How to stop Firefox from disabling my add-ons?

13Gigatons

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
7,461
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Suddenly Firefox 66.x disabled a couple of addons that I rely on. It kinda pissed me off, maybe a warning first. Anyway to block this action that still works in Firefox 66.x ?
 
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pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,926
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Same problem.

What is this redacted?



No profanity allowed in tech.




esquared
Anandtech Forum Director
 
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amd6502

Senior member
Apr 21, 2017
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It's because Mozilla has gone fully open sores over the past year, maybe past 2 years even.

Seems this time though not an update but expired certificates that were the problem.
 
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GrumpyMan

Diamond Member
May 14, 2001
5,778
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None of my themes or Ublock Origin are working now, what a bunch of crap this is!
 
May 11, 2008
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Temporary fix : (Although i lost all my sites in my speed dial page, GRRRR)

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/05/04/y...are-all-disabled-thats-a-bug/#comment-4409912

This temporary fix worked for me in FF stable:
Set the preference xpinstall.signatures.required to false as Martin suggests above, then go to about:debugging. Check the box to enable add-on debugging. Then click Load Temporary Add-On. Browse to your Firefox profile in appdata:
C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\.default\extensions
In the extensions folder there are .xpi files, those are your extensions that you had. Load each one and don’t close Firefox until they fix this.
[copied from Reddit Firefox user feanturi]


Type about:config in a new tab.
search for : xpinstall.signatures.required, set to false.
And then do as written above or just go to add ons and press the cogwheel and select debug addons to be able to debug and load extensionsfrom file.
It works for me. FF 66.0.3.
 

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,288
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DO the addons reenable automatically if you allow FF STudies? Or do you have to do that manually?
If studies is enabled it should do it automatically within six hours. After that you can check that it's there and then disable studies if you wish. Some are still reporting it doesn't help. https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/05/04/update-regarding-add-ons-in-firefox/

Edit: I just gave it a try and the studies fix came immediately. Everything seems to be working for me so far. I will update if my add-ons get disabled again.
 
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iCyborg

Golden Member
Aug 8, 2008
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@FeuerFrei
Did you try the link from my previous post? No need to enable studies and it fixes instantly, it's signed by mozilla.
 

FeuerFrei

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2005
9,152
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@FeuerFrei
Did you try the link from my previous post? No need to enable studies and it fixes instantly, it's signed by mozilla.
5 minutes ago Firefox prompted me to update the browser saying it was "critically out of date." So I downloaded the update to upgrade from 61 to 66, and now my extension is back in action.
(Time to disable Studies.)
 
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balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
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No offense but you linked directly to a download and the guys comment has a link to the fix on a site called "hacker news". That doesn't really inspire confidence IMHO. Plus in the mozilla blog it says "There are a number of work-arounds being discussed in the community. These are not recommended as they may conflict with fixes we are deploying. We’ll let you know when further updates are available that we recommend, and appreciate your patience. (May 4, 15:01 EST) "
 

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
2,331
1,139
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5 minutes ago Firefox prompted me to update the browser saying it was "critically out of date." So I downloaded the update to upgrade from 61 to 66, and now my extension is back in action.
(Time to disable Studies.)

Interesting. My desktop machine just popped up a message saying it had turned off my addons after working fine all this time. My laptop that wasn't working since last night with vers 66.0.3 still isn't working but I see the Mozilla support site has a message saying they're deploying a hotfix over the next few hours in the background.

Edit: Updating to 66.0.3 on the desktop didn't fix addons for me. Hopefully this doesn't take all day to distribute this hotfix.

Direct quote from support page:
"We rolled out a hotfix that re-enables affected add-ons. The fix will be automatically applied in the background within the next few hours. For more details, please check out the update at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-ons-failing-install-firefox "
 
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iCyborg

Golden Member
Aug 8, 2008
1,324
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No offense but you linked directly to a download and the guys comment has a link to the fix on a site called "hacker news". That doesn't really inspire confidence IMHO. Plus in the mozilla blog it says "There are a number of work-arounds being discussed in the community. These are not recommended as they may conflict with fixes we are deploying. We’ll let you know when further updates are available that we recommend, and appreciate your patience. (May 4, 15:01 EST) "
The URL and hotfix is not particularly suspicious to me, see below, the only concern is that you're installing it manually in an unsanctioned way. I'm not suggesting this is better than enabling studies, by all means, try that first. I did too -
I waited ~4.5hrs after enabling studies and nothing.

The URL for hotfix is from https://normandy.cdn.mozilla.net/api/v1/recipe/
You can search for bug number 1548973

"arguments": {
"name": "hotfix-update-xpi-signing-intermediate-bug-1548973",
"description": "This is a hotfix that updates an intermediate certificate used for signing add-ons. It is one of the mechanisms used to fix bug 1548973.",
"extensionApiId": 85,
"addonUrl": "https://storage.googleapis.com/moz-...xpi-intermediate@mozilla.com-1.0.2-signed.xpi",
"isEnrollmentPaused": false
},
 

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
2,331
1,139
136
Its been 6+ hours on my laptop since turning studies on and no go. Extensions still borked.

Edit: and 5 minutes after turning "studies" etc. on in FF on my desktop, I have my addons back, including adblock and noscript. Maybe it was filling out the feedback form on mozilla's site.

Edit2: Last night just after posting this, when filling out the feedback form while on my laptop all of a sudden extensions are turned back on.
 
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Miramonti

Lifer
Aug 26, 2000
28,651
100
91
Thank you, worked for me!

The headache this has caused over the last day has been overwhelming tho, and I should have checked here first.
 

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
2,331
1,139
136
Yeah, upgraded to 66.0.4 earlier today and turned studies back off. Addons are working normally now. My laptop actually got hit with one of those tech support scam ads telling you to call a number for help of your "infected" system. One link on what I thought was a reputable news website and boom, tab loads this message 30+ times in less than a minute, pegs cpu to 100% till I end firefox in task manager.

This snafu is unacceptable especially where it kills no script and adblockers.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
126
Yeah, upgraded to 66.0.4 earlier today and turned studies back off. Addons are working normally now. My laptop actually got hit with one of those tech support scam ads telling you to call a number for help of your "infected" system. One link on what I thought was a reputable news website and boom, tab loads this message 30+ times in less than a minute, pegs cpu to 100% till I end firefox in task manager.

This snafu is unacceptable especially where it kills no script and adblockers.
If software developers can't get these (relatively simple?) things right, it really makes you wonder and worry about "self-driving vehicles", doesn't it?

(Oops! Small software error! All self-driving cars lost their braking systems. No fear. Just enter "Diagnostics Mode", and set this preference, while driving, until we can push down a tested fix. That's assuming that you haven't crashed the car yet.)

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/a...r-the-right-to-drive?utm_source=pocket-newtab
 

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
2,331
1,139
136
I'm sure they'll get exceptions made for themselves. Regardless of the merits of Firefox's new addon system requirements since the Quantum version last year to screw up on the single most important point of failure is just pathetic. The defenders of Mozilla on this are sad.
 

Miramonti

Lifer
Aug 26, 2000
28,651
100
91
I was pissed and assumed v66 was one of those major changes to the code that required add-on developers to release a major update, if not rewrite their extensions (which of course then would cause yet another mass exodus). Good to see it's at least not that again...yet.