Right? It’s kind of nuts.
I tried to just white-knuckle it but only managed to last like an hour or so after posting the workaround until I caved and tried it. Fortunately it worked, and was easy enough to repeat as needed that I can handle if it’s a few days before they get it fixed.
An expired security certificate killing all plugins for all firefox users is not a good look for Mozilla.
Firefox is dying or getting killed off. I run into more and more websites where some controls (dropdowns and buttons) just don’t work in it. Problem is, I know where all the settings are in Firefox and I sure as hell don’t want to use Chrome or IE/Edge.
Firefox has been asking me every hour or so if I want to Upgrade and I keep answering ‘No, Later’ on general principles. But it’s stopped asking! Has it given up, or is it going ahead without my consent?
I was a loyal Chrome user until recently when it became ridiculously slow. Perhaps soon I’ll be switching back again to see if Chrome is still slow.
I’ve been quite happily using the Microsoft Edge Insider beta - Microsoft browser built on Chromium. Lighter than either Chrome or Firefox, and can use all of the extensions that they can use. It’s beta, but it hasn’t given me any trouble yet, and I’ve been using it as my primary browser for some weeks now. You can download it here.
Google Chrome and Firefox have both gotten too fat and slow for my taste, and the regular Microsoft Edge has enough compatibility problems (though small ones) to be annoying.
Ouch! 
So, I must have been away and unable to click ‘No Later.’ Firefox seems to have taken silence as approval and has defecated on me just since the last post.
Maybe I should open another thread…
This kind of thing is symptomatic of something that’s bothered me for years - **too many updates to software. **
It’s seems nearly to the point of planned obsolescence. Every program and app I use (especially mobile apps) want to update so fast it’s ridiculous. The computer professionals, some on this board, keep assuring me it’s for security purposes. I want to defer to their opinion, but I’m finding it harder and harder to believe.
Frequently, at least to the user, updates appear to do make mainly cosmetic changes. I personally find it annoying when software just moves around or reconfigures the interface, so that’s useless to me and a vote for not permitting updates.
Then we have situations like today’s with FF. That appears to be more of a glitch, or possibly unintended consequences due to other aspects of an update. Either way, second vote to never allow my computer to update without my explicit say so.
But what bothers me most is the irony that it’s supposedly security that is causing all of this nonsense. I think we’re seeing this in the larger world - “improvements” in security procedures that cause their own problems. Remember the Germanwings crash? Lots of people died because it’s now harder to get into an airliner cockpit. Then there’s all the misery caused by the TSA. Then we have the increased militarization of the police (I’ll get a cite if anyone really wants, but I think it’s fairly well known that departments have been getting surplus military equipment for years - remember the armored vehicles in Boston after the Marathon bombing?).
I’m so sick of products and processes losing their basic goddam functionality because of “security improvements”. And if not for that reason, because companies can’t stop monkeying around and leave well enough alone for a while. The worst part is I can’t think of any way to combat this - you can’t say, “Let’s stop thinking about security” in the software or physical world. But this kind of mission creep is really becoming a problem.
I think it’s because there is a separate setting for extension updates, apart from general FF updates. I never noticed that before either.
Brilliant! This worked. (And yes, I’m still getting the ‘No, Later’ option; so Firefox apparently has two different turds to dump, each with its own protocol.)
Dunno about the others, but Privacy Badger is still working for me.
As of about 10-20 minutes ago, things are back to normal for me. All of my FF add-ons have returned. I did absolutely nothing, except wait patiently.
Hope it stays that way.
Yes, it seems all extensions are back up and working for me now without having to do a workaround. They posted on Twitter about an hour ago that they were putting out a fix and users wouldn’t have to do anything to get it.
Still thinking of going to Chrome or trying to figure out other options.
I really appreciate you guys posting workarounds and suggestions for other browsers and what not. I was so confused, nothing was working, and I came here and saw that I wasn’t the only one having the problem, so at least I knew I didn’t bork it on my own.
I was thinking of opening a similar thread, but about Google Chrome, which used to be fast but clearly takes its sweet merry fucking time to give my apps time to spy on my computer usage before fully opening - even in private mode.
I’m not a computer geek so I don’t know if this is what’s actually happening but that’s my WAG.
Still broken on the Android version, which has no “studies” option.
I managed to fix it by reloading Firefox.
Previously not only was ublock turned off, but it would not let me download it to reinstall.
Now to resize the zoom so my old eyes can read the type…
Not for me. I shut down Firefox and restarted it, and all my add-ons are blocked again.
Still hasn’t caught me yet, then again I’m probably a couple updates behind because I NEVER do an update right when it wants to precisely because of shit like this. I’ve got caught way too many times with some “improvement” that breaks basically everything and causes me to waste hours and major annoyance to fix what they so blithely broke. Naw, I wait and see if a wave of fury crashes over the internet then wait a bit more just in case. I’m bitchy like that.
What’s the issues with Chrome? I had no idea it was a browser some folks regard with as much distaste as IE. I used to use Firefox/Mozilla but when Chrome came out I switched to it and haven’t noticed any change in my browsing experience. Is it a power user type of thing? I do run some sort of ad blocker on Chrone, but not a heck of a lot else.
Same here. Fortunately, the Android version (at least up to some recent version) can be made to work by setting xpinstall.signatures.required to “false”, which only works on the desktop version if it’s a nightly build or developer version. But I would prefer that it got a proper fix.
I used Chrome for awhile years ago, but gave up on it for two reasons. At the time, I still had a slow computer as my main desktop, and Chrome was a pig. I found Firefox at the time to be more efficient, and stuck with it. The other reason is that there’s no way (that I know of) to turn off automatic updates in Chrome. Firefox discourages it but you can still do it. Which is kind of ironic because, as some here have noted, automatic updates sometimes cause problems.
Hey guys. 
So I’m enjoying another calm and peaceful Friday night for me (I didn’t stay out late because I have somewhere I need to be today), I go to this place which has…pictures, let’s leave it at that…and I find ads. Plastered all over the place. Then I discover that UBlock has mysteriously vanished, and all Firefox will tell me is that it’s not approved or whatever. I go back to my usual hang, YouTube, and the worst is confirmed. Ads, some as long as a freaking minute and a half. Relevant:
So basically, all I could do was have faith that the good folks at Mozilla (there are some, right?) were trying their hardest and would get things cracking again in good time. I never really doubted that they would, but it’s still a highly unpleasant simply having this feeling of total powerlessness, even if I know in my heart that it isn’t that huge a deal. Anyway, it’s great to have a place like this. If nothing else, misery loves company, and just knowing that I’m not alone takes a big load off.
Actually, my real biggest nagging fear was that someone would start preaching about how we’re entitled and ads are how these sites make money and we’re taking food off of blah blah blah. Well, given how many right-wingers there are here now, there’s still an outside chance that it’s going to happen at some point, so, cards on the table: I will pay for YouTube when it gives me an option to completely block someone’s comments EVERYWHERE on the site, NOT just on videos I upload. For twelve bucks a month, I demand absolute power to shut down buttwipes, wastes of oxygen, and slime-flingers cold, absolutely, completely, forever. That is my price, take it or leave it. Same deal with Cracked. I ain’t payin’ for masturbation jokes and reactionary troglodytes in the comments section. Anyway, I use an adblocker because I kinda need it, and I’m very happy to see that this is the mainstream position now.
Hey, if worst comes to worst, is Microsoft Edge any good? Seems to be okay, but I didn’t do much on it so far.
Do you care at all about privacy? Chrome is the worst in this regard.