If Firefox suddenly nukes your addons...

[LadyCrimson]

There was a line across top of Firefox tonight that said something about addons being disable/no longer supported and they were all "gone" (there technically but not loaded). Seems to be a new bug. It may or may not happen to you, now or later (I'm on Firefox 61 still, others mentioned version 66-ish). Edit: this has happened on my Win7 rig, but not yet on my Win10 rig (same Firefox version on each).

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548973

This is the work around I've found from some reddit page. Copying entire post text since I can't figure out how to link to just the one post:

Quote

 

I found a workaround for general release version (the one that everyone calling you for help with Firefox has) since disabling extension signature checks doesn't work for release.
Problem is due to an intermediate CA for the extension signing cert expired, and thus, all certificates signed by that CA (Mozilla's extension signing cert).
You'll need to know the default profile name (there is usually only one, so it's easy for users to pick it in the browser).

FF -> Tools -> Add-Ons
Right-mouse on the Gear icon to get the menu. Select "Debug Add-Ons"

Click on "Load Temporary Add-On..."

Browse to your profile's extensions folder:
e.g. C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile-ID>.default\extensions
or %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*.default\extensions

You can temporarily load the extensions one-by-one in "debug mode" (you don't have to launch the debugger).
That's as good as it gets until Mozilla deploys the replacement intermediate CA for their extension signing cert or finds some other fix.

 

I'd assume you'd have to redo this every time you exit/restart the browser but haven't tested that.

The entire thread I took this from is linked below - there were other possible solutions in it as well, although some only worked for the Developer or Nightly.
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/bkcjoa/all_of_my_addons_got_disabled_and_they_are_all/

Edited May 4, 2019 by LadyCrimson

[Sarex]

Why are you on an older version?

[LadyCrimson]

Just now, Sarex said:

Why are you on an older version?

Why not?

I haven't yet subscribed to the update stuff every week/month pattern companies like to push - I update if performance feels sluggish or something doesn't work well anymore or if it's been like a year or more. No I'm not worried about security that severely. Plus half the time I feel like updates just makes programs worse (function wise) instead of better. If it was just security fixes/improvements, fine, but it's never just that.

There was a specific reason sticking to 61 tho...I think it was something to do with the way bookmarks were handled/filed/created or something along those lines. When I built the new rig I did install latest Firefox on that one, and immediately noticed some interface changes that drove me batty. So I went back.

[Sarex]

Was just curious. Never personally had issue with any of the updates that was a dealbreaker for me, but I do understand where you are coming from. They like to change the UI for no apparent reason...

[algroth]

The following link also worked for me: https://storage.googleapis.com/moz-fx-normandy-prod-addons/extensions/hotfix-update-xpi-intermediate%40mozilla.com-1.0.2-signed.xpi

[Zoraptor]

13 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I'd assume you'd have to redo this every time you exit/restart the browser but haven't tested that.

They do load on startup (66.0.3 at least) if you use that solution despite the option being labelled as 'temporary'.

Edit: needs to be done once per day apparently.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Zoraptor

[injurai]

i basically just reenabled Normandy from the about:config page.

[bugarup]

Thanks everyone. Just happened to me, I forgot how awful Internet is without Adblock.

[LadyCrimson]

I don't want to use the normandy route since I don't have studies installed and don't want to install it even if I can disable it later. I'm stingy and don't like to send anyone any info automatically nor do I want to be pestered with "do you want to send a report to Firefox" messages.

Some people are reporting that their extensions are all back already, but for others (including me) this isn't the case. At least I only use two addons so force enabling them once in a while isn't a big deal. :)

[Sarex]

For me it appears that the extensions are disabled and some are, but ublock origins is still blocking stuff in the background.

[injurai]

9 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I don't want to use the normandy route since I don't have studies installed and don't want to install it even if I can disable it later. I'm stingy and don't like to send anyone any info automatically nor do I want to be pestered with "do you want to send a report to Firefox" messages.

Some people are reporting that their extensions are all back already, but for others (including me) this isn't the case. At least I only use two addons so force enabling them once in a while isn't a big deal.

normandy is just being used to push out an instant fix, you can disable once your addons are renabled

[Sarex]

Update out.

[Bartimaeus]

Still not effective for me (on version 66.0.4). Have to manually run this script through the console every day to re-enable my add-ons. I think I read that they're aware the fix was not effective for everyone, so I hope a better fix is coming down the line sometime soon here.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Bartimaeus

[injurai]

 

[Bartimaeus]

Well, it's not like I'm going to switch to Chrome.

Having to browse the internet without any of my addons made me realize how completely terrible the internet is, though. uBlock Origin, Ghostery, Privacy Badger, Canvas Defender, Dark Reader...internet's garbage without all y'all.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Bartimaeus

[injurai]

I don't know how plebians/normies/boomers-without-techie-child get by... The internet has enough ****e on it even with all the addons.

[Chilloutman]

I moved to Brave browser, problem solved

[Malcador]

15 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

I moved to Brave browser, problem solved

Good marketing.

At least they said they'd ignored Google's mucking about with ad blocking in Chromium, although I wonder how far they can resist that.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Malcador