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How do I stop the "Reset Firefox" prompt appearing when there is no need for it?
Every time I start Firefox I now get the reset firefox prompt in the status bar:
"It looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while. Do you want to clean it up .... etc."
I use Firefox practically every day, so it is not true that I haven't used it in a while. After a bit of research, I read that Firefox may display this prompt if it has diagnosed other problems, particularly with add-ons. I haven't noticed any problems in my normal use, and I don't think that it is reasonable to expect me to wipe all my installed add-ons and then re-install and re-configure them again just to make this annoying prompt go away, when it is not giving me any details about the so-called "problem".
Is there any way of getting Firefox to tell me what it thinks the problem is so that I can try to fix it? Failing that, can this prompt be disabled completely?
All Replies (6)
hello pakmoz, please try to rename/delete the parent.lock file in your profile folder - it is used to detect the time when the profile was active the last time & once there has been no activity for 60 days, you'll get the prompt you've referred to in your question.
maybe the file is write-protected or corrupted and that's why you get the notice each time you start firefox...
OK - I'm using linux so the file is .parentlock and deleting it does stop the invitation to reset firefox appearing. But this is not a complete solution. .parentlock is re-created when I start firefox up again, and after that when I exit and restart firefox the timestamp on .parentlock is not updated. Unless I delete this file again, the prompt will reappear in 60 days.....
I suspect that I have found a bug, and when I have time I may try with a development version and file a report if the behaviour is still there. For the record, I am using openSUSE 12.3 with the stock firefox that comes with it, currently version 25.0. Possibly relevant: my profile directory is in an NFSv4 filesystem (but other files in the profile directory are having their timestamps updated).
Did you check that Firefox and possible plugin-container processes are ended properly when you quit Firefox?
Did you check the permissions and owner of the .parentlock file?
Does it help if you use Firefox > Quit instead of clicking the close X on the title bar?
The .parentlock files in all profiles are updating their time stamp properly for me.
@cor-el: thanks for the suggestions
The permissions of the .parentlock file are 0644 and the owner/group are correct (my user id and my principal login group). The profile directory has permissions 0700 and the correct ownership as well. (The user/group are not local, but come from an LDAP authentication server: might that be significant?)
Using Quit (which I normally do anyway) rather than closing the window(s) makes no difference.
I have tried the nightly build now (28.0a1), and the problem is still there, even when I create a new profile. (I start up the browser, create a new profile, wait a couple of minutes, do "quit", do "ps -fu <me> | grep -i firefox" to check that it isn't still running somewhere.) The timestamp of .parentlock is when I started firefox up, not when I shut it down.
If no-one else is seeing this problem, it may be to do with my setup or network environment. I need to investigate a bit further. Thanks for the hints.
I have repeated the test with nightly, but this time created the new profile on a local filesystem (ext4 FWIW) rather than an NFS-mounted one. As before the timestamp on .parentlock is not updated when firefox exits, so almost certainly a bug. If there is a problem with permissions/ownership, that problem is created by firefox, so still a bug :-) (given that the profile is a brand new one).
I'll report this on bugzilla as soon as I can.
This is an old thread, but the issue can come up again. If the date on your computer clock was inadvertently changed (by looking up a date in the past and accidentally hitting apply), then you open firefox, it logs an earlier date. If you then fix the date, firefox thinks it wasn't opened in a while.
Just hit cancel and the issue should be resolved.