How to report a bug - Basic Troubleshooting

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DaveG
Flagfox Developer
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Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:06 pm
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How to report a bug - Basic Troubleshooting

Post by DaveG » Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:00 pm

If you've discovered a bug then by all means please post a report here. You'll need to create an account first. Please, use your real email address and subscribe to threads so you can be notified of replies. (see #3 below) We won't spam you and generic complaints with no follow ups are useless.

I only ask that you attempt to be patient, polite, and unselfish. Please remember that Flagfox has over a million users, so unless you see a deluge of a thousand posts about your issue here you can safely assume that it only affects a very small amount of users with a special configuration. (see #5 & #6 below) We will try to help you the best we can, not just to fix your problem but to prevent it for others.

This and other help pages are written for the primary user-base of those using Firefox 4+, however similar procedures apply to both Firefox 3.x and SeaMonkey.

Do not just post error messages by themselves!
No matter how much we want to help you, if you don't give us anything to go on beyond an error there may be nothing anyone can attempt to do to fix your problem. You're going to have to answer questions and investigate things on your end to some degree. We don't have access to your computer and lack psychic abilities.

Do the following before posting a bug report:
The following steps are generic troubleshooting that may in fact help you fix your problem yourself, or at least give us the initial information needed for us to attempt to help you. Even if you do fix it yourself, please also post a report here telling us what went wrong and how you fixed it for the benefit of others.

0) Update/Reinstall Flagfox. Only use the current version of Flagfox and current version of your browser. Your issue may already be fixed or something involved may be different in an older version. Under Firefox 4+ and similar, you can check for addon updates manually via the Addon Manager, though if you haven't disabled automatic updates you should eventually get the new version automatically. You will have to restart Firefox for the update to take effect. Older versions of Firefox may still be supported, but are not recommended.
* Manually checking for addon updates: click the Firefox button or go to "Tools" in the classic menu then select "Add-ons". Click the maintenance menu button next to the addons search field up top, then click "Check for Updates". You can see what updates have been applied either manually or automatically by clicking "View Recent Updates" in this same menu.
* Manually installing/reinstalling Flagfox: Go to the Flagfox page on Mozilla Addons, click the install button, and install.
* Manually checking for Firefox updates: click "Help" in the classic menu or Firefox button menu, then select "About Firefox". You can click the button to check for updates in older versions and in new versions simply loading this window will check automatically.

1) Check to see if your question was already answered.
* The Flagfox FAQ should be your first stop for support questions.
* The Flagfox blog often has information about recent changes, so that's another good place to look. (check older posts too)
* You can search this forum or just skim through the most recent few threads.
* For errors, read the developer comments on the AMO page. I note any new issues there and may even have a bran new version to point you to with a needed fix. (this should be your first stop if you're using a development version of your browser)

2) Post all available information. We don't know anything about your problem until you tell us. (yes, this sounds dumb, but most people don't fully understand this) The more info you post the more we have to go on to fix your issue. Tell us step-by-step what you did that led up to your problem. If you can create a screenshot of the problem, attach it. (avoid image hosting sites) Please always tell us your operating system (Windows, MacOSX, Linux, etc.) as well as what version of Firefox you're using. If your issue is related to a feature in Flagfox that has a setting in the options menu, please post what setting you're using. Are you a new user or did your issue start only recently, possibly after an update? If things only changed recently then tell us what else you've changed recently in Firefox that might have affected things. Don't just assume we can figure things out.

3) Don't dump and run. Check back here and answer questions and/or subscribe to the thread to get email notifies of replies. Not all bugs happen for everyone, so we'll probably need your help to recreate it. Please continue troubleshooting and posting information until we actually know what's going on and something can be done about it for everyone, not just you.

4) Report error messages. If an error message pops up, then you should obviously report what it says along with what you did to get it. You can also check the Firefox Error Console for messages and errors that might be important. (the warnings almost never are) You can get to the Error Console under "Tools" in the classic menu or "Web Developer" in the Firefox button menu. Be warned that this will show errors for ALL extensions, not just Flagfox, and some extensions are just plain buggy. If you see something from or possibly related to Flagfox then copy and paste it here.

5) Test in a clean Firefox profile. Create a new Firefox profile and install Flagfox in it. (run: firefox -profilemanager) If the bug doesn't happen there then it's going to be caused by one of the following:
* Your Flagfox installation or something else in your Firefox profile may be corrupted. The easiest and first thing to try is to reinstall Flagfox (uninstall Flagfox, restart Firefox, then install Flagfox again). If this doesn't work, post in the forum with information so we can attempt to investigate. Note that you may have other problems within Firefox unrelated to Flagfox until you fix whatever is broken.
* A conflict with one of your other installed extensions. Go back to your main profile and try disabling them one at a time until you find the culprit. (if you have a lot of extensions, read this) If it does happen there then you could try disabling your plugins one at a time, as well. If you find a conflicting add-on then please post both the name and its version here.

6) Check for other problems on your end. If you seem to be the only one out of over a million users getting an issue, then it seems there's something special about your system. You'll need to try to figure out what it is; there's not much we can do about your system. I suggest checking your network and firewall settings, as well as any (hidden) Firefox preferences you've tweaked.

Further Firefox troubleshooting steps from Mozilla are here: Basic Troubleshooting

If you've followed the above and still have problems then you'll need to post extensive information here for us to try to help you. Don't skimp on the details.

Users who ignore these basic troubleshooting steps will be pointed back here. People who post without following the above usually don't get their problem fixed because they won't have given me enough information to have the slightest clue what their problem is.
Last edited by rleeden on Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:39 pm, edited 6 times in total.

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