Problem with Firefox 77.0.1 update.. and beyond

[sammyc]

Probably right. Or I limp along with chrome til next update & then see what happens. Or something.

Anyhow, thanks for the input.

[Jonj1611]

No probs hope you get it sorted

[AGTDenton]

Not that this will help the situation but I use the Enterprise (AKA Extended Support Release) version of Firefox.

Unless you really need the latest and greatest features of a browser, you'll get them a little later than the standard release but at least by then there should be less bugs and issues. You do still get security patches.

I've yet to come across a problem with it. I now use the Enterprise version of Edge - means it comes via normal Windows updates not the Microsoft Store delivery.

[BobF64]

To me, and this is just because youre seeing data, it seems like Firefox is failing to de-compress the stream.

No idea how you'd test that, let alone fix it if it were the problem.

[sammyc]

Not that this will help the situation but I use the Enterprise (AKA Extended Support Release) version of Firefox.

Unless you really need the latest and greatest features of a browser, you'll get them a little later than the standard release but at least by then there should be less bugs and issues. You do still get security patches.

I've yet to come across a problem with it. I now use the Enterprise version of Edge - means it comes via normal Windows updates not the Microsoft Store delivery.

Not something that I know much (ie anything, really) about, will look into it, thanks all educational, innit, even if this gets resolved.

To me, and this is just because youre seeing data, it seems like Firefox is failing to de-compress the stream.

No idea how you'd test that, let alone fix it if it were the problem.

Why me, though, is the thing.. am trying to decide whether to update my other laptop as a diagnostic; 2 non-firefox-worthy machines would not be a step forward :/

[matts-uk]

Why me, though, is the thing.. am trying to decide whether to update my other laptop as a diagnostic; 2 non-firefox-worthy machines would not be a step forward :/

As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with the Firefox 77.0.1 (x64) release as such. We have it running on a mixed bag of a half a dozen Macs and Windows 10 PCs without any issues.

Your problem looks like a borked encoding or mime type association which can result from; browser and search hijacks, poorly written plug-ins, fiddling with Windows file associations, regional code-page mismatch and probably other things. Installing 'Free' utilities, 'secure' search extensions, running automated system repair tools, some paid for and 'free' AV suites sometimes mess with these things.

Enable the Firefox menu bar if you haven't already done so. In the Help menu click Troubleshooting Information. At the top of the page there are buttons to re-start Firefox with Add-ons disabled, try that first and it it doesn't work try Refresh Firefox.

On the Tools menu, you can click Page Info and it will tell you what Firefox thinks the Content-Type and charset is.

Good luck

[sammyc]

Your problem looks like a borked encoding or mime type association which can result from; browser and search hijacks, poorly written plug-ins, fiddling with Windows file associations, regional code-page mismatch and probably other things. Installing 'Free' utilities, 'secure' search extensions, running automated system repair tools, some paid for and 'free' AV suites sometimes mess with these things.

Enable the Firefox menu bar if you haven't already done so. In the Help menu click Troubleshooting Information. At the top of the page there are buttons to re-start Firefox with Add-ons disabled, try that first and it it doesn't work try Refresh Firefox.

Have done all the add-on disabling previously, without effect (& have v few extensions anyway, & no dubious installs/running of anything suspect).

On the Tools menu, you can click Page Info and it will tell you what Firefox thinks the Content-Type and charset is.

Good luck

Interesting, hadn't done this the comparative good/bad pages are as below:



As far as refresh etc goes, I will do if I have to, but as you can probably tell, rather not. And also, would like to understand rather than just fix it.

[Jonj1611]

What happens if you disable quirks mode

[Jonj1611]

Does this look familiar : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1166431

[Jonj1611]

A few posts down in that page the person posts the issues they are having :

[sammyc]

The about:config workaround doesn't work for me. Also it's, well, a workaround - ideally you just want normal service resumed.

Unless I wait for next update it I will have to just knuckle down, double-back-up my stuff & refresh/fresh install, I guess. Thanks for digging that out for me anyway - as I should be digging out my own research (although I wouldn't have searched "turn off quirks mode", helps to know what you're looking for ofc).

[Jonj1611]

Sometimes its trial and error. Sorry it didn't help you more.

[Jonj1611]

Out of interest have you tried disabling security software?

[matts-uk]

As far as refresh etc goes, I will do if I have to, but as you can probably tell, rather not. And also, would like to understand rather than just fix it.

[/quote]
If you don't want to refresh, try creating a new Windows user.

When you log in as your new user it will create a new Windows user profile with a clean Firefox profile.

Firefox has it's own profile manager too but the functionality has been broken for some time so I don't recommend it.

[sammyc]

I could, but as someone who never clears their history & uses it a lot I ideally I want to hang on to & utilise my profile as it is. I already have a rather messy folder of old profiles but that's another story & would probably give someone who runs a nice tidy system the horrors.

[matts-uk]

I was thinking more, create a new user as a test to remove some potential causes.

If the problem follows the new user it's not a profile issue.

Other tools that are sometimes useful for isolating encoding issues:

• Check to see if the View/Text Encoding menu behaves differently on pages that render correctly and incorrectly. The Text Encoding option is greyed out on pages the declare the character set within the HTML.
• Take a look at Web Developer/Page Source. The lines at the top of the source view can reveal a lot. Does the page declare a DOCTYPE for instance.
• Take a look at Web Developer/Network and refresh the page. Select the first request in the left pane and take a look at the request and response headers.