From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:0.9.9) Gecko/20020311 BuildID: 2002031104 Aproximatly 10 or 15 times starting w2k-prof with using Mozillas quicklaunch option, both, the Browser and the Mailer, lose all their settings, MailAccount- and Browsersettings, everything ist set up to it's default setting, only Bookmarks are stored. However, all the Mails are in their normal directorys so the settings seems not to be lost, only overwritten? W2k is started with default user so you dont have to log in, Mozilla has only it's default settings, no additonal user. Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: 1.Only start windows2k with Mozillas Quicklaunch option 2.Start Mozilla 3.Start Mailer Actual Results: 1. Normal startup 2. Starting Page is set to default (Mozilla.org) 2. Mailer window appears, asking to set up account Using some goodies like firewall and antivirus programms, but it dont seemed that this is the cause. Anyone here the same problem?

se, Do you see this?

The same happened to me on a build form teh trunk pulled about 3 hours ago: This is a directory of my profile directory: 1) I never had Mail folders 2) i had files like prefs.diff and prefs.js in the directory. 3) It looks like my cookies survived 4) Althoguh there is no prefs.js file (I havn't restarted my browser since the problems), my prefs still seem okay (Verified by going into edit:preferences) 5) My bookmarks were Replaced by the origionals Here is a listing of the profiule directory drwxr-xr-x 2 marcus other 512 Mar 20 15:53 ./ drwxr-xr-x 3 marcus other 512 Mar 20 15:30 ../ -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 29780 Mar 20 15:46 XUL.mfasl -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 5782 Mar 20 15:30 bookmarks.html -rw------- 1 marcus other 32768 Mar 20 15:34 cert7.db -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 1316 Mar 20 16:04 cookies.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 287 Mar 20 16:03 cookperm.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 509 Mar 20 15:30 history.dat -rw------- 1 marcus other 32768 Mar 20 15:34 key3.db -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 30334 Mar 20 16:03 localstore.rdf -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 287 Mar 20 15:42 mimeTypes.rdf -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 2335 Mar 20 15:31 search.rdf -rw------- 1 marcus other 32768 Mar 20 15:34 secmod.db my .mozconfig file is: ac_add_options --disable-debug ac_add_options --enable-crypto ac_add_options --disable-tests ac_add_options --enable-optimize ac_add_options --disable-mailnews ac_add_options --enable-plaintext-editor-only ac_add_options --with-extensions=default ac_add_options --disable-ldap ac_add_options --disable-xprint ac_add_options --enable-js-ultrasparc I had jsut done a gmake -wf client.mk clobber && gmake -wf client.mk on solaris 8.

After restarting, my profile directory looks like this: drwxr-xr-x 2 marcus other 512 Mar 20 17:42 ./ drwxr-xr-x 3 marcus other 512 Mar 20 17:42 ../ -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 5782 Mar 20 17:42 bookmarks.html -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 509 Mar 20 17:42 history.dat (my bookmarks.dat is deleted and replaced with the default one) After comming accross a cookie, my cookies.txt appears, witht he right details My preferences seem to be allright though, even though there isn;'t a prefs.js file. I'm aobut to test a new build.

After quitting that buiuld, my prefs directory looks like this: drwxr-xr-x 3 marcus other 512 Mar 20 17:50 ./ drwxr-xr-x 3 marcus other 512 Mar 20 17:42 ../ -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 57442 Mar 20 17:44 XUL.mfasl -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 5475 Mar 20 17:50 bookmarks.html -rw------- 1 marcus other 32768 Mar 20 17:50 cert7.db drwxr-xr-x 2 marcus other 512 Mar 20 17:44 chrome/ -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 1316 Mar 20 17:45 cookies.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 156 Mar 20 17:45 cookperm.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 2454 Mar 20 17:50 history.dat -rw------- 1 marcus other 32768 Mar 20 17:50 key3.db -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 30912 Mar 20 17:44 localstore.rdf -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 287 Mar 20 17:45 mimeTypes.rdf -rw-r--r-- 1 marcus other 6110 Mar 20 17:50 prefs.js -rw------- 1 marcus other 32768 Mar 20 17:44 secmod.db The new build doesn't seem to be wiping the directory out anymore.

This bug shows up in Netscape 6.2.2 commercial release, I have saved the preference files (before they were wiped out). If it can provide any clues to this critical problem, I can provide it to the engineer who maybe working on it.

-> Ben

(I was going to open a new bug but saw this one; so I'm adding mine to the information. My workaround might be useful to others with the problem. My OS is Windows XP.) Subject: prefs.js is randomly reset to initial default Every few days when Mozilla is started, it changes my prefs.js file to the initial installation default for no apparent reason. This happens on RC1, happened on 0.9.9 previously and NS6.2.1(?) before that. When it gets in this mode, even if I exit Mozilla completely and restore prefs.js from backup, it refuses to recognize the old one (that worked before) and still wipes it out back to the installation default. IIRC even after rebooting, restoring prefs.js, then starting Mozilla it still wipes it out when it has gotten into this mode. If I then go through the normal profile configuration process, then recover my Inbox etc. by hand into the new folder it creates, it works OK for a while. I discovered that if I make prefs.js read-only there is never a problem. If I want to change something I can allow writes after Mozilla has started, then Edit->Preferences..., then make it read-only again after exiting Mozilla. This is my current workaround. This is an intermittent problem I cannot reproduce consistently. Could a developer tell me what condition could cause Mozilla to ignore the current prefs.js and create a new installation default on top of it? I am willing to try to pin this down if I know what to look for. Could it be some registry thing? (As an aside I noticed that somethings changes prefs.pc8 whenever I update prefs.js from backup, even if I'm not in Mozilla. What process is doing this? I am curious :) I am not the only one seeing this problem, although it seems to be very rare. This is from a newsgroup posting: >>I'm using XP and N6.2.1. In the mail part I have 3 mail accounts, a >>newsgroup account with a subscription list, and an IM name def. I also >>have N6 set to start with the mail app only, not the browser etc. >> >>About 3-5 times a week, I start it seems to have 'lost' some key def >>file and it comes up with the browser (not the mail app) on the default >>home page, but with all my addrs and bookmarks OK. When I click to >>invoke the mail app, it has 'lost' all my stuff and I have to redefine >>the accounts. I have not lost any data because I know how to save the >>old mail folders before rebuilding the new ones in the redefine process, >>then copy all the old mail files into the newly built ones. It's just a >>pain to have to do this for 10 mins that often. >> >>Has anyone else seen this problem? I have all the latest XP fixes.

Confirming based on comment 7.

I see this bug too with the same random causes. I don't think there's any connection, but the first time I had viewed 'about:config' during the session (tried it again -- no effect), the second time the system was low on memory and thrashing badly (too long to load prefs??). Win98SE, several trunk builds.

It happened to me on 2 different computers each with 2k-pro and mozilla 1.0 (without quick launch)

kees, do you have multiple profiles?

i haven't encountered this problem (yet) on win2k --but then again i've got multiple profiles and do not use quicklaunch. if this is indeed limited to quicklaunch, this might be a dup of bug 155080 (or, vice versa).

I have similar problem (id=143516), and I've tracked the culprit as Trend Micro's PC Cillin 2000 POP3 Scan (Trap) program (v. 7.61), which is supposed to act as a proxy and scan incoming POP mail. Details can be found here http://solutionbank.antivirus.com/solutions/solutionDetail.asp?solutionID=10700 Mozilla Mail seems to be incompatible with Pop3 scan v.7.61

kees answered comment 11 by email "no i was not using multiple profiles, but i am using PC Cillin 2000"

Bingo. My prefs.js appears to be reset to a minimal file at Mozilla startup. On a WinME box. Mozilla was upgraded on 8/9: "version 1.1b" Perhaps 3 or 4 restarts (days) afterward, email account settings were lost. I will: - Restore a March '02 version of prefs.js - Set prefs.js to Read-Only Chris Barr

I can reproduce something like this bug once/day. At some point either just starting or several page views into the session my system W2k sp2, moz 1.1b, my system will freeze completely (system clock stops running), at this point I have to power down, at some point during the process prefs/bookmarks are overwritten the next time I start Mozilla. I have multiple users on this machine (2). If other files are open there is a chance they will corrupt as well. This only happens once / day for some reason or other so far!! I don't have pCillin on machine. Haven't tried the read only permissions on prefs.js Have kept a copy of prefs/bookmarks backed up for replacement, which seems to be the quickest fix. This bug may be linked to a browers hangs if "null" page is returned I saw listed elsewhere, similar "symptoms" there...

today, I've done this twice in 30minutes ... re-set all the preferences, recreate mail accounts, and then all this again. I'm pretty sure I can discover the trigger event ... working on it ... Here are my latest experiences, hope it can help. 1) this often happens when I open a local file in Browser. When I close it, a dialog appears, saying something like "Quick Launch is enabled, it will speed up starting...etc." 2) prefs.bak contains default preferences 3) form, cookie, download and image manager stay, password manager is cleared, although the passwords file is still in its place I'm not using any POP scanning software. I have Win98SE with LiteStep

dupping, but reopen if this is clearly not a dup. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 155080 ***

mass-verification of Duplicates. mail search string for bugspam: SolarFlaresAreTheCause