Forum and Firefox broke again.

Well that didn't take too long? Went to another thread to reply, got this:

Now I'm on Edge, works fine, I even get to this forum when I log in vs. the top Community under Firefox (on W11). Wondering if it is a Firefox add-on, but it was working fine for weeks until 2 days ago.

For what it's worth:

• The site has been working OK for me since the big problems (this past July) were fixed.
• I got a note from an admin a few days ago saying that due to all the problems, Dell is looking at possibly moving the forum to a different software platform. They stress that these things take time, if it's going to happen at all.
• At about the same time, I switched out Firefox because of frequent problems rendering websites. I was having to "refresh" Firefox about once a week, which necessitated re-logging-in to all my frequent sites. Brave seems to be holding up much better for me. YMMV of course.

Did you clear the FF cache, cookies, history, etc thoroughly? Suggest you run ccleaner (free).

I haven't had that error using FF recently, though I've seen that same error message in the past. 

I guess I've been lucky... I did have some problems with Firefox though, as does my wife... there are sites that don't work well with Firefox. In some cases, depending what HTML code is used, different code is needed for Firefox vs. Edge. Most of these sites are banks it seems though, Edge only.

Ron, first thing I try, the Cache... and it didn't help.

Something appears to have changed. I can get directly to this forum, I can sign-in, and I can post?

Makes no sense to me?

Well I could just before this above... just got an Unexpected Error... put the mouse here to copy the reply and the error banner went away? Trying again, let's see if it works?

Nope?

I'll try again.... failed, I'll log out and in and reload...

Didn't have to logout and in... it worked then?

I don't think it is Firefox or my PC either? Failed again!!!

If you're just deleting cookies, site data etc on FF Setting>Privacy/Security screen, that may not be enough.  If you run ccleaner, you'd be amazed at how much FF "stuff" is still on your PC. Give that a try and see if things improve.

Was working briefly yesterday, not today, back on Edge.

I will NOT use CCLEANER. I've been burned by it twice before.

Yes, I know they claim it will only discover problems that can cause problems and not ones that will damage Windows.

Yes, you have t know what you are doing to use it, and I surely do. I REVIEW every line item. Still I got burned. However, that was a few years ago.

I did get hacked a few years ago too, and MS would warn not to use it.

I've got both Macrium and Acronis back-ups, maybe I'll give it a try AFTER one of them runs and see if it cures it. Since it works now ''sometimes' I don't think it is a constant on my end, but who knows?

Ron, do you really trust CCleaner?

I got it and ran the programs. Results:

Almost 50,000 tracking things! Maybe, but they'd all be created again anyway (and I doubt the number) and I know they are NOT all cookies either.

Those Cache files are very suspicious, the count I mean. I don't trust CC to get it right either. I can look at them but they are BINARY files... not sure I'd do those.

Meanwhile,, the forum works some times, some times I get the error before I start replying, other times when in the middle of replying, and some times when I do get the error, if I press REPLY a few times, it works anyway.

@ispalten  - Ran ccleaner last night before shutting down so all yesterday's junk should have been removed. I was on the net for ~1 hour this morning, reading email, looking at some news items, and viewing this forum before I responded to your post. After posting here, I exited FF and TB (both set to delete cookies, history etc on exit) and ran ccleaner.

After that short time, FF left >46 MB of junk in its cache and TB left >6.8 MB in its cache, plus there are 578 trackers with a total of >1.7 GB of junk.  So I can believe you have >1 GB of FF junk plus >1 GB of TB junk, plus all the other stuff left by Edge, Google etc on your PC since you don't clean it out regularly.

Still not having any FF issues myself. I pinged my forum contacts about this thread but so far I haven't seen any other recent complaints about the issues you're having.

I have FF set to "Do Not Track - Always", which cuts down on the number of trackers being stored.

I run ccleaner regularly and have never had an issue clearing the junk out.  I use Firefox and Thunderbird. Both leave an enormous amount of stuff on the drive after they're closed that's not needed.

When I double-click on Firefox - Internet cache in ccleaner, it opens a new screen listing all the files in the cache. I can right-click a file and select "Open folder containing'.  When that folder opens, I double-click an entry and select "Open with: Firefox".  Almost all files will open in FF, but a few are binary that FF can't open, but at least I see what kind of stuff is being left behind. 

If/when I use ccleaner to check the registry, I can cancel without letting it do anything or select things not to be fixed. Either way,  I always have ccleaner back up the registry before it makes any changes. 

Besides, I can always set a Windows System Restore point before running ccleaner as an extra measure of safety...

@ispalten 

Not Authorized happens when your clock and time zone are different from where you are posting from.

I use Firefox ESR and have no issues.

I also tell ccleaner to remove EVERYTHING including crash reports and databases and passwords.

I use custom clean as default and never save anything.

Not the case. Time Zone is Eastern Daylight US...

I'm using Edge now and it has a real strange thing happen?

I am signed in of course. RoHe posted a link in another thread to a Dell page. I RMB's on it to open in another tab. It was this link, https://www.dell.com/community/Precision-Mobile-Workstations/SupportAssist-diagnostics-cable-error-D0901/td-p/8234543  and I jumped to that tab. As I scrolled down, I saw this at the bottom:

Yes, that is my Avatar, and on top of the page is my ID and Avatar too... 

See, it thinks I'm signed in?

Either the forum s/w is having a problem or I am?

All other web sites are fine though (at least the ones I've tried?)?

Again, I'm on EDGE now, not Firefox.

Ron, 

OK, I get it, junk does collect. Still, almost all those get recreated usually too, especially if you do the same stuff over.

I've never had a need to clean stuff out. Yes, in older days, even the Registry cleaning would provide a boost in system performance.

The real question though is not that I'm using more space than cleaning out would use, but why? Is there 'something' saved causing my problem? OK, if it is, how do I identify it? I like my cookies saved. When I do run into web site problems, I go into the browser and DELETE that sites cookies. I don't want to do it wholesale. Cookies do have value on many sites. Not only saving some real data (ID's, etc.) but what you last saw on a web site.

I have enough disk space not to worry about some program using a GB here or there.

I know some people love these types of programs. Me, the serve no real purpose, especially if the are not aware of what they do. 

Still, just in case my PC is the problem, I will after Acronis runs later this week though.

You ARE signed in. The thread at the link I posted in the other thread is locked and I see exactly the same "Sorry" message. So nobody can respond there....

When you're having browser/internet problems, first thing is to clean out the junk. Yes, you will lose your cookies etc, but if that solves the problems, wouldn't you rather fix things and get on with life?