Hi neutrinou, this might be related to a new feature in Firefox 67. When you open an external link, instead of Firefox always re-using a running window, it will use a window in your default profile, which may not be open yet for one reasons or another.

Couple questions before suggesting next steps:

Have you noticed that the external link opens in a window that doesn't match your normal settings (may have different bookmarks, theme, toolbar buttons, add-ons, etc.)?

Do you run regular Firefox, or the PortableApps version of Firefox?

Hi jscher, Thanks an lot for your answer. You are exactly right : - this seems to be linked to the 67th version of Firefox - the window opened by a link does NOT match my normal settings (no toolbar buttons, no memory of my passwords, etc) and it is very annoying

I run regular Firefox (on Windows 7 family) Hoping you can help me further. I am surprised there are no more posts on this topic. Thank you

Actually, there are a lot of confusing posts on this topic, but that's because several people are running Firefox Portable instead of regular Firefox.

So I think if you can make sure your "default profile" setting is correct, that should solve the problem. Let's see how it goes.

First, do you use any special setting on your Firefox shortcut? You can check as follows. Either:

• Right-click a desktop shortcut, then click Properties
• Right-click a Firefox icon pinned to the Taskbar then right-click Mozilla Firefox, then click Properties

By default, Windows will show the Shortcut tab. The Target line normally looks like one of these:

• "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"
• "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

However, it can be customized with Command-Line switches such as this one, to start in a specific profile:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P "DadStuff"

Do you have any customization?

No, absolutely no customization. Thanks for your (continuing) help ! (btw, I never use a shortcut to open firefox, I open it through Clavier+)

Can you confirm that Firefox is using the same profile in both cases (normal start and via external application)?

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-troubleshooting-information-page-fix-firefox

neutrinou said

(btw, I never use a shortcut to open firefox, I open it through Clavier+)

Is it a keyboard macro? What is the command line of the macro?

Thank you both for your help. Clavier+ is a keyboard macro builder. Apparently, the command line is "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" (and could be customized, but I did not customized it). It is the only way to open correctly Firefox, with opening it myself manually. The problem does not come from Thunderbird. If I have a link in Notepad++ or MSWord for example, this link will open the shitty Firefox (without my preferences).

Version: 67.0 Identifiant de compilation: 20190516215225 Canal de mise à jour: release Agent utilisateur: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:67.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/67.0 Système d’exploitation: Windows_NT 6.1 Processus de lancement: Désactivé de force Fenêtres multiprocessus: 1/1 Activé par défaut Processus de contenu web: 5/8 Stratégies d’entreprise: Inactives Clé du service de localisation de Google: Présente Clé de Google Safebrowsing: Présente Clé du service de localisation de Mozilla: Présente Mode sans échec: false

Rapports de plantage

Tous les rapports de plantage Fonctionnalités de Firefox

Nom: Firefox Monitor Version: 3.0 ID: fxmonitor@mozilla.org

Nom: Firefox Screenshots Version: 37.1.0 ID: screenshots@mozilla.org

Nom: Form Autofill Version: 1.0 ID: formautofill@mozilla.org

Nom: Web Compat Version: 4.0.0 ID: webcompat@mozilla.org

Nom: WebCompat Reporter Version: 1.1.0 ID: webcompat-reporter@mozilla.org

Extensions

Nom: Adblock Plus - bloqueur de publicités gratuit Version: 3.5.2 Activée: true ID: {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}

Nom: Video DownloadHelper Version: 7.3.5 Activée: true ID: {b9db16a4-6edc-47ec-a1f4-b86292ed211d}

Logiciel de sécurité

Type:

Type:

Accélération graphique

Fonctionnalités Composition: Direct3D 11 (Advanced Layers) asyncPanZoom: entrée molette activée; faire glisser les barres de défilement; clavier activé; défilement automatique activé webgl1WSIInfo: EGL_VENDOR: Google Inc. (adapter LUID: 000000000000bc6c) EGL_VERSION: 1.4 (ANGLE 2.1.0.eff6bfdb1db9) EGL_EXTENSIONS: EGL_EXT_create_context_robustness EGL_ANGLE_d3d_share_handle_client_buffer EGL_ANGLE_d3d_texture_client_buffer EGL_ANGLE_surface_d3d_texture_2d_share_handle EGL_ANGLE_query_surface_pointer EGL_ANGLE_window_fixed_size EGL_ANGLE_keyed_mutex EGL_ANGLE_surface_orientation EGL_NV_post_sub_buffer EGL_KHR_create_context EGL_EXT_device_query EGL_KHR_image EGL_KHR_image_base EGL_KHR_gl_texture_2D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_cubemap_image EGL_KHR_gl_renderbuffer_image EGL_KHR_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_stream EGL_KHR_stream_consumer_gltexture EGL_NV_stream_consumer_gltexture_yuv EGL_ANGLE_flexible_surface_compatibility EGL_ANGLE_stream_producer_d3d_texture EGL_ANGLE_create_context_webgl_compatibility EGL_CHROMIUM_create_context_bind_generates_resource EGL_EXT_pixel_format_float EGL_KHR_surfaceless_context EGL_ANGLE_display_texture_share_group EGL_ANGLE_create_context_client_arrays EGL_ANGLE_program_cache_control EGL_ANGLE_robust_resource_initialization EGL_ANGLE_create_context_extensions_enabled EGL_MOZ_create_context_provoking_vertex_dont_care EGL_EXTENSIONS(nullptr): EGL_EXT_client_extensions EGL_EXT_platform_base EGL_EXT_platform_device EGL_ANGLE_platform_angle EGL_ANGLE_platform_angle_d3d EGL_ANGLE_device_creation EGL_ANGLE_device_creation_d3d11 EGL_ANGLE_experimental_present_path EGL_KHR_client_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_debug EGL_ANGLE_explicit_context Pilote WebGL 1 - Rendu: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Direct3D11 vs_4_1 ps_4_1) Pilote WebGL 1 - Version: OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.eff6bfdb1db9) Pilote WebGL 1 - Extensions: GL_ANGLE_client_arrays GL_ANGLE_depth_texture GL_ANGLE_explicit_context GL_ANGLE_explicit_context_gles1 GL_ANGLE_framebuffer_blit GL_ANGLE_framebuffer_multisample GL_ANGLE_instanced_arrays GL_ANGLE_lossy_etc_decode GL_ANGLE_pack_reverse_row_order GL_ANGLE_program_cache_control GL_ANGLE_request_extension GL_ANGLE_robust_client_memory GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt3 GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt5 GL_ANGLE_texture_usage GL_ANGLE_translated_shader_source GL_CHROMIUM_bind_generates_resource GL_CHROMIUM_bind_uniform_location GL_CHROMIUM_color_buffer_float_rgb GL_CHROMIUM_color_buffer_float_rgba GL_CHROMIUM_copy_compressed_texture GL_CHROMIUM_copy_texture GL_CHROMIUM_sync_query GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_color_buffer_half_float GL_EXT_debug_marker GL_EXT_discard_framebuffer GL_EXT_disjoint_timer_query GL_EXT_draw_buffers GL_EXT_frag_depth GL_EXT_map_buffer_range GL_EXT_occlusion_query_boolean GL_EXT_read_format_bgra GL_EXT_robustness GL_EXT_sRGB GL_EXT_shader_texture_lod GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc_srgb GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_format_BGRA8888 GL_EXT_texture_rg GL_EXT_texture_storage GL_EXT_unpack_subimage GL_KHR_debug GL_KHR_parallel_shader_compile GL_KHR_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_NV_EGL_stream_consumer_external GL_NV_fence GL_NV_pack_subimage GL_NV_pixel_buffer_object GL_OES_EGL_image GL_OES_EGL_image_external GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture GL_OES_depth32 GL_OES_element_index_uint GL_OES_get_program_binary GL_OES_mapbuffer GL_OES_packed_depth_stencil GL_OES_rgb8_rgba8 GL_OES_standard_derivatives GL_OES_surfaceless_context GL_OES_texture_float GL_OES_texture_float_linear GL_OES_texture_half_float GL_OES_texture_half_float_linear GL_OES_texture_npot GL_OES_vertex_array_object OES_compressed_EAC_R11_signed_texture OES_compressed_EAC_R11_unsigned_texture OES_compressed_EAC_RG11_signed_texture OES_compressed_EAC_RG11_unsigned_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_RGB8_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_RGBA8_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_punchthroughA_RGBA8_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_punchthroughA_sRGB8_alpha_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_sRGB8_alpha8_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_sRGB8_texture WebGL 1 - Extensions: ANGLE_instanced_arrays EXT_blend_minmax EXT_color_buffer_half_float EXT_disjoint_timer_query EXT_float_blend EXT_frag_depth EXT_shader_texture_lod EXT_sRGB EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic OES_element_index_uint OES_standard_derivatives OES_texture_float OES_texture_float_linear OES_texture_half_float OES_texture_half_float_linear OES_vertex_array_object WEBGL_color_buffer_float WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc_srgb WEBGL_debug_renderer_info WEBGL_debug_shaders WEBGL_depth_texture WEBGL_draw_buffers WEBGL_lose_context Pilote WebGL 2 - Informations WSI: EGL_VENDOR: Google Inc. (adapter LUID: 000000000000bc6c) EGL_VERSION: 1.4 (ANGLE 2.1.0.eff6bfdb1db9) EGL_EXTENSIONS: EGL_EXT_create_context_robustness EGL_ANGLE_d3d_share_handle_client_buffer EGL_ANGLE_d3d_texture_client_buffer EGL_ANGLE_surface_d3d_texture_2d_share_handle EGL_ANGLE_query_surface_pointer EGL_ANGLE_window_fixed_size EGL_ANGLE_keyed_mutex EGL_ANGLE_surface_orientation EGL_NV_post_sub_buffer EGL_KHR_create_context EGL_EXT_device_query EGL_KHR_image EGL_KHR_image_base EGL_KHR_gl_texture_2D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_cubemap_image EGL_KHR_gl_renderbuffer_image EGL_KHR_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_stream EGL_KHR_stream_consumer_gltexture EGL_NV_stream_consumer_gltexture_yuv EGL_ANGLE_flexible_surface_compatibility EGL_ANGLE_stream_producer_d3d_texture EGL_ANGLE_create_context_webgl_compatibility EGL_CHROMIUM_create_context_bind_generates_resource EGL_EXT_pixel_format_float EGL_KHR_surfaceless_context EGL_ANGLE_display_texture_share_group EGL_ANGLE_create_context_client_arrays EGL_ANGLE_program_cache_control EGL_ANGLE_robust_resource_initialization EGL_ANGLE_create_context_extensions_enabled EGL_MOZ_create_context_provoking_vertex_dont_care EGL_EXTENSIONS(nullptr): EGL_EXT_client_extensions EGL_EXT_platform_base EGL_EXT_platform_device EGL_ANGLE_platform_angle EGL_ANGLE_platform_angle_d3d EGL_ANGLE_device_creation EGL_ANGLE_device_creation_d3d11 EGL_ANGLE_experimental_present_path EGL_KHR_client_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_debug EGL_ANGLE_explicit_context Pilote WebGL 2 - Rendu: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Direct3D11 vs_4_1 ps_4_1) Pilote WebGL 2 - Version: OpenGL ES 3.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.eff6bfdb1db9) Pilote WebGL 2 - Extensions: GL_ANGLE_client_arrays GL_ANGLE_depth_texture GL_ANGLE_explicit_context GL_ANGLE_explicit_context_gles1 GL_ANGLE_framebuffer_blit GL_ANGLE_framebuffer_multisample GL_ANGLE_instanced_arrays GL_ANGLE_lossy_etc_decode GL_ANGLE_pack_reverse_row_order GL_ANGLE_program_cache_control GL_ANGLE_request_extension GL_ANGLE_robust_client_memory GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt3 GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt5 GL_ANGLE_texture_usage GL_ANGLE_translated_shader_source GL_CHROMIUM_bind_generates_resource GL_CHROMIUM_bind_uniform_location GL_CHROMIUM_color_buffer_float_rgb GL_CHROMIUM_color_buffer_float_rgba GL_CHROMIUM_copy_compressed_texture GL_CHROMIUM_copy_texture GL_CHROMIUM_sync_query GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_color_buffer_float GL_EXT_color_buffer_half_float GL_EXT_debug_marker GL_EXT_discard_framebuffer GL_EXT_disjoint_timer_query GL_EXT_draw_buffers GL_EXT_frag_depth GL_EXT_map_buffer_range GL_EXT_occlusion_query_boolean GL_EXT_read_format_bgra GL_EXT_robustness GL_EXT_sRGB GL_EXT_shader_texture_lod GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc_srgb GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_format_BGRA8888 GL_EXT_texture_norm16 GL_EXT_texture_rg GL_EXT_texture_storage GL_EXT_unpack_subimage GL_KHR_debug GL_KHR_parallel_shader_compile GL_KHR_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_NV_EGL_stream_consumer_external GL_NV_fence GL_NV_pack_subimage GL_NV_pixel_buffer_object GL_OES_EGL_image GL_OES_EGL_image_external GL_OES_EGL_image_external_essl3 GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture GL_OES_depth32 GL_OES_element_index_uint GL_OES_get_program_binary GL_OES_mapbuffer GL_OES_packed_depth_stencil GL_OES_rgb8_rgba8 GL_OES_standard_derivatives GL_OES_surfaceless_context GL_OES_texture_float GL_OES_texture_float_linear GL_OES_texture_half_float GL_OES_texture_half_float_linear GL_OES_texture_npot GL_OES_vertex_array_object OES_compressed_EAC_R11_signed_texture OES_compressed_EAC_R11_unsigned_texture OES_compressed_EAC_RG11_signed_texture OES_compressed_EAC_RG11_unsigned_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_RGB8_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_RGBA8_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_punchthroughA_RGBA8_texture OES_compressed_ETC2_punchthroughA_sRGB8

In fact, cor-el, I just discovered I had 2 profiles. One is "default", the other "default-release". I have tried to get rid of "default-release" (which is huge), but it did not change the situation. So I placed it back to where it was.

If I try to see where this profile is, I find :

lar7dyzn.default—release C:\Users\Pascal\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles lar7dyzn.default-release C:\Users\Pascal\AppData\Local\Mozil|a\Firefox\Profiles

I don't know what is the use of this default-release profile. I have already tried a repair Firefox (as I said in my first post) with no effect.

The default profile is the profile you used in previous Firefox versions. The new feature to use a dedicated profile appends the update channel to the profile name and that makes default-release. This is the case for all support update channels (e.g. default-beta; Developer Edition already had this feature and is the only exception). This dedicated profile is locked to a specific installation folder and can't be used by Firefox installed in a different folder. If you want this to work for all cases then you can either transfer some file from default to default-release or use Sync to sync this data.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/dedicated-profiles-firefox-installation

Thank you. Is there any way that could help to solve my problem ?

The main profile folder with your personal data is in "AppData\Roaming". The secondary location in "AppData\Local" is used for temporary data like the disk cache. You can recover important data from the .default profile to the new .default-release, because that profile is one that Firefox insists to use when launched via an external application.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

The picture below is what I see in my system. Before version 67, I had no problems. I am inclined to say there is a bug somewhere, because I know I did not do anything special about this program and I am the only user of my computer.

You can see the mess there is the user's folder. I won't chance to do something wrong which, even if it works, will not be a cure to the problem - it will only lure Firefox to display another version of what I want "as if".

I'd prefer a simple solution. Obviously, when Firefox is called of outside, the call is wrongly interpreted by some internal command, some hidden parameter in Firefox. This should be corrected. How, I don't know.

If one of the 2 profiles should be destroyed, I can do it (I already tried). But that does not garantee that Firefox won't look for the destroyed profile (the name of which being stored, for example, in the registry), and there will be an endless quantity of problems.

The screenshot shows a previously used default profile with a time stamp (2vha3t6n.default-1559116342397) that got created created fairly recently (May 29, 2019) due to a refresh. You probably also have a "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop with older personal data. Do you remember having done a refresh on that date?

You can check the file dates in this profile and in a possible .default in the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop to see whether this 2vha3t6n.default-155911634239 profile has all important personal data.

The lar7dyzn.default-release profile is the so called dedicated profile that current Firefox releases prefer and will use when you open an external link. If you would remove this profile then Firefox will simply create a new .default-release profile with a different random name. So best would be to transfer your personal data from the 2vha3t6n.default-155911634239 profile to the lar7dyzn.default-release profile. You can consider to keep this old profile for now in case you need access to specific data. You can always remove this 2vha3t6n.default-155911634239 profile at a later time. You can remove the 2vha3t6n.default-15591163423 profile in "AppData\Local" that only contains temporary data (disk cache and some other caches).

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed from the old 2vha3t6n.default-15591163423 profile to the new lar7dyzn.default-release profile to recover specific data.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

Hi cor-el, I did a total sync with my sync tool on the roaming and local locations and it seems to work perfectly. I got rid of the temporary "old" profile which is in local. I'll get rid of the old profile in roaming in a week or two.

Thanks a lot for your help, though I sometimes felt overwhelmed by your immense knowledge !

(yes, as I said before, I did a refresh after seeing the problem in the hope to solve it).

So, yes, thanks a lot ! I just wonder why that happened and why there are no more people suffering of the same plague complaining on the web.

All the best

Pascal

cor-el said

The screenshot shows a previously used default profile with a time stamp (2vha3t6n.default-1559116342397) that got created created fairly recently (May 29, 2019) due to a refresh. You probably also have a "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop with older personal data. Do you remember having done a refresh on that date? You can check the file dates in this profile and in a possible .default in the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop to see whether this 2vha3t6n.default-155911634239 profile has all important personal data. The lar7dyzn.default-release profile is the so called dedicated profile that current Firefox releases prefer and will use when you open an external link. If you would remove this profile then Firefox will simply create a new .default-release profile with a different random name. So best would be to transfer your personal data from the 2vha3t6n.default-155911634239 profile to the lar7dyzn.default-release profile. You can consider to keep this old profile for now in case you need access to specific data. You can always remove this 2vha3t6n.default-155911634239 profile at a later time. You can remove the 2vha3t6n.default-15591163423 profile in "AppData\Local" that only contains temporary data (disk cache and some other caches).

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed from the old 2vha3t6n.default-15591163423 profile to the new lar7dyzn.default-release profile to recover specific data.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

Thank you very much. I had a problem with Thunderbird not opening links in Firefox and removing old profiles helped me fix it! I have just recently switched Laptops, so that migration seems to have caused some irritation to both programs. :'D