There was the update on the 18th from 27 to 28.

The question "So the question is what changes have Mozilla made to Firefox between 15th and 24th March 2014 ???" was rhetorical, I know that Firefox was updated to version 28 during that period. My question was meant to say that some change in this update IMHO has caused the problem.

I understand that finding a root cause is ideal, and I would be happy to further investigate this with you.

Since it is still happening in Safe Mode please try to troubleshoot the plugins and extensions

The other route is to troubleshoot the downloads folder and antivirus to make sure the downloading of the image is not having an issue either. http://mzl.la/LJ0h2w

In the meantime there is an add on that enables this Save Images

Please post back with your results, there have been other reports, but no issue filed yet.

[See EDIT 2 bottom of page for solution]

I have worked my way through your suggestions and found no cure. The process did however identify some aspects of the fault that may be useful to you.

Firstly, any activity that involves "selecting a folder" causes a "Firefox not responding" error. For example trying to change the downloads folder in 'Firefox Options' instigates the fault. Also "Open File" from the pull down "File" menu instigates the fault (this I think may be particularly significant as this action is not actually trying to download or save any file, one is just trying to select a folder). This, of course, also effects any activity using "Save As" or "Save To" as well as "Save Page As".

Downloads, for example, work fine if you just "Save" to the previously configured download folder, but does not work if the Options configuration is set to "Always ask where to save".

Specifically from the trouble shooting tutorial:

1) Deleting "pluginreg.dat" file made no difference. 2) Deleting "mineTypes.rdf" file made no difference. 3) Clearing ALL Firefox 'History / Cache / Temp files etc etc" made no difference. My Firefox is configured to automatically delete all this clutter on exit anyway. 4) No "browser.download.*******" entries in about:config were marked "user set". Note: only one of the the entries listed in the tutorial was present, "browser.download.useDownloadDir" and this was set to default. 5) Entry "browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone" was not present, it wasn't listed in about:config. 6) No additional third party "Download Managers" are installed. 7) Also, temporarily disabling my anti-virus protection made no difference.

As per your suggestion I installed the "Save Image" add-on, again any action that involved selecting a folder instigated the fault. In the extension configuration page, I had to resort to manually typing in the save folder, using the folder browse button instigated the fault. I also noted that the radio buttons for selecting predefined folders were greyed out and unselectable. This extension did save ALL images on a page, but I could not find a way of selecting a specific image in isolation, Also any use of "Save As" or "Save To" initiated the fault.

With regard to 'plugins & extensions', the first thing I did before posting my original post was to disable ALL plugins & extensions, and also initiate the latest version check function. Again, updating and disabling made no difference.

In conclusion. it seems that it is the "selection of a folder" activity that is the root cause of the problem, not a 'save' issue in itself.

Note: All other programs on my PC, including Internet Explorer work as expected without issue. At least for as many as I have currently checked.

EDIT 1: Since posting this reply I have done some more checking of my other applications, in the main, all the "Save As and Open" functions work as expected. I have however found one non Firefox application issue.

In Internet Explorer, "Save As" and "Open File" operate correctly, but if you're on a web page that includes a "Browse for File to Upload" button. Say for example you want to use an on-line service to convert a PDF file on your HDD to Word etc. Then clicking on the within web page "Browse" button opens the search folders dialogue window that immediately freezes and crashes Internet Explorer the same as it does in Firefox. In all other respects, Internet Explorer (I'm using version 11) seems to be functioning without error.

EDIT 2: Since I described the Internet Explorer issue in EDIT 1 above, It was clear that the issue affected two browsers rather than just Firefox in isolation. I knew that Firefox wasn't faulty on March 15th (refer to original post), so I thought I would use Windows 'System Restore' to put my PC back to an earlier known good working state. The nearest date available in System Restore database to March 15th was March 17th. At the end of the System restore process I got a message that System Restore had been unable to complete successfully due to a missing file and that no changes had been made.

I checked the Firefox version and saw that it was still the later version 28 (as expected if System restore hadn't been successful), but also found that the "save image" and "open file" error had gone away and Firefox was working normally. For how long is another matter. I will be monitoring the situation closely and try a couple of PC re-boots. I have in the past had the situation where System Restore has fixed a problem only to have it re-appear after a re-boot. If the fix doesn't hold I will update this post. If the fix does hold, then I will mark the issue as solved.

EDIT 3: After a couple of re-boots and a check on Windows Update to ensure all previous updates were still installed. Firefox fix seems to be holding OK. Also, a check in System Restore database confirms that running 'System Restore' did NOT revert PC back to an earlier time just as it reported.

I have exactly the same issue and have tried all suggestions except the restore which I will try now. My issue is also happening with Chrome but not Opera.

Let us all know if 'System Restore' solves your problem too.

regards

Chrisshop (Original Poster)

Ran system restore and went for a walk around the block. When I came back I had a system message saying that the restore did not work because a file was missing and no changes had taken place.

However, when I checked the issue it had gone and I was able to successfully download images using Firefox and Chrome.

Brilliant news......that's two out of two repairs using the same fix. Therefore would not appear to be just a fluke.

I think it will take a Microsoft SW engineer who knows exactly what happens during System Restore to give an insight into why a FAILED restore, actually clears the problem. The only thing I can think off is maybe System Restore clears out some obscure cache files or resets some OS pointers somewhere even if it doesn't complete successfully.

EDIT: Had a thought. Just maybe. On the premise that System Restore relies heavily on rewriting the HDD to an earlier state. Then it is logical to deduce that it may perform some form of disk check routine to check for and correct any errors it finds before committing to making changes on the disk. Now since the Firefox fault affected browsing the folder and file structure on the hard drive, then maybe an error in disk file allocation tables or something disk drive related caused the problem in Firefox and other reported Internet Browsers, but was corrected by a System Restore error checking initiation routine. I admit that this is a bit of a stretch of the imagination as one would think that any disk errors would affect more applications than just Internet browsing.

If anybody reading still has this fault and has not yet tried deploying the System Restore fix tip, then maybe they could try running "chkdsk" first with the fix flag set /f.

If "chkdsk/f" finds disk file allocation table errors and fixes them, and this in turn fixes the browser folder navigation issue, then this would be a conclusive diagnosis of the root problem.

[Note: finding and running "chkdsk" varies with different Windows versions. In My Windows 7 for instance it is run from the "Tools" tab after right clicking C: in Windows Explorer and choosing "Properties". With the "fix errors" check box checked. In Win 7 it can also be run from the DOS command prompt as well, but first you have to start the "command prompt" utility "as administrator". In either case, if the /f fix flag is set, Windows usually states that disk checking and error fixing will run the next time Windows boots as it can't diagnose and fix a running Windows OS].

There are other potentially related posts and bugs.

• e.g. Firefox hangs/crashes on clicking Browse button to upload files
  /questions/991703#answer-548813
• & possibly bug 984610

I am not sure however how this can be tested or demonstrated if a failed system restore solves the problem. Presumably a successful system restore would also solve the problem and so it could be tested by making a restore point and restoring immediately to that. That would not result in any significant information loss.

One problem is we have no Steps To Reproduce that we can trial on.

The other thread does have an alternative solution that works there. Clearing none MS startup items.

Since I now seem to have a working installation, I am understandably reluctant to start experimenting with "System Restore". In the past I have had a bad experience using S.R that resulted in me having to re-format my C: drive and do a complete Windows clean install to recover (I was affected by that Windows Update corruption in April last year that affected boot ups for 1000's of users and after using S.R my PC wouldn't boot at all).

I do note however that there are similarities in my original issue and the one described in "/questions/991703#answer-548813" quoted above. Maybe that poster could have solved his problem using S.R rather than going through the Windows Safe Mode boot process described in the post. Also, I wasn't particularly clear on what actions that poster took AFTER he had booted Windows into "Safe Mode" that resolved his issue. No reply needed, this is just an observational comment.