How can I get rid of a mystery blank space in Firefox?

October 18, 2006 8:46 PM

What is the mysterious blank space that occasionally shows up at the top of my Firefox window, and how can I get rid of it?

Every once in a while a mysterious blank space shows up at the top of my Firefox window. (This has happened through multiple versions of Firefox, including 2.0, which I just upgraded to.)



What is this mysterious blank space? How can I prevent it from showing up? (Closing and reopnening Firefox solves the problem but is far from an ideal solution.)

posted by bdk3clash to computers & internet (11 comments total)

No idea, but it's not just you. I've had that problem off and on myself. I thought it might have something to do with one of my co-workers installing the Google Toolbar on my machine. (That's about when I started noticing it, anyway.) Do you have that installed?
posted by web-goddess at 8:50 PM on October 18, 2006

That looks like some kind of customized tool bar gone wrong.
Right click on your menu bar, click "Customize..." and see if you can drag the blank bar around. Or turn it off.
posted by Jimbob at 8:56 PM on October 18, 2006

Jimbob: The mysterious blank space doesn't appear to be part of a toolbar--I can't right-click and "Customize" it (though I can for the menubar directly below it, of course.)
posted by bdk3clash at 9:02 PM on October 18, 2006

Make a fresh profile, copy your bookmarks over, and reinstall your extensions.

It's probably an extension gone awry.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:03 PM on October 18, 2006

Before that make sure it's not the bookmarks toolbar.

Go to View->Toolbars and uncheck the Bookmarks Toolbar.

That's popped up randomly for me as well, although not above the file menu.
posted by prodevel at 9:33 PM on October 18, 2006

I used to get the same thing with 1.5, but only and always after connecting over remote desktop. I alwas figured it had something to do with resizing or some such.

But I just tested 2 RC3 and it didn't happen, so, I have absolutely nothing to offer...
posted by claudius at 10:41 PM on October 18, 2006

Happens to me too. I haven't solved the problem, but there might be clues here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions
posted by IndigoRain at 3:28 AM on October 19, 2006

HA! This was going to be my exact question today. For a while I was wondering if it had to do with popups, and then I was wondering if it had to do with "locking" my computer while I was off at lunch. Symptoms seemed to be loosely correlated with those two events. But controlled testing ruled out both. Yarrrrrg! I'm glad you asked and I hope we get an answer. It's only been happening to me for the past couple of months or so.

Rogue extensions make more sense. The only two I've added recently are VideoDownloader 1.1.1 and Google Notebook 1.0.0.1.0. Otherwise I suppose it could have come in with an update of an existing extension.
posted by kookoobirdz at 7:05 AM on October 19, 2006

I had this exact problem yesterday except for it being an inch of grayspace at the bottom...for me it turned out to be an outdated extension.

From Mozilla's website:

"On Windows, start using the "Safe Mode" shortcut created in your Start menu or by running firefox.exe -safe-mode. On Linux, start with ./firefox -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:

cd /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/
./firefox-bin -safe-mode

When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start normally."
posted by sLevi at 7:29 AM on October 19, 2006

Docking/undocking my old Dell laptop would do it. This was accompanied by a change of resolution. Extensions included tab mix plus and google toolbar. Just a data point. I hope you figure it out, and post the answer here!
posted by jewzilla at 8:57 PM on October 19, 2006

You know what. I take it back. The mystery bar/space does seem to be connected to "locking" my computer while Firefox is running. (Ctrl Alt Delete... Lock Computer). This is pissing me off.
posted by kookoobirdz at 8:41 AM on October 30, 2006