Firefox refuses to open Emby

[Narwhal 3]

i have Emby setup on my Unraid server. I've been using emby on my unraid server for about a  3 week now only using Firefox to access it.

but the past 2-3 days it refuses to stay on the page.

when i type the ip into Firefox it goes to it for a brief second then takes the webpage back to the page it was on before. ( so if i was on google and went to the emby server it would show for a second then go back to google.com)

I've tried clearing the cache, uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox. still to no avail.

This works on any other Firefox install on any computer that I've tried on except my computer.

I've tried switching my server to a different IP, reinstalling emby.

i have ran out of idea's on what could be causing this.

[Happy2Play 9780]

If it is only Firefox on a specific system/machine, to me that would point to that Firefox install or something on that system.  You have already identified that Emby works fine from other systems.  Does a different browser work on that system?

[Narwhal 3]

I just tried Chrome and it does the same thing as Firefox.

I have been using Edge to view the server since this issue occurred

same with Internet Explorer it works as well

[Narwhal 3]

and it works on the same browsers on any other machine. Firefox and Chrome dont present the issue  on any other computer i've tried

[Happy2Play 9780]

Just guessing but to me that would point to a defect on that system itself, if it works everywhere else.

[Luke 42078]

Do you have any Firefox extensions installed? Is the browser at default settings?

[Narwhal 3]

I have lastpass installed on firefox. and nothing installed on chrome.

 

i did test with no extensions when i tried removing everything that firefox installs without signing into anything and still gave the issue. but the other computers had the same extensions as what the computer with this issue has.

 

I Hope it isn't a windows issue as it is almost a fresh install.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Narwhal

[Luke 42078]

What happens when you try from a blank browser tab in firefox?

[Narwhal 3]

Same thing occurs.
I just tried using Revo uninstaller to find anything relating to Mozilla and remove it. I also ran a chkdsk which didn't find anything wrong

 

[Luke 42078]

Can you supply the contents of the browser debug console? Thanks.

[Narwhal 3]

 firefoxdebug.txt

[Narwhal 3]

If i open the F12 console in firefox it lets me go to the server. does not do the same in chrome.

if the F12 console is closed in firefox it will not let me through to the server. if i close the server and refresh it kicks me back.

[Carlo 4561]

It sounds like you could have something hijacking your browser.

What I'd do to start is a virus/spyware check.

You can also try starting your computer in safe mode with networking and see if the problem is still there.  If the problem goes away that would likely indicate something else is running (see above) that is interfering with your browser settings.

You can also try loading Task Manager and looking for things running that you aren't familiar with.

Another thing to try is running Firefox in safe mode:

On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

Let us know if any of these things work.

Carlo

[Luke 42078]

On 6/27/2020 at 12:16 PM, Narwhal said:

  firefoxdebug.txt 15.1 kB · 2 downloads

Thanks. I'll try to reproduce but I've never heard of this before. It sounds something specific to your firefox configuration.

[Narwhal 3]

2 hours ago, cayars said:

It sounds like you could have something hijacking your browser.

What I'd do to start is a virus/spyware check.

You can also try starting your computer in safe mode with networking and see if the problem is still there.  If the problem goes away that would likely indicate something else is running (see above) that is interfering with your browser settings.

You can also try loading Task Manager and looking for things running that you aren't familiar with.

Another thing to try is running Firefox in safe mode:

On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

Let us know if any of these things work.

Carlo

Ok. I Ran windows built in virus scanner and it found nothing.

i ran Malwarebytes through all of my hard drives and it found nothing.

i restarted into safemode with networking and the problem persisted.

nothing in task manager looks weird.

started firefox in safemode and problem persisted.

 

im probably just going to go ahead and re-install windows to fix the issue if it is something wrong with my install.

 

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Thanks. I'll try to reproduce but I've never heard of this before. It sounds something specific to your firefox configuration.

i dont know what would have changed. i was using it one day and i shutdown my computer and started it up the next day with this issue and has stayed since.

[Carlo 4561]

It's good you didn't find virus or other stuff.  Have you tried uninstalling FireFox completely and doing a reinstall?

[Narwhal 3]

Yes. I uninstalled through control panel the first time and reinstalled with no difference.

Then I used Revo uninstaller to uninstall firefox and did an advanced scan and removed anything relating to Mozilla aswell as chrome

[Carlo 4561]

Yea, you may need to do a reinstall of windows as it sounds like you're running out of things to try.

If you want to do a TeamViewer session on that computer for a couple of minutes I'll take a look and see if I can see anything but not real hopeful.  Might be worth a shot if you are going to do a windows reinstall anyway.  Send me a PM if you want to give it a shot.

[Narwhal 3]

so i finished the reinstall of windows and it still gives me the same issue with accessing the site through firefox

 

[Carlo 4561]

Really don't know what to think.  Shot in the dark but maybe

try a new IP on that computer

try using the browser not logged in as a user (incognito)

How about Chrome?

[Carlo 4561]

Oh something else to try to narrow it down.  Create a brand new user on the computer as see if that has a problem.

Maybe somehow something linked to your Windows/Microsoft account is doing this.

[Narwhal 3]

Changed the IP of the computer did nothing.

Chrome does the same thing.

 

New user does the same thing

[Carlo 4561]

Most bazaar thing I've seen in a while.  For those reading and following along I teamviewed in with him and checked it out.  It very strange.

You can have the browser homepage set to firefox homepage and setup pages to load.  If you click the Emby icon it goes to emby but then returns.  If you right click and open Emby in a new tab it works. If you use a saved book mark it will work or not depending on what page you are on.

If we create a desktop icon and put in http://IP:8096 and create a shortcut it works every time.

What's weird is that both Chrome and Firefox both do almost the same thing so it's not a browser issue per say.

[Carlo 4561]

Problem is solved and not due to my help.  He and I chatted a bit last night and did some BSing on our own time while he loaded up a couple different versions of windows in VMs and tested things while I was TeamViewed in with him.  He's a real interesting guy and it was cool hanging out with him and just shooting the bull while things were loading.

In the VM things worked.  On raw metal windows install didn't work and had the refresh back a page problem.

Just heard back from him and teamviewed in again to see proof of him fixing it.  He was diligent and stripped his machine down to "nothing" and slowing plugged things back in and tested until he found the source of the problem.  He setup video and showed me as he can reproduce this at will literally at the flip of a button!

I'll let him have the fun of explaining the actual cause and it's a doosie, almost unbelievable and something you would never think to check.  I don't think this is something I could have ever found remotely via TeamViewer.  Some things remote support just can't do.

I'll let @Narwhal have the honors and maybe he can record a quick video to show how simple/stupid this actually was (but very frustrating).

 

[Narwhal 3]

The solution was very interesting.

cayars and I searched through firefox and chrome trying to find the issue being caused
in the settings. i went through and checked on 3 bare metal computers and 2 Virtual computers
where none of them presented the same issue.

I reinstalled windows about 3 times. Believing it was the new windows release 2004
i reinstalled 1909 and the same issue occurred. i thought about it and reverted firefox
to a previous version of itself 76.0.1(current 77.0.1) and the same issue presented.
i was pretty much out of options the last thing to try was removing hardware.
Since cayars and i had ruled out any issues in the software.

i removed everything from my computer. Monitors, network jacks, hard drives, and USB plugs.
i slowly put everything back into the computer starting with the USB ports and kept testing
the issue. Once i had gotten to my USB hub where the issue was coming from i narrowed down
on the USB hub, unplugging everything and re-plugging those in. finding out that the issue
was caused by a joy con typically used in games like ATS where there are more than 7 gears
apparently some point during the shuffle of using my computer i flipped the switch which was
acting like a remote in Emby.

Definitely don't allow @cayars to fool you. he helped tremendously with coming to the conclusion
of this being something physically on the computer instead of something in the software.

Video to Issue and Solution