hello, have you set firefox to never a remember history (a.k.a. always run in private browsing mode) in firefox/tools > options > privacy. in this case it's a known issue that light-weight themes won't work in this mode currently. this bug will be corrected in the upcoming firefox release.

I forgot to mention that I checked that already. I have "Remember my browsing and download history", "Remember search and form history" and "accept cookies from sites" all checked. Thanks for the idea though. Any others?

You can check for problems with preferences and rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js files and a possible user.js file to reset all prefs to the default values.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences

What about full-fledged themes? I heard that those are turned off for private browsing windows. Since I dislike the default theme, that would make me reluctant to bother with private browsing.

The prefs.js doesn't seem to be locked, corrupt or damaged in any way and I would prefer not to reset it because I have a lot of settings established. All other preferences are saving just fine. And I can switch back to default and that saves. I really don't want to reset because, unless I am misunderstanding something, I'm going to lose all my settings and it would take a long time to redo things. I even searched the prefs.js for the stuck theme - nothing!

The list of installed Personas is stored in prefs.js in the Firefox Profile Folder and can be inspected on about:config in the lightweightThemes.usedThemes pref in JSON object format ({"id":"#","name":"xxx",...}).

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

The first entry of that pref is the currently used persona.

You can check for problems with the lightweightThemes.* prefs if you aren't able to change the Persona.

If it works in Safe Mode and in normal mode with all extensions (Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) disabled then try to find which extension is causing it by enabling one extension at a time until the problem reappears.

Close and restart Firefox after each change via "Firefox > Exit" (Windows: Firefox/File > Exit; Mac: "Firefox > Quit Firefox"; Linux: "Firefox/File > Quit")

Thanks for the help, however my themes do not work work in safe mode (I said that above, but perhaps not very clearly.) And I can see the persona I am suppose to be using in my prefs however, that is not what is currently showing, which is the problem. The snowflake theme is what is showing no matter what I switch to. The only theme that will work is that and the default. Any other installed theme automatically displays the snowflake theme. I have uninstalled the snowflake theme and have tried reinstalling alternative themes but every time I get snowflakes.

Try to remove the lightweighttheme-header and lightweighttheme-footer files in the Firefox Profile Folder.

I don't have specific files in the Firefox Profile Folder for the theme-header and -footer. I do have them listed in the prefs.js file. Do you mean I should remove them from the prefs file or is there somewhere else I should be looking? Thanks again

Sorry, just found the folder you spoke of. Deleted it and still no luck, just snowflakes...

Another update, I opened up the theme-header and theme-footer files (they were just labeled .file but they opened in Paint luckily) and guess what, snowflakes! So even though I deleted it, it seems to recreate it the files as the old snowflake theme. The question is, what is causing it to generate and can I override it? I'm testing some things out now, but I'd still love any more ideas. I'm liable to break things as I try to fix them :D

Did you try to (re)move the prefs.js file temporarily to at least check if it has effect?

You can create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Alright, it's sorted! I had a lwtheme folder where theme-header and-footer were stored, but for whatever reason I needed to have the theme-header and -footer files outside of the folder too. I didn't have them! So, I transferred them over from the new profile I created to my old profile and presto! Then the preview wasn't working but I found this and solved that problem too - http://www.hazelstutorials.com/firefox-personas-mouseoverhover-not-working/#comment-8779 Thanks again everyone!

I know Im late but I have the same trouble you had and its driving me crazy.. Can you be a bit more descriptive on how you fixed this problem?

hello John_David, please update firefox to the latest version. this is an issue that should have been fixed in the meantime...

Hello Phillipp, I thought I had the latest Firefox but thanks for the info although it didn't fix my problem. I'm not exactly good with computers. All I did was type my problem in the search engine and y'alls conversation came up.

I'm sure there are more computer illiterate people like me with the same problem so I ask.. Is there any way you can debunk the cryptic messages exchanged between cor-el and kwinslow? Perhaps explain on a 3rd grade level cause whatever the hell they spoke of came off as a bunch of high class gibberish. (no offense)

Hello Phillipp, I thought I had the latest Firefox but thanks for the info although it didn't fix my problem. I'm not exactly good with computers. All I did was type my problem in the search engine and y'alls conversation came up.

I'm sure there are more computer illiterate people like me with the same problem so I ask.. Is there any way you can debunk the cryptic messages exchanged between cor-el and kwinslow? Perhaps explain on a 3rd grade level cause whatever the hell they spoke of came off as a bunch of high class gibberish. (no offense)

if updating alone didn't help, a quick & easy fix should be to reset firefox and see if you can use themes normally afterwards.

No promise this will actually solve your problem but I'll try and reexplain what I did. If you have a mac, things may be located in different places and I can’t help much with that. So first, you need to go here - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles and make a new profile Now, hit the windows key and r again and then open the new profile you created and apply a theme. Then close firefox. Now go to your newly created firefox profile located here C:\Users\(Insert your User Name here)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ There will be two profiles, your new one and your old one. The new one will be pretty sparse compared to the old one and will also have a different creation date listed. Hopefully you will be able to find out which one is which. Go into the new profile and copy the lwtheme folder and theme-header and theme-footer files (if you hold down the ctrl key while you select files and/or folders, you can select more than one at a time.) Now, go to your old profile and paste them there.

This is about as best as I can break it down for you. Hopefully it isn’t as highfalutin as it sounds. I had to learn all my computer knowledge; it took time and a lot of googling when I didn’t know the answers to some things and I’ve still got a ways to go. I can try and assist your further if you get stuck with something particular. Good luck and let me know if this works for you too. A reset is really a bother for such a small problem.

That was helpful although Im not quite finished. I got the new profile but I have no idea how to find the the lwtheme file. Ive found it once but I dont remember where.

If it helps, on my new profile I have a little orange drop box that I either says Mozilla or Firefox (dont remember which) and its in the top left hand corner. On my old profile I have File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools and Help.

Speaking of help, I appreciate what you are doing for me. Sorry I didnt respond back sooner but now that I know you've seen my plea I will check quite frequently and keep you posted. Thanks again for everything!