The new Android firefox is pure garbage

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
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Firefox just did a major update and changed everything, the interface sucks, is very slow, and half the time pages don't even load, and when they do it's very choppy and they randomly refresh and then don't load. It's getting tons of 1 star reviews so I don't seem to be the only one that hates it. It's virtually unusable. Even stupid things, like the bookmarks now require you click the 3 dots in the corner, btu it's very unresponsive, you need to click it exactly the right way or nothing happens. The tabs are in this bottom pull down thing instead of being on a grid... it's just all terrible.

Any other good browsers for Android? I tried Brave, but I don't like that it uses the address bar as search and there is no way to disable that, because you have to explicitly type out http:// every time which is kind of annoying otherwise if you type a url to an internal server it tries to search for it instead. I want something that will take privacy at least semi seriously, does not need to necessarily be focused on it but I just don't want something that collects all my info and sells it and stuff. Yeah yeah the phone itself is already doing that, but adding yet another app that does it too is not going to help any better.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
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I use Samsung Browser, and I've been happy with it.

I just enable an ad blocker (Adblock Plus), and it has been my primary browser mobile for a few years now (ever since the Anandtech forums went crazy with their ads).
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
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Looks like you aren't alone. Android Police posted an article on the poorly received Firefox update. Seems to be missing features the old Firefox had (as you mentioned) and lack many extensions. Apparently this is a rebuild of Firefox to improve performance, and sounds like those missing features might eventually come back.

The article didn't reference any performance complaints I saw. Might be worth uninstalling and reinstalling to see if that helps with performance (or clearing the cache). Also you can uninstall it and side-load the old Firefox version (instructions at end of the article).

But yeah, might be time to leave Firefox and try something else. Chrome, Samsung Internet, Edge, Brave.

Kind of sad to see Firefox struggling so much. Used to be my primary browser for so many years.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,194
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Yeah it's quite terrible I honestly don't know what they were thinking. It's too bad since the desktop version is good and it's always been my goto browser but seeing this makes me worry they might ruin the desktop one too.

I ended up going with Naked Browser, I find it lacks some features too like bookmarks (I see there is a section but I don't see a way to create one) but I don't really browse on my phone all that much anyway, I just like having a browser that actually works. Firefox was doing this stupid thing where it half loads a page, then just goes white. Or it loads it properly, but refreshes, then goes white. So even with the horrible UI aside, it was literally unusable.

I uninstalled it. I think anyone that hates it should. They might see those stats and decide to redact that update.

I find it's a big issue with software in general though, seems devs always feel the need to constantly update and change stuff for sake of change even when it works fine, and sometimes they just take it too far.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,034
748
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Yeah, I had the same types of problems and finally uninstalled it as well.

So long Firefox on mobile. I won't miss it
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,194
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Just glad it's not just me. Seems lot of people are hating it. It's too bad really because it WAS good before they started to do annoying changes to it for no reason. Even the last couple updates did some minor but annoying changes but I could live with those, mostly small stuff. But this one is just a shit show.

I kind of hope the devs they laid off get together and make a fork of the old one. It's GPL right? I think they could get away with that. Not sure the legalities of that though if the code was written on company time.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,034
748
136
Just glad it's not just me. Seems lot of people are hating it. It's too bad really because it WAS good before they started to do annoying changes to it for no reason. Even the last couple updates did some minor but annoying changes but I could live with those, mostly small stuff. But this one is just a shit show.

I kind of hope the devs they laid off get together and make a fork of the old one. It's GPL right? I think they could get away with that. Not sure the legalities of that though if the code was written on company time.

It would be nice if they did. It never seems to fail that those types of reorganizations tend to get rid of the talented employees while keeping the dreck. I guess we'll see.
 

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,286
2,682
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I ended up going with Naked Browser, I find it lacks some features too like bookmarks (I see there is a section but I don't see a way to create one) but I don't really browse on my phone all that much anyway, I just like having a browser that actually works. Firefox was doing this stupid thing where it half loads a page, then just goes white. Or it loads it properly, but refreshes, then goes white. So even with the horrible UI aside, it was literally unusable.
Everything you need to create bookmarks with Naked browser is in the menu. Click the 3 dots and then there is a square with a little bookmark on the upper right of the square. I guess it's supposed to look like a book with a bookmark. The page it takes you to is pretty straightforward but I admit it's not ideal.

Also, I remember in the past the program would keep running in the background if you didn't actually close it by clicking the menu and the X to exit the app. I just got in the habit of doing it so it's not an issue for me.
 

Nereus77

Member
Dec 30, 2016
142
251
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Huh? Firefox Mobile is working like a beautiful dream on my P40 Lite. Including uBlock Origin. Tabs are at the bottom and all. Version 79.0.4, right?
 
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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,194
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You probably did not get hit with the update yet I'm guessing. It's far from a beautiful dream. They removed tons of features too, like even tabs are basically gone, they're sorta in this pull down thing at the bottom but super unusable, you only see 2 at once and have to scroll for the rest. The address bar is also at the bottom for some stupid reason, which thankfully can be changed, but lot of the other stuff can't. Bookmarks are also very hard to access, you need to click the 3 dots in the corner, but your finger has to be dead on, or it does not register. Basically everything is just harder to get to and requires more fiddling around. Web pages also fail to load most of the time, just get a white screen. When they do load, they are choppy and slow to load. Especially images. Sometimes they load, but then it refreshes for no reason, then goes to a white screen. This release is a mess.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,194
12,025
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www.anyf.ca
Everything you need to create bookmarks with Naked browser is in the menu. Click the 3 dots and then there is a square with a little bookmark on the upper right of the square. I guess it's supposed to look like a book with a bookmark. The page it takes you to is pretty straightforward but I admit it's not ideal.

Also, I remember in the past the program would keep running in the background if you didn't actually close it by clicking the menu and the X to exit the app. I just got in the habit of doing it so it's not an issue for me.


Oh ok I found that, yeah it was not too obvious but now that I know at least it's good to know it's possible. And yeah I noticed that too if you exit normally it does not actually register as exiting.

But yeah so far this is still 10x more usable than the new Firefox so I'll stick to it for now.
 
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Nereus77

Member
Dec 30, 2016
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I should have been more clear:

The address bar is at the bottom. The colour of the app itself is black with purple highlights, but I think I set that myself. If I hit the tabs button I see 8 tabs, but yeah I have to scroll to see all 21. I have two addons installed, Dark Reader and uBlock Origin. All sites load fine.

Also my phone has bigger problems. Like no Google apps work, but I'm problem solving that. However, Firefox is literally my most used app in the meantime, hence my surprise.

Edit: Did you know that there's an option to set the tabs/address bar to the top?
Edit2: Updated to Firefox 80. Looks and works the same lmao
 
Last edited:

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
37,733
18,003
146
I've been using the new firefox for a bit and it seems fine. It works better at home where I have pihole servers to filter out the junk.
 

blankslate

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2008
8,581
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I've been using the new firefox for a bit and it seems fine. It works better at home where I have pihole servers to filter out the junk.
Is there still an option to save pages as a *.pdf file?
I haven't found in the new version

_____
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,194
12,025
126
www.anyf.ca
From what I read they got rid of that functionality too. I never really had to do it myself so have not tried.

I've been using Naked Browser instead and it works for what I need. I don't tend to use internet on mobile in general as it's not as good as on PC but it's at least usable.
 

blankslate

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2008
8,581
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Ok thanks guys I really appreciated that feature
I may have to find another mobile browser for that.


_____
 

jdkick

Senior member
Feb 8, 2006
601
1
81
For what it's worth, I've gone back to Brave for now with a bunch of stuff turned off from defaults. The new Firefox is indeed horrible and seemingly unstable in my experience. Not sure how it got through any sort of QA or beta...
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
firefox does dumb crap like this every few years, i switch back to chrome for a while then firefox figures its crap out and i go back, its a cycle.
 

beginner99

Diamond Member
Jun 2, 2009
5,208
1,580
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Huh? Firefox Mobile is working like a beautiful dream on my P40 Lite. Including uBlock Origin. Tabs are at the bottom and all. Version 79.0.4, right?

same here. ublock, noscript etc. all installed and working fine. version 81 something right now.
 

AMD64Blondie

Golden Member
Apr 20, 2013
1,659
139
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Even if you're sticking with the default browser on your phone...(mine's simply called Samsung Internet Browser,no idea what it's based on).

I'd say a good adblock extension is AdGuard,from the same company that makes the Windows version of the same program.

If you're using an Android phone, you can find it in the Google Play store. The mobile AdGuard extension is freeware.

Here's a link to AdGuard's official page for Android: https://adguard.com/en/adguard-android/overview.html
 

DigitalGal

Junior Member
Jan 15, 2021
2
0
6
No longer will I trust the Mozilla company. Mozilla is a pushover to the American government that spies on people's online activities. The reason why Firefox's mobile browser has been dumbed down is because Mozilla is trying to politically spy on you by not letting you have options to protect your online privacy, which is why it removed the option to go on "about:config" in newer versions. What makes me laugh is that Mozilla pretentiously claimed it cared about online privacy when it is headquartered in America that has legalised gag orders because America is politically controlled by elites who use online surveillance to enslave people. It has nothing to do with fighting against terrorism because America is known for terrorism to benefit only the American elites who exploit other countries through abusive international trade policies and military terrorism.

Also, I laugh when Mozilla pretentiously claims it has internet for people that's not based on profit when people from Mozilla fired a former Mozilla employee just because they were supporting someone who was against same-sex marriage. Everything about Mozilla's company is a retarded echo chamber that will fire people who have specific opinions because Mozilla's company is in bed with closedminded politics and Google that ARE based on profit. Being against same-sex marriage is making the people make less money considering that same-sex marriage has been legalised in an increasing amount of countries and now there are people who will get fired if they refuse to do with business with people from the L.G.B.T.Q. community. Because freedom is becoming rarer these days. They just want people to be emotionally gullible consumers that are emasculated simps to snowflakes and feminazis disguised as feminists and pushovers to the L.B.T.Q. community even though heterosexuality is the only normal sexuality, even though there will never be true equality between biological males and biological females because of their stark behavioural differences because their bodies and minds don't work completely the same because of their different biological sexes, and even though transgenderism is not based on hard science compared to biological sexes.

Firefox has been dumbed down to look very similarly like Google Chrome because Mozilla is a sellout that is in bed with Google, which makes Mozilla's attempt to be privacy-friendly laughable.

Firefox, Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft, Apple, the Koch industries, the Rockefeller industries, the Rothschild industries, the oil industry, the fashion industry, the entertainment industry, the music industry, the central banks, and other things are in bed with big tech and elites that are screwing over average people to benefit only the rich and powerful assholes who bully and enslave people with abusive international trade policies, hate speech rules, online censorship, online surveillance, etc. The popular social media platforms are being controlled by corporate dictators who are silencing journalists, activists, victims, politically incorrect comedians, and other types of people through propaganda because of increasing online censorship. It's getting harder for customers to communicate with real humans from specific businesses because those businesses have replaced emails and phone numbers with autistic and dumb robots that make the customers go through never-ending loops instead of getting their problems resolved. The popular music streaming platforms are stealing customers' money by overcharging their bank accounts after they've cancelled their subscriptions. An increasing amount of businesses have replaced quality and customer satisfaction with quantity and planned obsolescence. The modern pop music industry doesn't hold a candle to the old pop music industry. The modern entertainment industry doesn't hold a candle to the old entertainment industry. Things are getting worse in general.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
146
No longer will I trust the Mozilla company............

iu
 

DigitalGal

Junior Member
Jan 15, 2021
2
0
6
I'm going to guess that you're not poor nor were you born from a poor family. Because you seem to ignorantly show a lack of empathy towards poor people who have been abused by rich and powerful people who are controlling popular social media platforms, popular music streaming platforms, businesses that have replaced employee benefits with sweatshop factories that are increasing suicide rates and depression globally, the rise of obesity when healthy food becomes more expensive than junk food, the rise of obesity when poor people from office jobs can't afford to exercise when they have families to feed and work to do at their workplaces, etc. because you have shown that tinfoil hat picture. You are seemingly showing a lack of sympathy to YouTubers who have been banned just because they were uploading videos to expose corrupt politicians, business owners, corporations, and religious terrorists. Seemingly, you are showing a lack of empathy to people who have had their Facebook accounts banned because they're not wanting to participate in Facebook's brainwashing propaganda agenda that's not really based on logic nor facts because the corporate dictators from Facebook care about money and power more than logic and facts. The people that work at Facebook are borderline sociopaths, sociopaths, and psychopaths. Also, you are showing a lack of empathy to people who have had their money stolen from Spotify after they tried to cancel their subscriptions, which is why they had to contact their banks to stop Spotify from charging their bank accounts because the Spotify company is controlled by thieves. College students in the past used to have more reliable computers until H.P., Dell, Apple, and other companies started to make their computers start to fail more easily due to planned obsolescence and lazy repairs done by manipulative employees. It's making them struggle to succeed in college, and then there is college debt, which only benefits the elites again. What I've said already has proof. The Mozilla company is controlled by a far-left cult that rejects people who don't support same-sex marriage.