Posted on 05/04/2019 7:58:53 AM PDT by Ouderkirk
I am not much of a vanity poster.
This morning I have noticed that Firefox had disabled my browser extensions for Ghostery and Adblock plus. I tried to install several other adblock anti-trackers and none of them will install.
I have tried to re-install them yet I am denied.
I hate to wave goodbye to Firefox as I have been onboard since the Netscape days. But, I cannot get these extensions to install no matter what I do and I will dump them if they want to force the issue
I tried Brave when it first came out. Didn’t find it worked all that well. Have they fixed it or improved it in the past year or two?
It happened to me last night. I uninstalled Firefox, downloaded and re-installed it from the Mozilla web site, then reloaded my add-ons/extensions. they now work again.
From the menu, I went to Tools > Options > Privacy & Security > Firefox Data Collection and Use. I put a check in front of two options, "Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla" and "Allow Firefox to install and run studies".
I then opened the browser to about:config and searched for "xpinstall.signatures.required" (without the quotes), and clicked the entry to change it from true to false. Next, I navigated to the download page of one of my disabled extensions, clicked the Remove button, then clicked the Install button. The extension installed normally.
In my case, reinstalling one disabled extension re-enabled the other two.
After I made sure that Firefox was now working properly, I unchecked the boxes that I had checked in "Firefox Data Collection and Use", and I reversed the change I had made in about:config.
I have it as my secondary. The newer flavor is not too bad.
My suspicion is that they (the left) cannot allow anyone to go “untracked”. You must be identified and data mined.
Next is a system like china’s social credit system. Where dissenters are essentially exiles within.
Tchad- when i try to do all that- it works UNTIL i return the about:config change back to TRUE- then it disables the plugins again
it’s not owrking Wuli- at least not for firefox 57.04
I tried Brave too. It’s still installed but only as a backup browser. It’s like Firefox Lite. Very Lite. Most of the addons don’t work with it so it’s not really something I can use on a daily basis.
One of the big reasons I like FF is because of the Freerepublic addons which allow me to insert images, links, change letter size, quote in italics, etc.
http://cynwoody.appspot.com/fr_posting_form_enhancer.html
http://cynwoody.appspot.com/fr_tree_viewer.html#installation
FR just wouldn’t be the same without these addons. Thank you cynwoody!
Hm. I tried to verify that the changes I described were still in place, and it turns out that "Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla" and "Allow Firefox to install and run studies" were still checked, though I DID uncheck them. The "xpinstall.signatures.required" setting is still set to true.
Nothing for Safari? :(
Well, now everything is working AFTER i refreshed firefox and hosed all my settings practically- what a pain getting them back the way i like them-
I was able to uncheck “Allow Firefox to install and run studies”- and closed FF reopened, and it’s still unchecked and my “xpinstall.signatures.required” is still set to false- not sure why yours got rechecked?
I’m still on the older version of Firefox ESR (the one before they disabled all the original addons and called them “Legacy.”) One reason I haven’t updated is that it broke the BBXtra codes for bulletin boards [”command”] and HTML<”command”> and I use both of those on forums I visit using my desktop PC.
BTW, I’m on iPad’s Safari when I’m at the house, so could use codes here.
It was true when I started. True is apparently the more-secure default setting. I reset it back to true after my extensions came back.
By the way, I just unchecked the two "Firefox Data Collection and Use" boxes, and everything is still working OK.
I meant the “xpinstall.signatures.required” is still set to true- not false
woops nope- it’s set to false- just checked again to make sure- when i try to set it to true- the adblock plugin dissappears - so the issue still isn’t fixed for me
This is maddening!
I bet.
FWIW I'm running Firefox Quantum 66.03, 64 bit.
I replaced Adblock a long time ago with uBlock Origin. You might give it a try.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
I only did one thing that was not in my description, which was to restart FF in safe mode by holding the shift key down when I clicked the FF icon, after I uninstalled and reinstalled uBlock Origin. I then started FF in normal mode. I did this because I have found that FF sometimes sorts out its own problems by temporarily running in safe mode.
If you are running FF Quantum, I would try repeating most of my original post again -- check the two boxes, reset the about:config value to false, uninstall Adblock, either reinstall Adblock or install uBlock Origin, and start in safe mode, close that, then start in regular mode. If your extensions are still enabled, reset the about:config value to true, and if your extensions survive that, uncheck the two boxes.
Mozilla will probably quickly release an update that fixes this problem.
What a PITA.
if they don’t offer the fix tomorrow or maybe next day- I’ll definitely try that process again only this time w/ safemode after reinstall and reset to true
I’ve been reading a few blogs on the issue , and they state mozzilla will be issuing fixes as soon as possible- so I’ll give it a few days- I hate running with the signatures enabled- but nothing else to do for now I guess-
“Have they fixed it or improved it in the past year or two?”
Absolutely. Works great.
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