Palemoon Customized Toolbars Vanishing

[MetalicNero]

I've tried to change my toolbar layout about 3 times, and every time I close and reopen, the new toolbar I made (through the customize toolbars option) has vanished, and all the buttons I put on it are removed and put back into the customize window. Is there any way to change that or save the toolbar in a specific place so it doesn't just disappear whenever I open PM

[dark_moon]

I have no problems.
Maybe one programm block somethink or you didn't have write rights?

Try a clean profile

[Apollo702]

I had it happen again too. When that happens the standard "restore default set" is virtually useless. The only things that work are starting with a fresh profile or going into your profile, finding the localstore.rdf file( the toolbar file) and deleting it. After that you start off with a fresh setup. If you have a big setup then it is going to be a real pain setting it all back up. If you do have a complex setup I advise taking screenshots in case you have trouble remembering exactly how you want it.

Another tip is when you start to set them back up don't do a full setup at first. Just put one item per line and then restart PM. If they are going to blow up on you again then you didn't waste much time doing your full setup. If they are going to persist then whatever you put there will still be there when it starts back up.

My question is why is this file so fragile and prone to corruption? I do know that some add-ons have some sloppy icons- and I have kicked many to the curb for this reason- however, the localstore file itself seems to have a glass jaw.

[Moonchild]

localstore.rdf corruption is usually the problem when you have this issue.

You don't have to dive into your profile folder with pale Moon, by the way, since I've restored the initial Safe Mode startup dialog if you start Pale Moon with SHIFT depressed. ticking "reset toolbars and controls" and continuing will have the same effect as manually deleting the localstore.rdf file.

It's not so much that the file has a glass jaw (It's just XML), it's more that third party software can mess it up if they have an issue in their own code when modifying the file. Third party synchronization software in particular can cause issues if file locks are not honored (synching while the browser is trying to write to it, etc.), to name one thing.

[Apollo702]

Third party synchronization software in particular can cause issues if file locks are not honored (synching while the browser is trying to write to it, etc.), to name one thing.

Thanks! Every little tidbit helps. I also will keep that method of starting up PM in case it ever happens again. When I think of synching the first thing I think of would be Xmarks for bookmark synching. Would you( or anyone else) have seen any evidence that this one could be contributing to the corruption?

[Moonchild]

A simple search had foxmarks listed for localstore.rdf corruption on the first page of results (that got renamed to xmarks, right?)

[Apollo702]

A simple search had foxmarks listed for localstore.rdf corruption on the first page of results (that got renamed to xmarks, right?)

Why am I not surprised? I run several extensions for various types of synching but that one has been there as long as toolbars would periodically go haywire and it was the the only synching one that I have seen exhibit buggy behavior. In many ways that one is a lifesaver as it enables me to instantly synch and backup my Ultimate Websites project. I have thousands of the best sites saved in virtually every category possible and it has been thousands of hours in the making. However, Xmarks in the past had gone through some really bad phases. At one point in 2011 it could barely function and I wrote them and eventually wrote a 1star review telling them to put their foot up someones ass and get it together. It was especially galling since Xmarks nearly died and got bought out by LastPass. LastPass and their products work flawlessly so apparently for a while Xmarks was on the junior varsity squad.

[MetalicNero]

Thanks for the ideas, but neither has seemed to work. I've made a new profile, deleting the old one and I've tried deleting the file from the defaults folder, but when I set it all back up, I got the same results. The add-ons I use are:Ghostery, Adblock Plus, Browser Protect, DoNotTrackMe, Facebook Toolbar, FastestFox, Pocket, Session Manager. I also use Blue Fox theme. Could one of these be the source of the problem?

[Moonchild]

Since it's a problem that occurs across different browser sessions, I'd say that "Session manager" may be your prime suspect here, and possibly any additional toolbars as add-ons. A few other add-ons I'm not familiar with; you may need some trial and error.

Note that arbitrarily deleting files from the defaults folder under the Pale Moon installation folder (where default, pre-configured files and settings are stored for new profiles) is absolutely not a good idea and may prevent the browser from being able to initialize a new profile which will break the program.
If you want to delete potentially corrupt files, you should look in your profile folder, not in the application folder.

[Apollo702]

I also run Session Manager and it might be contributing towards the problem. Another observation is the 2 buggiest icons I have are for Similar Web and Stumbleupon. Those 2 are for toggling toolbars which I normally keep off. I already have enough and just use them situationally. SU is a toolbar and SW gives a choice of a toolbar or sidebar( I choose the sidebar.) However, when anything goes wrong those are the first 2 to jump somewhere they don't belong- usually the address bar.

However, total corruption appears to happen on average about every 6 months and in the past couple of years I had done an insane amount of add-on experimentation. I basically had swept the entire catalog but these days the changes are absolutely minimal. The last real change was I recently had a hard drive go bad and I had to do a completely new setup.

Also, there are sloppy add-ons which utterly destroy custom toolbars and I spent forever tracing one down that caused untold hell: Foxlingo- which not coincidently had a toggleable toolbar! That one worked fine until a bad update in 2011 which didn't corrupt the file. It completely blocked the memory of new toolbars! Anything set up would be instantly obliterated on the next startup. This all happened at almost exactly the same time that rabid-release started so I thought it was another one of Mozilla's mistakes.

After reading Moonchild's advice and having seen considerable evidence backing that up it is fairly clear what is going on. I was wrong when I thought that there was something in the localstore file so the next logical question is: Is it sloppy add-on programming that could be fixed or is it so inherent that secondary toolbars are fundamentally doomed?

I also should add that I have contacted both SU and SW and the SW people are much less incompetent. When I wrote the SU folks it was as if I was speaking to people who had never gone near a computer before. They also would ask for the same information repeatedly. I would tell them that it was right in front of them. They would ask for it again. I would get fed up trying to explain the advanced concept of scrolling so I would send it again- this time with nothing else included- that way they couldn't possibly miss it or confuse it with anything else. They would thank me and ask for my information... I finally gave them a 1-star review and gave up on them...