Foxmarks 2.5 causes customized toolbars to lose their configuration

Edited on 10/18/08

Ok, I reported this in another thread, but it doesn't seem to fit. Foxmarks 2.5 hosed my FF profile. When I first installed 2.5 and restarted, I had lost the majority of the buttons on my nav bar - I have a highly customized toolbar setup. I restarted and got all but 1 button back (I still can't restore my Secure Login button). My Awesome Bar is not functioning correctly now either. Now, nothing appears in my address bar on any tab. I can type in a URL, but I can't navigate to that address by clicking Enter or the Go arrow. The only way I can move around now is to get there from a link or from my bookmarks. I have uninstalled Foxmarks and Secure Login and reinstalled Foxmarks 2.1.0.12 and the newest version of Secure Login with no success. I'm about to create a new profile, but I really don't want to do that.
I'm using FF 3.0.3 on Win Vista Business with 2GB mem. This is highly frustrating.

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Gaurav, Employee, replied on October 29, 2008 00:16
Hi folks,

The last fix did not resolve this issue, but we aren't giving up! Here's another version of Foxmarks that contains a possible fix. Since we haven't been able to reproduce this issue, we need your help in verifying the fix. If you are interested in helping, please download this test version, and let us know if your problem is resolved.

Download Foxmarks v2.5.5

Thank you all for your patience and help in resolving this problem.

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Eric, Official Rep, replied on October 15, 2008 20:36

How is your toolbar "customized"? With extensions, or just using the built-in settings in Firefox?

If Foxmarks were the underlying cause here, I would think that uninstalling would fix things (we had a similar report on our blog that seemed fixed by uninstalling), so the fact that you're not seeing a fix when you uninstall points more toward profile corruption to me.

I’m perplexed

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Russ replied on October 15, 2008 22:47

I have customized my navbar by moving all buttons to one toolbar and minimizing the menu structure using the Tiny Menu extension.

I have a problem with stating that these issues are due to my profile being corrupt, independent of Foxmarks being updated. Firefox was functioning perfectly prior to updating. This behavior didn't exist until immediately after the Foxmarks update. While I would agree that my FF profile has been corrupted, I would lean heavily towards Foxmarks being the cause of the corruption - these are not mutually exclusive events from my perspective.

I’m confused

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Eric, Official Rep, replied on October 15, 2008 22:57

You're right, there definitely seems to be a causality here, and my splitting hairs on the underlying cause isn't really helping. Sorry about that.

The confusing bit is that Foxmarks doesn't explicitly write to the toolbars in the main browser window (aside from the statusbar at the bottom of the window), so it's not immediately clear how Foxmarks could have contributed to this.

I'll concede it's possible that it's not Firefox profile corruption--we never came across this problem in all our beta testing, though, and are having trouble replicating it on our end.

Does uninstalling and reinstalling Tiny Menu help things at all?

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Russ replied on October 15, 2008 23:11

No. Just tried that. This is really odd. I see where you are coming - it doesn't make sense that these events would occur. I have been using Foxmarks practically since it was first released and have never run into issues even remotely similar to this.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Secure Login extension and uninstalling Foxmarks 2.5 and reinstalling the previous version as well. No luck. I'm not sure that I'm going to resolve this any other way than to recreate my profile (now i wish I had backed up my profile).

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andi commented on October 16, 2008 15:37

I have the same problem with foxmarks 2.5.0 and firefox 3.0.3 on mac os x 10.4.11. After updating to foxmarks 2.5.0 and restarting firefox, nav buttons don't work, all bookmarks are gone, I can't bookmark anything and foxmarks also doesn't work. The problem is foxmarks. I deleted my firefox profile, so that a new profile is created upon starting firefox. firefox works fine and I can close and restart firefox without problems. After installing foxmarks 2.5.0 I can sync my bookmarks and everything still works fine - until I close and restart firefox, then the problem is back.
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frodtab replied on October 17, 2008 05:40

I too lost my navigation bar when upgrading to 2.5 today. Everything else appears fine, except the navigation bar. My navigation bar had numerous custom icons, including icons for other Firefox Add-ins like Morning Coffee, ToodleDo, Print Preview and Evernote. I tried disabling the other add-ons and 2.5, then re-enabling everything but 2.5 to no avail. I'm uninstalling Foxmarks next to see if that helps.

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Russ replied on October 17, 2008 06:59

I wasn't able to resolve my problem without completely uninstalling FF and reinstalling everything. I have yet to install Foxmarks on that computer though, since I want to get everything where I want it and then backup my profile before making the attempt.
On a side note, I am still missing my Secure Login button even after the fresh reinstall, so it is likely Foxmarks did not affect that. My awesome bar is functioning correctly now though.

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frodtab replied on October 17, 2008 16:52

My only "solution" was did not require the same level that Russ' did. I had to uninstall all of the add-ons that added buttons to my Navigation Toolbar, uninstall Foxmarks 2.5 and then reinstall them and they were added back to the Navigation Toolbar. I then installed the older version of Foxmarks which appears to be operating correctly. I think I'll stay away from 2.5 until this gets resolved.

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Russ replied on October 17, 2008 18:28

It's probably helpful to note that I was able to successfully upgrade 2 other computers to 2.5 yesterday with no problems. I have yet to implement password sync on those computers but my profile was not damaged in the upgrade process.

Also, I just finished a clean install of FF 3.0.3 and installed Foxmarks 2.5 fresh (no upgrade) and everything worked perfectly. I have also set up password sync on this computer without a problem.

So, I though of a couple of things. My 2 computers that upgraded successfully are running Win XP. The computer with the hosed FF profile in Win Vista Business. Also, my Win Vista machine is working just fine now with a direct install of 2.5, not an upgrade. What is the possibility of Vista and an upgrade of Foxmarks causing my issue?

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Gaurav, Employee, replied on October 17, 2008 19:23

Hi everyone, we've been working hard to figure out how to resolve this issue. We have a test client that may solve the problem but we're not sure since we cannot reproduce it.

We would love our help in giving our test client a try and telling us if it resolves this problem. Please make sure that you can reproduce the issue and then try our test client to see if it solves it. Let us know how it goes!

Download Test Client v2.5.3

Thank you all for your patience and support.

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Russ commented on October 17, 2008 21:58

Gaurav, I'm very willing to help with this, but I just did a fresh install of FF and Foxmarks 2.5 on the machine that was broken. Everything is working correctly now including my FF awesome bar and Foxmarks. Would you still like me to install this new client?
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Gaurav, (Employee), commented on October 17, 2008 22:21

That's ok Russ, don't worry about testing this since it's already working. Thank you for your offer though. Let us know if you see the issue again, and if so, give 2.5.3 a try.
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Gaurav, Employee, replied on October 18, 2008 00:51

Hi everyone, we've been working hard to figure out how to resolve this issue and think that the latest release on the official Firefox Add-ons site may resolve the issue. Try downloading that version (it will be 2.5.3 or greater) and let us know if it solves the problem for you.

Thank you all for your help in investigating this issue and your patience as we try to reproduce and fix it.

I’m hopeful that we've found the problem

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rleeden commented on October 18, 2008 09:24

I hadn't got round to reporting that I was seeing this issue too. My google toolbar with customised buttons was getting messed up after Foxmarks updates. I was having to restart Firefox twice and then redo some customisations to get back things to normal. Anyway, looks like this latest version fixes things. As always thanks for all the work Gaurav - Foxmarks is going from strength to strength.
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rleeden commented on October 18, 2008 09:25

I hadn't got round to reporting that I was seeing this issue too. My google toolbar with customised buttons was getting messed up after Foxmarks updates. I was having to restart Firefox twice and then redo some customisations to get things back to normal. Anyway, looks like this latest version fixes things. As always thanks for all the work Gaurav - Foxmarks is going from strength to strength.
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frodtab commented on October 18, 2008 16:55

This worked for me. I had downgraded to the previous version of Foxmarks and re-installed the items on my Navigation bar. Upgrading to 2.5.3 worked fine as my Navigation bar was preserved this time. Thanks!
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hiro replied on October 18, 2008 14:01

I had this problem with 2.5.0, so I restored a backup of my profile. I just tried 2.5.3, and the problem persists.

Here's some tech info since it may help:
Firefox 3.0.3
Mac OS X 10.5.5

I have three toolbars:
+ Default, which I have rearranged to have the same layout as Safari's toolbar. This toolbar doesn't contain anything from extensions.
+ Extras, my custom toolbar, which has History, Bookmarks, Downloads, as well as several toolbar icons and widgets for these other extensions:
- Mouse Gestures Redox
- StumbleUpon
- Cooliris
- Rikai-chan
- Web Developer
- Tab Mix Plus
- Net Usage Item
+ Bookmarks, which I've customized to have some links and RSS feeds.

Upon restarting after updating to 2.5.*, the default toolbar resets to Firefox's original state. My Extras toolbar disappears completely. The Bookmarks toolbar is not affected.

If I right click the toolbar and choose "Customise...", all toolbar icons and widgets added there by other extension will be gone, it has effectively been reset to Firefox's original state as well.

I'm as perplexed as everyone else here, but I have a strong feeling there's a certain combination of extensions and/or settings in about:config which is causing this. Maybe the easiest way to find out the issue is for the dev team to have access to a profile where this problem exists, since they can't reproduce it themselves?

I’m mr. sad face and i'm sad :(

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slim_shady replied on October 18, 2008 18:08

My problem persists too, can you please look into it again???

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Guerol replied on October 19, 2008 10:59

I just tried 2.5.3, and the problem persists.

Here's some tech info since it may help:
Firefox 3.0.3
Vista Ultimate (without SP1)

otherwise very similar to hiro's description.

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rp1790 replied on October 20, 2008 13:33

Not 100% certain that this is the same problem but I am no longer able to add a folder to my bookmarks toolbar and get it to sync. If I create a folder and then copy some existing bookmarks into it I get this sort of error:

"[2008-10-20 08:16:30] Warning: Filtering fm9cmnti-2 as a corrupted duplicate in parent N (fmj36uvb-1)
[2008-10-20 08:16:31] Warning: Node BBC NEWS | News Front Page(fdxnkrfh-2f) in folder N(fmj36uvb-1) already exists in folder News Sites(fdxnkrfh-6)"

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Eric, (Official Rep), commented on October 29, 2008 21:23

rp1790: No, this is a different problem wherein copy-and-paste of a bookmark causes a corrupted duplicate to be created. Mozilla is aware of this problem and is planning changes to fix it for subsequent releases of Firefox 3.
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HawkInOz replied on October 21, 2008 18:13

Since installing 2.5.3, I have one computer that keeps losing info about random bookmarks (mostly on the Bookmarks Toolbar, but not all bookmarks on the toolbar are affected and some elsewhere in the Bookmarks folder have also been affected). These bookmarks lose their associated favicon, and when selecting properties - absolutely nothing is displayed (just a blank title bar). I’ve tried rerunning the Setup Wizard and redownloading my bookmarks from the server and overwriting the local file, but it appears that the problem may be happening on the server side since this never works (or the corrupted bookmarks on the local machine are getting synced with the server before I can fix them). Instead, I have to run the Setup Wizard from another computer that isn’t messed up and overwrite the bookmarks on the server, then go back to the computer with the random blank bookmarks and run the Setup Wizard again and overwrite the local bookmarks. Then all is OK until some random point in the future, when I have to do it all over again. Frustrating to be sure.

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negated replied on October 22, 2008 19:28

My awesome bar stopped working and all bookmarks disappear as well. Trying to sync caused Foxmarks to continuously download the bookmarks forever until I exited Firefox. Re-running set up caused setup to hang at the very first screen ("Next" does nothing). After uninstalling Firefox and deleting my profile, I was able to reinstall Firefox and the extensions I was also using (IE Tab, Adblock Plus, Gmail Manager) as well as Foxmarks 2.5.3. At this point, I was able to run setup and have all my bookmarks (I always delete all local bookmarks and overwrite with the ones on the Foxmarks server) However, at some point later in the day (I had Firefox open and I was away from my desk) the same thing happened all over again.

The system config is:
XP Pro SP3 (x86)
Firefox 3.0.3.

I have two more machines (with the same extensions) at home that have NOT exhibited the problem yet:

Debian (x86, Testing/Lenny)
Firefox 3.0.3

Vista Ultimate (x64)
Firefox 3.0.3

-S

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negated commented on October 28, 2008 17:28

I just wanted to give an update; as of Monday afternoon (10/27/2008), all my bookmarks/toolbar/awesome bar seem to have synced/restored on their own (when I left for the weekend, they were missing/corrupted). So far, they have not disappeared/corrupted since then. Maybe whatever was going on server-side has been resolved?
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Eric, (Official Rep), commented on October 29, 2008 21:25

negated, I'm pretty sure your problem isn't related to the issues in this thread. It sounds to me like you had profile corruption on one computer that caused the behavior, and a fresh profile fixed things for you.
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Eric, Official Rep, replied on October 23, 2008 00:00

Hi folks --

Sounds like our recent update might not have fixed this, but we're still having trouble reproducing it on our end. If you're still experiencing problems with Foxmarks 2.5.xx and your toolbar customizations, please post here a complete list of the extensions you have installed--you should be able to find that in Firefox under Tools > Add-ons.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no easy way to get a list of extensions via that menu aside from transcription, but we'll deeply appreciate it if you can get us that information. :)

Screenshots are also greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Alf commented on October 26, 2008 10:31

2.5.3 did definitely not solve the problem.
Here is a list of the installed addons, produced with MR Tech Toolkit.
I will disable Foxmarks for the next time, until I can read here about a success in this matter.

*******
Erstelldatum: Sun Oct 26 2008 11:13:23 GMT+0100
UserAgent-String: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; de; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17
Build-ID: 2008082909

Aktivierte Erweiterungen: [23]
- Adblock Plus 0.7.5.5 - {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}: http://adblockplus.org/ - Werbung war gestern!
- British English Dictionary 1.19 - en-GB@dictionaries.addons.mozilla.org: http://www.google.com/search?q=Firefo...
- CLEO 3.3.1 - CLEO@guid.customsoftwareconsult.com: http://customsoftwareconsult.com/exte... - Compact Library Extension Organizer (CLEO)
- ConQuery(mod-4b5) 1.7.3 - {34fba747-cbc2-4929-b00d-0e523ee94a6f}: http://conquery.mozdev.org/ - Websuche nach markierten Begriffen per Kontextmenü-Eintrag (mit den Suchmaschinen der Suchleiste)
- Deutsches Wörterbuch, erweitert für Österreich 1.0.1 - de-AT@dictionaries.addons.mozilla.org: http://www.google.com/search?q=Firefo...
- DOM Inspector 1.8.1.17 - inspector@mozilla.org: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/inspe... - Inspects the structure and properties of a window and its contents.
- Download Statusbar 0.9.6.3 - {D4DD63FA-01E4-46a7-B6B1-EDAB7D6AD389}: http://downloadstatusbar.mozdev.org/ - Überwachung und Verwaltung von Downloads über eine übersichtliche Statusleiste
- Exit Button Firefox 0.4.1 - {94B08592-E5B4-45ff-A0BE-C1D975458688}: http://www.linnhe.net/firefox/extensi... - Adds a toolbar button to exit Firefox.
- FEBE 5.3.1 - {4BBDD651-70CF-4821-84F8-2B918CF89CA3}: http://customsoftwareconsult.com/exte... - Ermöglicht die Sicherung und Wiederherstellung der installierten Erweiterungen und Themes
- Firebug 1.05 - firebug@software.joehewitt.com: http://www.getfirebug.com/ - Web Development Evolved
- FireFTP 0.97.1 - {a7c6cf7f-112c-4500-a7ea-39801a327e5f}: http://fireftp.mozdev.org - Ein integrierter FTP-Client für Mozilla Firefox
- Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.5.3 - foxmarks@kei.com: http://www.foxmarks.com/ - Synchronisiert ihre Lesezeichen über mehrere Rechner.
- IE Tab 1.3.3.20070528 - {77b819fa-95ad-4f2c-ac7c-486b356188a9}: http://ietab.mozdev.org/ - Wahlweise die Browser-Engine des Internet Explorers benutzen
- Java Console 6.0.03 - {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0004-ABCDEFFEDCBA}: http://www.google.com/search?q=Firefo...
- Java Console 6.0.04 - {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0004-ABCDEFFEDCBA}: http://www.google.com/search?q=Firefo...
- Live HTTP Headers 0.14 - {8f8fe09b-0bd3-4470-bc1b-8cad42b8203a}: http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/ - Zeigt die HTTP Header einer Seite.
- MR Tech Toolkit (formerly Local Install) 6.0.1 - {9669CC8F-B388-42FE-86F4-CB5E7F5A8BDC}: http://www.mrtech.com/extensions/ - Umfangreiche Einstellungsmöglichkeiten für die Installation von Erweiterungen und Themes (de-DE)
- NoScript 1.8.3.3 - {73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}: http://noscript.net - Zusätzlicher Schutz für Ihren Browser: NoScript erlaubt das Ausführen von JavaScript, Java (und anderen Plug-ins) nur bei vertrauenswürdigen Domains Ihrer Wahl (z.B. Ihrer Homebanking-Website). Der auf einer Positivliste basierende präventive Ansatz zum Blockieren von Skripten verhindert das Ausnutzen von (bekannten und unbekannten!) Sicherheitslücken ohne Verlust an Funktionalität.
- RefreshBlocker 0.4 - {55ce2530-61df-4ddc-b287-feae64e70575}: http://www.allesdurcheinander.de/refr...
- ShowIP 0.8.08r14b0251 - {3e9bb2a7-62ca-4efa-a4e6-f6f6168a652d}: http://code.google.com/p/firefox-showip/ - Show the IP address of the current page in the status bar. It also allows querying custom services by IP (right mouse button) and Hostname (left mouse button), like whois, netcraft. Additionally you can copy the IP address to the clipboard. This extension was formerly known as ipv6ident. License GPLv2 only.
- Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7.3 - {dc572301-7619-498c-a57d-39143191b318}: http://tmp.garyr.net - Eine Vielzahl zusätzlicher Einstellungsmöglichkeiten für das Tabbed-Browsing
- Tab Scope 0.2.2.8 - tabscope@xuldev.org: http://www.xuldev.org/tabscope/ - Preview and navigate tab contents through popup.
- Talkback 2.0.0.11 - talkback@mozilla.org: http://talkback.mozilla.org/ - Sends information about program crashes to Mozilla.

Deaktivierte Erweiterungen: [1]
- mediaplayerconnectivity 0.9.1 - {84b24861-62f6-364b-eba5-2e5e2061d7e6}: http://membres.lycos.fr/sethnakht/ - Öffne den Video-Stream direkt im externem Video Player

Erweiterungen insgesamt: 24

Installierte Themes: [1]
- Firefox (default) - {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}: http://www.mozilla.org/

Installierte Plugins: (23)
- Adobe Acrobat: nppdf32.dll
- Adobe Acrobat Plug-In Version 5.00 for Netscape
- AlternaTIFF: npzzatif.dll
- AlternaTIFF v1.8.3
- IE Tab Plug-in: npietab.dll
- IE Tab Plug-in for Mozilla/Firefox
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5: npjava12.dll
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5: npjava13.dll
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5: npjpi160_05.dll
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5: npoji610.dll
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5: npjava32.dll
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5: npjava11.dll
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5: npjava14.dll
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
- Microsoft (R) DRM: npdrmv2.dll
- Network Object Plugin
- Microsoft® Windows Media Services: npwmsdrm.dll
- Windows Multimedia Services DRM Store Plug-In
- Mozilla Default Plug-in: npnul32.dll
- Default Plug-in
- QuickTime Plug-in 6.5.1: npqtplugin2.dll
- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
- QuickTime Plug-in 6.5.1: npqtplugin.dll
- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
- QuickTime Plug-in 6.5.1: npqtplugin4.dll
- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
- QuickTime Plug-in 6.5.1: npqtplugin3.dll
- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
- RealJukebox NS Plugin: nprjplug.dll
- RealJukebox Netscape Plugin
- RealPlayer Version Plugin: nprpjplug.dll
- 6.0.12.1739
- RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit) : nppl3260.dll
- RealPlayer(tm) LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In
- Shockwave Flash: NPSWF32.dll
- Shockwave Flash 9.0 r47
- Shockwave for Director: np32dsw.dll
- Macromedia Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 10.1
- Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library: npdsplay.dll
- Npdsplay dll
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HawkInOz replied on October 24, 2008 20:55

Woo Hoo! I have a solution!

I've been working on this for a while, and finally found what was causing the problem for me. I use a third-party utility at work to clear "residue" left by my browsers on a daily basis. The utility is call R-Wipe&Clean 8.0. I have narrowed it down to this utility being used to clear the History in Firefox 3.0.3. After it finishes, those bookmarks associated with sites I visited that day are "wiped" and if I don't catch it soon enough - the wiped bookmarks get synced with the Foxmarks server, forcing the actions I mentioned in my previous post to fix the work computer.

I tried using Firefox's "Clear Private Data" to see if it also caused the problem, but it did not. So it isn't simply clearing your Browsing History that affects the bookmarks in this way. It would seem that the damage is limited to third-party utilities that perform this function. I haven't tested any other utilities, but wonder if the other users experiencing this problem are also using such utilities to clear their History.

I can reproduce this problem every single time I run the latest version of R-Wipe&Clean 8.0 (http://www.r-wipe.com/) after exiting Firefox 3.0.3, so I'm certain that it is the only cause, and doubt that any other Add-ons are creating the problem (esp. since I have the same set of Add-ons installed on all the computers I'm using). Unfortunately for me, I'm required to run this program for security purposes, so I'll have to "fix" my bookmarks as long as I continue to use Foxmarks (which is almost a necessity to me - I'm addicted to this awesome add-on!)

I hope this helps the developers to fix this problem which first appeared in Foxmarks 2.5.0 and remains in 2.5.3. This was never a problem with any version of Foxmarks prior to 2.5.0. Keep us posted!

Thanks!

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Gaurav, Employee, replied on October 29, 2008 00:16

Hi folks,

The last fix did not resolve this issue, but we aren't giving up! Here's another version of Foxmarks that contains a possible fix. Since we haven't been able to reproduce this issue, we need your help in verifying the fix. If you are interested in helping, please download this test version, and let us know if your problem is resolved.

Download Foxmarks v2.5.5

Thank you all for your patience and help in resolving this problem.

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Alf replied on October 29, 2008 10:12

V2.5.5 did NOT solve the Problem!

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HawkInOz replied on October 29, 2008 14:06

V2.5.5 definitely does not solve the problem for me, either. I'm a more than a bit surprised that the problem cannot be reproduced based on the information in my post on Oct 24. The Foxmarks team really needs to download the free fully functional 15-day trial version of R-Wipe&Clean and test what I have posted. It is quite easy to do. And it can be reproduced 100% of the time on every PC I've tested it on. My guess is that other third-party "security" or "personal data" products that clear the History from Firefox may also be similarly affecting users. The fact that the number of users who actually use such products is small compared to the number who do not would explain why so few are experiencing the problem. But I can say with certainty that it did not manifest until I first upgraded to 2.5.0, and continues (very predictably) with all 2.5.x versions to date.

I’m confused & frustrated

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Eric, (Official Rep), commented on October 29, 2008 21:28

HawkInOz, so far you're the only person reporting using any sort of data-clearing utility, so I'm not sure that your experience is emblematic of the others experiencing this.

However, I'd loved to be proved wrong--something that's mucking about inappropriately with the Firefox data store without accessing the data via the "approved" Mozilla API definitely seems a good candidate for causing such problems.
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Eric, Official Rep, replied on October 29, 2008 21:30

No one has any screenshots of the problem? I'm not sure I could even recognize it if I were able to reproduce it.

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hiro replied on October 30, 2008 14:34

As expected, 2.5.5 does not alleviate the problem.

I have gotten around to making screenshots of my extensions list, and the toolbars and customize toolbars pane before and after installing 2.5.5:

Extensions:

Toolbars before:

Toolbars after:

Customize pane before:

Customize pane after:

I’m expressionless as i lack expressions

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Eric, Official Rep, replied on October 30, 2008 20:15

Thanks, hiro, that's a big help.

Please review this methodology and let me know what I'm missing:

Using the list of extensions that people have provided, I started a new Firefox profile and installed Tab Mix Plus, Firebug and Web Developer (these seem to be present in nearly everyone's lists, but I could have overlooked another common denominator). I created a new Firefox toolbar to which I added all the available extension-created icons. I then installed Foxmarks 2.5.3. All toolbars remained.

I did notice, however, that I can almost replicate hiro's broken toolbars by going to View > Toolbars and unselecting the non-default toolbars. Can someone confirm that the problem causes the non-default toolbars to disappear from that menu as well? If that's the case, then I definitely haven't replicated the problem--I suspect I haven't since I wasn't able to replicate hiro's loss of the non-default arrangement of buttons in the Navigation Toolbar.

I'll try some other permutations, but I'm not optimistic. Mozilla even has a support page devoted to the topic of toolbars being lost upon restart, so I'm again wondering if Foxmarks installation is just coincidence rather than causality.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/T...

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hiro replied on October 31, 2008 08:12

The first time I installed 2.5, I suspected somehow my non-default toolbar got hidden, since that was the most logical thing to suspect first. But if I were to go to "View > Toolbars >," the non-default toolbars are simply not listed.

Same deal with the Customize Toolbars pane, as can be seen from the screenshots, the non-default icons disappear from there. If at least the non-default icons remained from that pane, I could simply go through the trouble of reproducing my old layout from scratch and be done with it.

Mozilla's support page on resetting toolbars seems to suggest it's a Firefox 2 issue that's resolved in Firefox 3, but there might be something in there that may help. I don't think the answer to reproducing the issue is as simple as just having the same extensions - there must be something in the settings that either Firefox or an extension made which is conflicting with Foxmarks 2.5.

I'll try experimenting with my profile as well as a clean one to see if I could pinpoint the problem.

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Eric, Official Rep, replied on October 31, 2008 17:55

Given that Foxmarks 2.5.5 won't recover any toolbars that you haven't already recovered, is anyone still experiencing disappearing toolbars under Firefox 3? I wonder if perhaps it's only occurring on Firefox 2 now.

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Guerol replied on November 04, 2008 01:44

I was a little bit skeptical, after Foxmarks 2.5.3 didn't work for me. So i waited couple days after Foxmarks 2.5.5 was available, and today i gave it a try and gotcha. It works! (This means no lost buttons etc.)

@Eric: I have no Firefox 2 to test, but as for Firefox 3.0.3 my problem is solved. Thanks!!!

I’m happy

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Eric, Official Rep, replied on November 10, 2008 22:41

Given Guerol's response and no further reports, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 2.5.5 fixes things and resolve this issue. Please let us know if you find the problem recurs, especially if you have an easy way to replicate it.

Thanks, all!

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Alf commented on November 11, 2008 09:14

As I told on the 29th of October:
2.5.5 DOES NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM!
If you are not willing to work on this item, I must forget Foxmarks.
Thank youm very much.
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slim_shady3948038 replied on November 10, 2008 23:47

Mine works fine now with 2.5.5... thanks! (Firefox 3)

I’m relieved

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HawkInOz replied on November 11, 2008 14:55

No, my problems - as clearly stated in my post on Oct 29 - were not solved by 2.5.5. I gave clear and specific instructions on how to replicate the problem I am having, as I have done on multiple computers running both XP and Vista, in my post on Oct 24. If the Foxmarks Team feels this is a different issue than the one initially posted in this thread, then a Forum Admin is more than welcome to create a new thread and move all of my posts into it so that my issue will not continue to be ignored.

I'm not sure how many times I can say that Foxmarks versions prior to 2.5.x did not cause these issues with R-Wipe&Clean (using the same version of that utility with all versions of Foxmarks before and after the recent changes in 2.5.x), before someone 'gets it'. Yet every single 2.5.x release has exhibited the issue I have described.

I love Foxmarks and appreciate all that has been done with the Add-On, but am more than frustrated with the after-release support.

I’m still waiting.....

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Eric, Official Rep, replied on November 11, 2008 17:59

Alf and HawkInOz: I asked several days ago whether anyone noticed a difference between losing toolbars or recovering already-lost toolbars, several people reported the problem solved, and we never heard from you, so I presumed the problem had dissipated. We at Foxmarks would LOVE to fix this problem, but until we can get our hands on a computer that actually EXHIBITS the problem, our hands are tied.

I have tried installing an extensive list of potentially-conflicting add-ons on a variety of platforms, and had no luck whatsoever replicating the behavior you're reporting. HawkInOz reports that R-Wipe&Clean is contributing to the issue, but no one else mentions that same software, so I haven't tried that yet. If someone else still experiencing the problem is using some sort of similar software that regularly wipes out data on your computer, please let us know.

I share your frustration with this issue--please help me!

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HawkInOz commented on November 11, 2008 18:27

I've been moving and without Internet access for a week. That's my excuse for not responding sooner. What is yours for not downloading the fully functional trial of R-Wipe&Clean and testing - using the info provided? I can't help you solve this if you aren't willing to test it out with the provided info. When you are, let me know. The software is designed for corporate users, so it isn't likely to be used by many others. However, as I indicated in my earlier post, the behavior may not be limited to just this utility - but may present itself when other similar products are used to clear private data. I don't know and haven't tested anything else. But I do know that I can reproduce this problem 100% of the time, and you should be able to as well. What more do you want from me? Install R-Wipe&Clean and you will immediately have a computer that you can test it on - exhibiting the problem. Just choose to wipe the Firefox History, and bingo - those sites you have visited will be wiped from the customized Bookmarks Toolbar, leaving an empty shell in its place. Until you actually test this, I'm done here.
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Eric, (Official Rep), commented on November 11, 2008 18:58

Awesome, thanks for the extra details. As you suggested above, the problem you're experiencing is NOT the same problem that's being discussed in this topic. Get Satisfaction does not currently provide a way for me to distill your comments into a separate topic, but feel free to create a new one.

To further clarify: This issue is about customized toolbar icons disappearing--your description is instead that sites are getting wiped from your Bookmarks Toolbar, which is not the same problem.

Thanks again!
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HawkInOz commented on November 11, 2008 19:15

OK - further clarification necessary. When I said "wiped" I didn't mean that they disappeared entirely. The name remains, but the favicon is wiped and all data associated with that bookmark disappears. Right-clicking on the "blank page" icon that remains in place of the original favicon and selecting "properties" will result in a thin, completely blank title bar only - no data of any kind is displayed. I would call the remaining bookmark a "placeholder" with the original name, and nothing more than that. Clicking on this placeholder does nothing at all. Everything about the bookmark is missing and nonfunctional after R-Wipe&Clean runs (with Firefox closed, as required). Those bookmarks on the customized Bookmark Toolbar, and in folders on the Bookmark Toolbar which are for sites that were not visited since the last "wipe" remain intact. Only those associated with sites that have been visited since the last wipe are left in this unusable state. And it doesn't matter if you got to the site using the bookmark or not - simply if the site, as bookmarked, is visited between wipes by R-Wipe&Clean. Clear enough? I really don't want to repeat all this in a separate thread if I can avoid doing so. Please investigate. Thanks.
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Eric, (Official Rep), commented on November 13, 2008 22:20

HawkInOz: Thanks for the details. I was able to track down a Windows computer that I could install R-Wipe&Clean on. I got Firefox working, installed Foxmarks, then installed R-W&C, and then created one bookmark in my toolbar in Firefox. I visited that bookmark, confirmed it was in my history, then exited Firefox.

I started up R-W&C, selected the option to clear Firefox history, noted that the site showed up in the history, and cleared it out. I restarted Firefox and found that you're right! The data gets completely cleared out.

I then uninstalled Foxmarks, restarted Firefox, and repeated the test.

The same behavior occurred.

Thus, this is not a problem with Foxmarks, it is a problem with R-Wipe&Clean.

Firefox 3 stores bookmarks and history URLs in the same place, so I suspect the process they use for clearing out the history URLs is also clearing out the associated bookmark URL. I do not know whether this is intended or not, but can we agree that this is not an issue with Foxmarks?
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HawkInOz commented on November 14, 2008 14:21

It seems very strange that it never occurred with the earlier versions of Foxmarks, but if the way Foxmarks handles ones bookmarks has not been altered with the new 2.5.x versions, then I'm unable to contest what you have stated. I still don't understand it, but I won't argue with you about it. Thanks.
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TheToolWiz replied on November 19, 2008 00:40

Installing this latest update sorta worked. FF displays things on the toolbar from a folder named "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder", but IE looks in a folder named "Links". Both sets of bookmarks show up in my FF bookmark organizer. But the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" isn't working. When I installed this new update, it created a NEW --empty-- folder with this name at the top of the list, that curiously cannot be deleted, while the other one can. As I moved items from the other one to the new one, they showed up on the toolbar. After moving them all, I deleted the other folder. But there's still a "Links" folder. I think I'm going to disable this in IE for now, because it looks like there's something special about the names, and anyway the toolbar in IE is empty as well, even though there's a Links folder there. What a mess!

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Paulp2u replied on November 19, 2008 15:13

Russ, I find the same issue that FoxMarks killed the add-ons I use. Toolbars I use were unavailable but it showed I still have the add-ons. It also froze the add-on viewer, if you clicked on options in the add-on viewer everything froze, you had to go to the other open firefox browser page File then Exit, then go back to the open addon window so you could click it off. What a pain.

I had Coolpreviews as an addon and it stopped to, I had to completely uninstall firfox and elimiante asll my settings and reinstall. If I kept the settings it did not work. Coolpreviews was just so important I had to cause other pain. Wish I never used this tool to get bookmarks. Maybe there is another way to get bookmarks.

Answer is to uninstall all, then bring all the add-ons back. What a pain. But heck its all free and Firefox is the best!!!

I’m frustrated about Foxymarks

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sjbradyusd replied on November 21, 2008 16:45

Here is what I found. If you use the Restart Firefox button you are more likely to see that on the restart your extra toolbars (web dev and all-in-one sidebar) don't have any buttons. If you actually close and then reopen an empty (don't try to remember 10 webpages) browser to seems to update fine.

Here is what I did (sorry this is from Memory)

1. there was an update pop-up box for foxmarks. I clicked yes nothing really happened
2. closed the browser
3. opened the browser
4. used UpdateNotifier to actually update foxmarks
5. hit restart browsers (UpdateNotifer)
6. Hosed - no buttons on web-dev or all-in-one
7. closed browser
8. tried to reset my toolbars. Run "firefox -safe-mode" then picked "Reset toolbars and controls"
9. fail
10. disable foxmarks
11. open, close browser
12. fixed
13. now I tried to work backwards
14. disabled web dev and all-in-one, unistalled yahoo toolbar
15. opening and closing after each
16. enabled foxmarks (close/open)
17. worked (only had bookmark toolbar)
18. enabled web dev (worked close/open)
19. enabled all-in-one (worked close/open)
20. enabled something else via all-in-one (used restart)
21. hosed
22. disabled/enabled via close/open
23. everything is running fine

Sorry middle steps are not really exact, but I think the moral of the story is after an update try to just closed and open an empty browser to get it to work. If you want it to break try different "Restart Firefox" buttons.

Maybe.

I’m no certain

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birdshell replied on November 27, 2008 17:07

*Note: This is a duplicate posting as recommended by Eric. The other thread is:

OK, now...I am using Windows XP Home Edition, and...I finally got back my toolbar with favicons. :D

This is what I did: uninstalled Firefox and these add-ons:

Adblock Filterset.6
Adblock Plus
Add Bookmark Here
Colorful Tabs
HTML Validator
PDF Download
ShortShip Pro
Skype
Smart Bookmarks Bar
Smiley Xtra 4.1.1
Tiny URL Creator

Note that I do not have very many add-ons compared to some others.

I then REinstalled Firefox and all of the above except Skype (and Adblock Plus, because I somehow forgot). The bookmarks had been saved on the remote account, and downloaded beautifully as I followed the instructions given for synchronizing. Voila!

If it is of any use that I have fewer add-ons, then maybe it will help to find the bug. I am willing to help.

The next thing is to investigate the syncing at my mother's computer. She and I got identical computers. Thus, I will try over the weekend when I go to her place.

I’m thankful

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Eric, (Official Rep), commented on December 03, 2008 22:21

birdshell: Which toolbar disappeared?
Restore This reply was removed on 12/03/08.
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birdshell replied on December 04, 2008 03:42

The toolbar that disappeared was the entire Foxmarks toolbar. The bookmarks were there under the "Bookmarks --> Bookmarks Toolbar"; there was no toolbar in its usual place above the tabs.

My bookmarks were saved on the Foxmarks site, and were present there when I checked. Thus, they were never really lost.

I did not have the chance to check my mother's computer as I succumbed to the local variation of a virus. I will check as soon as I go there, probably THIS weekend.

BTW, after the deletion and reinstalling--I now have no tabs bar until/unless one of my apps chooses another window, OR I choose "New Tab" from the File menu. It used to be present for a double click to add a tab all the time. This is minor, though, compared to my Foxmarks toolbar being lost. I call that a worthwhile trade.

I’m still thankful to have a toolbar for Foxmarks!

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Eric, Official Rep, replied on December 05, 2008 19:56

Update: I've continued trying to replicate this behavior. I've installed more add-ons over the past couple days than I have in my entire life (or at least it feels like it).

I've had no luck replicating this whatsoever. What am I doing wrong??

At this point, I'm suspecting the problem is a corrupt localstore.rdf in the Firefox profile folder, as described here. The corruption can sometimes lead to Firefox calling up the appropriate toolbars when there are no changes made, but when a change is made (such as installing Foxmarks, which adds some items to the interface), that can be enough to destabilize the entire toolbar "ecosystem". This is my hypothesis only--I have not been able to replicate a corrupted localstore.rdf that behaves this way.

I'd love some help from y'all--can anyone replicate this problem on a completely fresh Firefox profile folder? i.e., create a new Firefox profile, install a certain list of add-ons, maybe make some toolbar changes, then install Foxmarks (or else install an older version of Foxmarks earlier, then upgrade), and then see the behavior described herein.

Until someone can show me how to replicate the behavior, I'm going to blame localstore.rdf corruption.

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Patrick Cleveland replied on April 02, 2009 22:36

Submitting my inquiry sent me this link which doesn't seem to be my problem.

I keep getting a message telling me that there is a bookmarks toolbar folder conflict between the local PC version and the server bookmarks toolbar.
It asks what version I want to retain and I selected the local version -- I still get this inquiry every few minutes.
I tried clicking on retaining the service version and it doesn't accept that either.
I tried deleting the folder on my foxmarks.com -- it still doesn't go away no matter what I do.
It is getting so that I may just delete Firefox and go back to IE to solve my problem.

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Alf commented on April 02, 2009 23:55

I did not delete Firefox, but Foxmarks, using Chipmarks now.
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AB replied on July 21, 2009 17:39

I have something similar happening, but it is to the highly customized PROPERTIES for all my bookmarks! I have put all kinds of little bits of info for me about sites that I bookmark. There were TONS of notes I have made. Well, upgrade to FF 3.0.11 or to XM 3.1.0 has killed ALL my notes in the properties window for my bookmarks! WTF!!!! I am pissed! Someone email me a fix if they know of one, but I have a feeling that stuff is now toast!

I’m pissed

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Nate, Official Rep, replied on July 22, 2009 02:46

Hey AB,

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. You might have a corrupted Firefox profile, and it may have killed your bookmark properties. Check on my.xmarks.com Tools->Explore and Restore to see if you can recover your bookmark properties.

If you'd like to create a fresh Firefox Profile, directions are listed here:

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/M...

Thanks

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