David Tenser [:djst] Reporter
	Description • 16 years ago

This is a common support issue on support.mozilla.com and seems to happen after Firefox has been updated. Apparently the prefs.js file gets locked, probably when the updater is writing to the file.

Our instructions on support.mozilla.com to solve this issue is covered here: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Preferences+are+not+saved#Unable_to_save_any_preferences_or_settings

	Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)
	Comment 1 • 16 years ago

The installer and app update don't control this (the updater doesn't touch anything in the profile so it couldn't be locking prefs.js) so over to general for further triage.

	David Tenser [:djst] Reporter
	Comment 2 • 16 years ago

Ah, you're obviously right. So, the locking of prefs.js could actually have happened at any time, but it's only getting obvious to the user once Firefox updates (since at that point there is a conflict with the reported latest version in prefs.js and the actually running version). 

Rather than notifying about the problem, Firefox just silently ignores the write error.

	Matthias Versen [:Matti]
	Comment 3 • 16 years ago

This is a recent issue for many people, we got some reports in bugzilla about this. The old story (10 years with issues) of the broken prefs.js is back again :-(

	Dave Townsend [:mossop]
	Comment 4 • 16 years ago

I wonder how many times we flush the preferences to disk during the first startup after an upgrade. If it is more than one then we might be hitting bug 431065

	Kim
	Comment 6 • 15 years ago

The 'Firefox Updated' tab started to appear repeated after I did the following:  

I had multiple windows open restored from a previous session.  
I upgraded to the latest Firefox.  
I chose to restart later.  
I saved my session.  
When I opened Firefox later, the 'Firefox Updated' tab was there as expected.
When I closed that window, saved the session, and later opened it again, the tab was there again.  
When I closed all tabs or don't save the session, it disappeared.  

I deleted my prefs.js file and was able to get rid of the tab.  

While this was happening, I updated an add-on called 'Download Helper'.  It showed a tab to let me know I had been upgraded--similarly, this tab wouldn't go away.  A Skype plug in also did something similar.  


(Sorry, I accidently clicked on 'Commit' earlier--I thought it said 'Comment').

	David Tenser [:djst] Reporter
	Comment 7 • 15 years ago

Comment 6 sounds like something we should try to reproduce (restart later, then manually save a session, and then restart).

	[:Cww]
	Comment 8 • 15 years ago

https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=329708&forumId=1
https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=329145&forumId=1
https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=326806&forumId=1
https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=325736&forumId=1
https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=325610&forumId=1
https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=323742&forumId=1

Let's get some QA on this please.

	[:Cww]
	Comment 9 • 15 years ago

Almost all cases we see these days are a result of Invalidprefs.js preventing prefs from saving.