# Has Mozilla just killed FireFox? (effectively) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 4, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457 "2019-05-04T03:09:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/1 "2019-05-04T03:09:32Z")
SO, a short while ago, my FireFox notified me it had disabled all add-ons it could not verify. This apparently included every add-on I had, including AdBlock, NoScript, and other protective add-ons. And guess what? You can’t download them again, you can’t download any add-ons as far as I can tell. So I did a little searching and it turns out that every version across the board will disable almost all its addons at midnight UTC 5/4 (by the system clock). There’s a lot of user discussion on the internet (mostly me too type), but absolutely nothing on the Mozilla site, as far as I can tell. So, has Mozilla shot itself in the head? To let a bug of this magnitude happen and then not react quickly could change its reputation across its user community. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/2 "2019-05-04T03:52:27Z")
ok - so this explains what just happened to me - ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/3 "2019-05-04T03:56:14Z")
Some discussion [One or more installed add-ons cannot be verified... • mozillaZine Forums](http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3049744) Looks like their problem. Bug report “Summary: Firefox marked addons due signing as unsupported, but doesn’t allow re-downloads from AMO → All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert” > **[1548973 - (armagadd-on-2.0) \[meta\] All extensions disabled due to expiration...](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548973)** > > RESOLVED (nobody) in Toolkit - Add-ons Manager. Last updated 2023-02-01. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/4 "2019-05-04T04:28:23Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > SO, a short while ago, my FireFox notified me it had disabled all add-ons it could not verify. This apparently included every add-on I had, including AdBlock, NoScript, and other protective add-ons. And guess what? You can’t download them again, you can’t download any add-ons as far as I can tell. > > So I did a little searching and it turns out that every version across the board will disable almost all its addons at midnight UTC 5/4 (by the system clock). > > There’s a lot of user discussion on the internet (mostly me too type), but absolutely nothing on the Mozilla site, as far as I can tell. > > So, has Mozilla shot itself in the head? To let a bug of this magnitude happen and then not react quickly could change its reputation across its user community. I can think of some serious software meltdowns that happened to major corporations. I expect they’ll have it fixed in short order. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/5 "2019-05-04T04:29:51Z")
I just ran across this myself. I was downloading an English subtitle file for a movie from a site when both of my ad-blockers (Adaware, Ublock Origin) were disabled and couldn’t be redownloaded (giving messages that the files were corrupt.) I thought that the (usually no more intrusive than the ads here) subtitle site had possibly somehow deactivated my plugins and downloaded the Firefox APK (I’m on my phone right now) reinstalled it, synched my account and still couldn’t reinstall my ad blockers. Wish I had seen this before I went through all the hassle. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/6 "2019-05-04T04:39:15Z")
No issues here, probably because I have all Firefox updates explicitly disabled. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/7 "2019-05-04T05:24:38Z")
I have updates disabled on my system as well, and it still nuked all of my add-ons. Setting the date back, reinstalling the add-ons, then setting the date forward again has worked for me, so far. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/8 "2019-05-04T05:29:35Z")
Did some looking around, looks like redditors have figured out a temp fix [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/bkfy5k/as_of_1200_am_utc_nearly_all_firefox_extensions/emghlsf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x). ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/9 "2019-05-04T05:39:09Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I have updates disabled on my system as well, and it still nuked all of my add-ons. There may be more than one way of doing it. As I recall, what I did involved some obscure about:config setting that resulted in the “Updates” section of the “Options” settings reading “Updates disabled by your system administrator”, and the “Update” button greyed out. Still working fine. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/10 "2019-05-04T08:42:04Z")
Did anyone else lose all of their open, unpinned tabs too? That happened at the same time all of my extensions stopped working. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/11 "2019-05-04T08:54:33Z")
I just realized what killed my tabs – I had practically everything open using their Multi-Account Containers extension. Dead extension = dead tabs. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/12 "2019-05-04T10:08:18Z")
Firefox could ruin it’s user base just like Netscape did in the late 90’s. Netscape was the most popular browser for several years. I can’t recall all the details but frustration with it’s development after AOL bought it, caused users to find a different browser. Ironically, Microsofts IE6. 😉 I remember shifting to IE6 and really liking that browser. Until Microsoft went to other more bloated versions. I would have thought Mozilla would have remembered that lesson then. > **[Firefox](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox)** > > Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards. Firefox is available for Windows 10 or later versions, macOS, and Linux. Its unofficial ports are available for various Unix and Unix-like operating systems, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, illumos, and So Firefox is the spiri... I still use Firefox, but Chrome is my primary browser. It works better on my phone. > [@](#): > > The project began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt, and Blake Ross. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape’s sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser.[38] To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suite’s software bloat, they created a stand-alone browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite.[39] On April 3, 2003, the Mozilla Organization announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox and Thunderbird.[40] The community-driven SeaMonkeywas formed and eventually replaced the Mozilla Application Suite in 2005. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/13 "2019-05-04T11:15:57Z")
I still have no issues with Firefox on which I had disabled updates on my main (Windows 7) PC. But it did affect Firefox on my Android tablet. If this problem isn’t fixed soon I’m going to have to temporarily disable Internet connectivity and then disable updates on my other computers that have Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/14 "2019-05-04T12:57:19Z")
I’m feeling smug that I switched to Pale Moon a while back. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/15 "2019-05-04T13:57:24Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Setting the date back, reinstalling the add-ons, then setting the date forward again has worked for me, so far. I was having all sorts of 'puter problems last night, this being the main one, but other, unrelated software giving me agita also. I also have auto-updates disabled & was actually on a slightly outdated version of FF. My ‘fix’ was to go to bed & deal with it all today. Your fix worked & I’m back in business…for now. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/16 "2019-05-04T13:58:45Z")
Still no issues on my PC Firefox which had updates disabled. I was able to fix the Android version on my tablet by setting xpinstall.signatures.required to “false”. I presume it will update itself at some point so this won’t be necessary. The problem on the tablet was that the Ublock Origin addon had stopped working. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/17 "2019-05-04T14:06:43Z")
The problem’s been fixed. [The fix uses the ‘studies’ system, so you might need to adjust your privacy settings temporarily.](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/certificate-issue-causing-add-ons-to-be-disabled-or-fail-to-install/39047) ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/18 "2019-05-04T14:16:47Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > The problem’s been fixed. [The fix uses the ‘studies’ system, so you might need to adjust your privacy settings temporarily.](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/certificate-issue-causing-add-ons-to-be-disabled-or-fail-to-install/39047) I just popped in to post this. I woke up, sat down on my computer and saw that my add-on manager still had nothing listed. I poked around a little, then ended up on the bugfix page ([https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show\_bug.cgi?id=1548973](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548973) ), saw this “temporary fix”, checked to see if I had the “studies” enabled (I did), went back to my add-on manager, and there they all were! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/19 "2019-05-04T15:45:20Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I still use Firefox, but Chrome is my primary browser. Same here. Pretty much my only use for Firefox is downloading photos. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457/20 "2019-05-04T17:15:42Z")
Reloaded Firefox this AM, and all is right with the world, unless you are a ad… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-mozilla-just-killed-firefox-effectively/833457.md?page=2)