like you and I feel the same way about our profiles. I've held tenaciously to my current main profile for longer than I've been on this forum, carrying it through many different Firefox/Gecko-based applications (including some pre-releases), and I've had my share of tricky issues I've ferreted out and corrected without starting over.
Let me outline my method and based on that, you can decide whether you want to continue troubleshooting this or just tolerate automatic clearing history. I follow these steps, in order, checking after each one whether the issue exists, until pinning down the culprit(s).
*** Again,
I would *not* do this in a production or otherwise non-disposable environment. ***
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0) Completely quit Firefox and make a backup copy of your main profile. The following steps will involve deleting and replacing stuff from the profile folder, and if nothing else it will be more convenient to have the pristine copy available throughout this.
Also, make sure to always completely quit Firefox before making any manual changes to a profile.
1) Try a new, separate, clean profile with only NoScript (you might consider temporarily disconnecting from the Internet to avoid Firefox auto-updating before you can disable that). If the issue exists here, there is no point continuing on with these steps. If it doesn't exist...
2) Back to your main profile, move or rename prefs.js (and
user.js if it exists). Create a new
user.js with ONLY the following contents (this should be just the very minimum necessary to disable updating) -
Code: Select all
user_pref("app.update.auto", false);
user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);
Start Firefox with -purgecaches command-line option.
3a)
If the issue is gone after (2): Keep the minimal user.js in place to disable updating. Put back your prefs.js and bisect it: delete about half the user_pref lines, and then restart with -purgecaches command-line option. If issue is still gone there, replace with only the other half and test with -purgecaches. Repeat descending into each half, being sure to use -purgecaches after every manual change.
3b)
If the issue still exists after (2): Bisect
all the top-level files and folders in your profile, except the minimal user.js for disabling Firefox updates. Delete about half the files, start Firefox with -purgecaches after every manual change and re-install NoScript or re-confirm the install of NoScript as needed. If no issue, put back the first half and delete the other half instead. Repeat descending into halves based on occurrence of the issue, again being sure to use -purgecaches after every manual change.
4) If the issue is profile-specific, at this point you should know what it is. Confirm the culprit by replacing your entire profile with a copy of the full backup from (0), except for what this procedure points to, and start Firefox with -purgecaches to re-test.