Developer Tools Window stops opening

[adoxa]

Here's a strange one, which I think started up happening with latest update (2024.02.03 (64-bit); Windows 10). Make the Developer Tools use a separate window, then:

• Ctrl+T - create a new tab;
• Ctrl+Shift+Q - show the Network Monitor;
• Ctrl+W - close the Tools;
• now the Tools can't be opened again.

Console seems to be the only one that keeps working.

[LET33T37]

have the same problem in palemoon33.0 too, dev tool can only active once.

[athenian200]

I haven't seen this myself, but I do know that before 33 was released, we encountered this:

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=30790

And it was ripped out before release... could ripping out the doorhanger code have caused issues like this? That's the only thing that comes to mind that could have been an issue.

[Kris_88]

Can't reproduce in PM 33.0 64bit portable, Windows 10.

[athenian200]

It seems like this never happens if you use the mouse to open the Developer Tools from the AppMenu like I do, but if you use the shortcut keys like the OP does... it does appear to actually break the ability to open Developer Tools. I was skeptical at first whether this could be reproduced, but it can be.

What's worth noting is that it seems to require that specific sequence of shortcut keys the OP mentioned. If you use the mouse to open the same dialog boxes, nothing goes wrong. Also, you have to have the Developer Tools displayed as a window. If they are docked to the browser, it doesn't happen either. So it's actually very hard to trigger this.

EDIT: You can actually fix this by going back to another tab that has a website open. So the bug only triggers on a new tab with no website open, and the moment you go back to a normal tab with a website open, the Developer Tools start appearing and responding again.

[Kris_88]

I did as instructed, the window opens and closes many times without problems.
Ctrl+T, Ctrl+Shift+Q, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Shift+Q, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Shift+Q, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Shift+Q, Ctrl+W, ...

[Kris_88]

Yes, I was able to reproduce the problem.
If I close the window with Ctrl+W before it has fully loaded, then I really can't open it with Ctrl+Shift+Q.

[suzyne]

I can reproduce the problem here and the key is to have the Developer Tools set to Show in separate window before starting the steps.

After the tools are closed (can be with the keyboard or the close box in the top right corner) the Developer Tools cannot be opened again for the same tab.

I find the problem is independent of the keyboard shortcuts. After opening the tools with Inspect Element in the pop-up menu and closing the tools window, the Developer Tools cannot be opened again for that same tab with the mouse or any menus.

[FranklinDM]

PR#2476 should (hopefully) fix this, but there is still an underlying race condition that can block the developer tools window from opening on the same tab if you rapidly open/close it using the keyboard shortcut.