Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firefox and osx

Unless he's keylogging me, in which case he gets what he deserves, the Grinch. ;)

kathrineg — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:51:45 -0800

I need a way to keep a browser state with tabs, cookies, passwords, forms all saved but password-protected and inaccessible. I have Mac OS 10.5.7 and I usually use Firefox, kinda hate Safari. This would be somewhat like Firefox's "Private Browsing" but instead of erasing my settings when I go out of the password-protected browser, it would keep everything ready and waiting.

So it would be like when you go from "private browsing" back to regular browsing, and Firefox restores everything automatically. Except that all the data associated with it would need to be password protected/hidden. No one should be able to access anything by clicking through folders, searching the drives, etc.

Switching logins is too onerous. I have some password protected documents but it's getting really old to move stuff from my browser to there, remember to close the document, etc.

I don't need anything with a force password, or anything completely invisible. It's okay if you can see the program/plugin and tell that I'm keeping something secret. It just needs a password so I can foil a certain Santa-hating member of my household who is adept with computer stuff, without going nuts trying to erase my tracks.

Help Me Get Ride of Firefox?

Dreama — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:22:33 -0800

I want to completely, entirely remove Firefox from my Macbook. Help me do that? I want to sanitize Firefox off of this machine as if I'd never heard of it. When I bought my Macbook in the spring, I did a Firewire connection with my iMac and it imported Firefox from my desktop, a setup that isn't optimal and has not acted in the way I want it to on the laptop. I want to nuke every single vestige of the browser, in its entirety, so that I can download a fresh "out of the box" installation and rebuild from the ground up.

I've tried this once before, removing everything that I could find that seemed to be even remotely Firefox related and when I reinstalled the browser afterward, it "remembered" and recognized things (like autocomplete, things that had been adblocked/nuked with NukeEverything, that sort of thing) that shouldn't have lingered, but apparently I missed some things. I want to avoid that this time by finding every single folder where Firefox-y things dwell and deleting every little tiny thing completely. The obvious folders are, well, obvious, but can anyone tell me everywhere I need to look to make sure that nothing Firefox remains when my deletion is done?

FTR, this is Firefox 2.0.0.17 and I'm running Leopard with all the available OS updates.

STFU Firefox

DJWeezy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:17:53 -0800

How do I tell firefox3 to stop checking ssl certs. I access many sites using self signed ssl certificates and up until now that was fine but now I have encounter two self signed certs that have the same serial number and firefox wont even let me add an exception. I cant even access the second site. How do i just tell firefox I don't care if a site is using a bad ssl cert.

My Firefox navigation buttons are disappearing one by one.

oldlies — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:31:48 -0800

The navigation buttons are disappearing from my Firefox. What's going on? I know next to nothing about computers, so please excuse my inability to explain my problem with accurate terminology. I'm running Firefox 2.0.0.13 on Mac OSX Leopard. Every time I quit Firefox and reopen it, something from the navigation bar is missing. At first the search engine box next to the box where I can type in a URL disappeared. Then the little box where I type in a URL disappeared. Then the little buttons to go forward, backward, home, and reload disappeared. I checked View>Toolbars and everything is checked. What's going on?

Custom client-side CSS to change background colours.

pompomtom — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:38:44 -0800

CSS, greasemonkey, sunglasses? Is there a way to stop white web pages hurting my eyes (firefox, osx). Even on the lowest brightness setting, I find, of an evening, that white-backgrounded web pages are too bright on my macbook. I suspect there's some way for me to have a local CSS file or something that I can turn on and off at will, to just swap white backgrounds for a more muted grey. Or something. Everything I see on google seems to be about blogs, but I want this on the client side. I suppose there could also be a greasemonkey way to do this, but greasemonkey scares me more than CSS. Corey Hart scares me more than both.

So, in question form: what is the simplest way to have a switchable setting to darken white backgrounds? (and/or: is there a good client-side CSS tutorial site which could teach me to work this out myself?)

Firefox Frozen

crapples — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 06:56:40 -0800

Computer geniuses of all stripes: What the heck happened?? I hit the back button in Firefox, using OSX 10.4.11, and I got this page!. I can't force quit Firefox, I can't shut down the computer (it times out), and I can't access the window that's behind the one shown in the picture!! Of course I could 'hard' reset the computer - but my questions are these.... 1 - Is there any way to get Firefox to close that I haven't thought of so I can avoid a hard reset?

2 - Why on earth did this happen?

Thanks for your help.

Mac or Firefox solution to download local copies of web sites?

dripdripdrop — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:12:10 -0800

I'm looking for Mac OSX software or a Firefox plug-in that will allow me to create local copies of web sites to be viewed later. I will be without web access for about a week and I want to do some work on few php and css projects. To do so, I will need to have tutorials handy. I'd like something for the Mac that will allow me to download a page including all graphics and download all the pages it links to (1 to 2 links deep).

Why is Flickr so slow/broken? OS X!

wemayfreeze — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:49:11 -0800

Why is Flickr so very very beyond slow and maybe broken, sometimes (OS X)? I'm rockin' OS X (Tiger) and all my browsers (Safari, Firefox, Camino) load Flickr slower than slow. Half the time it doesn't load fully at all: when searching, half or more of the photos won't display and the browser will sit there indefinitely, loading the page. Same thing happens on individual photo pages. It seems to happen less frequently if I'm only loading one Flickr page at a time (as opposed to lots of tabs, which is what I'm trying to do), but it still happens.

Is this just Flickr being Flickr? Is there some setting I can set or browser I can use that can fix this?

How do I search firefox Smart Search from the command line in OS X?

crazyray — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:33:08 -0800

I absolutely love Firefox Smart Keyword Searches. Beyond just the default preinstalled ones, I also use custom ones for easynews, rottentomatoes, metafilter, etc. Here's my question: Is it possible to launch these from the command line in OS X? For example, ideally I would enter (into a bash prompt) rt apple to open a new tab in firefox with a search result for "Apple" in rotten tomatoes, like this.. Similarly, I would like to be able to enter easy creative commons to have it launch the keyword bookmark "easy" which searches easynews global for "creative commons". Is this possible to do, preferably without using Applescript or Automator?

How do I get Firefox to use the OSX Keychain?

clearlynuts — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:35:44 -0800

How do I get Firefox to use the OSX Keychain? When I used a PC, I used Roboform. It not only remembered my password, but it was compatible with IE and Firefox, so I could switch back and forth between the browsers. Now I have a Powerbook, and I have passwords in the Keychain, for the occasions I use Safari, and passwords in Firefox. I primarily use Firefox, and I won't be switching to Safari full-time (or even a majority of the time).

I found software called 1Passwd. Does anyone have experience using that software extensively? Are there bettter alternatives? Something that works a lot like Roboform would be great. I don't mind paying for a license, so freeware isn't required.

Random missing non-Latin fonts in Firefox on OS X?

skoosh — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:18:31 -0800

How can I get certain non-Latin fonts to show up as display options in Firefox on a Mac? I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.8 on OS X (10.4.8 Tiger) on a MacBook I bought this October, and there are a bunch of fonts that do not appear on the drop-down lists of fonts in the Preferences window. All but three of these fonts appear among Safari's font choices. The entire list of missing fonts (that appear in FontExplorer X but not in Firefox > Preferences > Content > Fonts & Colors > Advanced) is:

.Aqua Kana*
.Keyboard*
Al Bayan
Baghdad
Corsiva Hebrew
DecoType Naskh
Devanagari MT
Gujarati MT
Gurmukhi MT
KufiStandardGK
LastResort*
Mshtakan
Nadeem
New Peninim MT
Raanana
Sathu

That list is pretty much all non-Latin (Arabic, Hebrew, and Indic) fonts, but I'm not sure why these fonts, and not others, disappear. I'm especially concerned about Devanagari MT, since my inability to read it in Firefox is what started this whole thing. I don't really want to have to switch to another browser (like Safari) to read it, and I'm not sure why these fonts and not others are missing from the list. I've even tried manually setting the default Devanagari font to Devanagari MT in about:config, with no success. This [mirror] might be the answer as far as the cause, but I'm really looking for a solution to the problem. I haven't found an answer on bugzilla.mozilla.org either, but from what I've read there and elsewhere, it seems at least possible for some users to get Devanagari script to display using Firefox in OS X. What can I do?

*Fonts that don't appear in Safari's preferences, either.

Fixing Firefox

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 03:27:11 -0800

Making Firefox behave like a Mac application... While it's trivial to add OS X-like themes to Firefox to make it look like a Mac application, are there preference or component modifications that can make it behave like a proper Mac application?

Specifically, with respect to how mouse and keyboard input are managed, these are a couple examples of what I'm talking about:

• I double-click on a word to select it, and in all other Mac applications, dragging additional words selects those words in entirety, instead of letter by letter as in Firefox

• I use Alt and Command modifiers to move the cursor around in text input areas throughout the browser (within a page and in the widgets); in Mac applications, these modifiers work as expected, but in Firefox, they take on Firefox defaults

Thanks for any advice. I would love to move to Firefox from Safari, but its interface continually frustrates.

How do I view a PDF in Firefox 2.0 on Mac OS 10.4.8?

DakotaPaul — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:17:52 -0800

Trying to view a PDF in Firefox 2.0 on an Intel iMac is even more of a pain in the butt that it was in Fx 1.5.0.7. What am I doing wrong? In Fx 1.5.0.7, when I clicked a PDF link the file would at least download automatically (sometimes) so I could view it in Preview. Now, however, clicking the link just opens a empty browser window, with the URL of the PDF in the address box.

I am aware that the Adobe PDF plugin won't work, but Schubert's PDF plugin doesn't work either. I have that plugin in both ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins and ~/Users/me/Library/Internet Plug-Ins. I'm on an Intel iMac running OS 10.4.8. Help!

How can I make favicons appear on the bookmarks toolbar in Firefox 2 on OS X?

GS1977 — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:41:17 -0800

How can I make favicons appear on the bookmarks toolbar in Firefox 2 on OS X? The default theme hides them; is there a way to undo this? I've tried editing the userChrome.css and about:config to no avail. I'm willing to try another theme, if necessary. Are there any out for FF2 that show the favicons? I read this thread, but it doesn't offer any real solution (not for FF2 anyway).

Problems with Firefox & OSX. Might be my cookies!

kdern — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 09:30:42 -0800

Strange behavior on Firefox / OSX. I think it might be a problem with cookies. I use Firefox on OSX (latest versions of both). I'm seeing the following problems:

On google maps, none of my searches are working. If I follow a link to a google map, I can see it and zoom, print, etc., but if I use the search box at the top, nothing happens. It connects to google and refreshes the page, but the map doesn't change and no results are found. I've seen this problem for about a week now.

Then this happened:

I went to Ask MeFi to post this question, and I was logged out. (I never log out). I logged in and it brought me to MeFi front page. I clicked on Ask MeFi and I was logged out. I logged in a couple times and each time I was brought back to the Ask MeFi front page, not logged in.

I use Cookie Culler and have never had a problem. I cleared all of my Metafilter cookies and google map cookies and tried again, getting the same results. Everything works fine on Safari, but I want it to work in Firefox! Any thoughts?

Firefox & Wordpress in OS X: I have to publish posts twice for links to work

persona non grata — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:02:09 -0800

When I use Firefox to create and publish an entry on my Wordpress 2 blog I have to go back and re-publish the entry to get any HTTP links I have included in the post to actually work. Am I doing something wrong? A bit more detail inside. When I first publish a post all the text and images and formatting go through fine and the links show up as a link on display (i.e. different colour, underline, mouseover effects, etc.) in a number of different browsers, but the links themselves are "empty", i.e. on mouseover nothing shows in the status bar and clicking them is futile. I have to then go back into the "Manage" page in the WordPress interface, click to "Edit" the new post and then save it again, and then the links work. Essentially I have to post every new post twice to get the links to show up.

I have checked this using Safari, Camino and OmniWeb and indeed the links are empty when the post is first published. I have also tried searching WordPress support database and the forums and Google but I haven't found anything. I am quite new to the whole blogging world and any counsel will be appreciated. Sorry if has been addressed here before.

OS X 10.4.7
Firefox 1.0.5.4
WordPress 2

Create folder link in TiddlyWiki in OSX?

cahlers — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 12:34:35 -0800

How can I create a link to a folder in TiddlyWiki and Mac OSX? I have read the tutorial, and have tried to use the path structure mentioned therein, but the resulting link doesn't work. I'm using the latest version of Firefox on Mac OS 10.4.

Is there a way for me to have the computer tell me the path for a particular folder, and then use that path to create a link in TiddlyWiki? Does anyone have direct experience with this?

Also, it looks like the TiddlyWiki wants to open the resulting link inside Firefox, but I prefer for it to open in the Finder. Is there a way to tell Tiddlywiki or Firfox to open the folder in the finder as opposed to in Firefox?

Is there a perfect OSX web browser out there for me?

bruceyeah — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:26:22 -0800

I'm trying to find a (stable) OSX web browser that... A) allows you to select text and right-click to search for that text in Google, AND B) displays bookmarks in the bookmarks toolbar as favicons (not just plain text buttons). Firefox and Safari seem to do A, Camino has B, Shiira does both but it's hella unstable on my Intel Mac mini.

Or alternately... is there a way to customise Safari, Firefox or Camino so that they do both? I've searched high and low for relevant extensions with no success.

Camino is close to perfect, but not being able to right-click and Google something thing is annoying. Or am I just in need of a good bookmarklet script that does this?

How to get Firefox 1.5 to stream MP3s?

ubueditor — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 12:06:54 -0800

Wah! MP3s no longer stream in my browser window in Firefox 1.5 for OSX 10.3.8. When I go to Prefs --> Download Actions, there is no MP3 extension. The upshot is that I have to completely download an MP3 file before I can hear it and even worse, it only opens in QuickTime. Can anyone help me return Firefox to its default stream MP3 setting?

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts For Navigating Between Tabs (OS X)

jack_mo — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 07:03:04 -0800

The keyboard shortcuts for moving between open tabs in Firefox 1.5 on OS 10.4.3 don't work - any ideas on how to fix this, possibly using the Keyconfig extension? On the relevant Firefox help page, the keyboard shortcuts for 'Next Tab' are listed as Command+Tab and Command+Page Down. The former won't work as that combination is reserved for the OS X Application Switcher, and disabling that would appear to involve replacing the Dock entirely with an app like Dragthing, or using a haxie, neither of which I want to do (though Liteswitch X overrides this somehow), the latter combination just doesn't do anything.

I've tried installing the Keyconfig extension, but 'Next Tab' doesn't appear in its list of keyboard shortcuts. There is, however, an option in Keyconfig to 'Add a new key', which is a bit mysterious, and seemingly undocumented: it provides a field asking for 'code', but I can't find anywhere which would tell me what sort of code it's after. The closest I've come is this page, but adding the 'Next Tab' snippet listed there to Keyconfig and assigning a keyboard shortcut has no effect.

Alternatively, does anyone knows how to disable the Application Switcher's use of Command+Tab so I can use that combination in Firefox as intended?

(Also, I'm aware of other extensions like Foxposé and Tab Sidebar which let me navigate around my open tabs in various groovy ways, and the possibility of using one of the mouse gestures extensions, but none of these options let me quickly zip back and forth via the keyboard.)

So, I'm stumped. Any ideas?

Temporary downloads in Firefox, OS X

mr_roboto — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:04:28 -0800

Firefox on OS X: How can I control which directory files downloaded to be opened by auxiliary applications are stored in? When I click on a link to, for example, a PDF in Firefox, the PDF file is automatically downloaded to the desktop, and opened from there. I would prefer if it were opened from a temporary directory somewhere else. Is there a way to make this happen?

Deal-breakers: Gestures and keybindings in Firefox OS X

Mo Nickels — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:16:49 -0800

Firefox deal-breakers. 1. Instead of scrolling the page, panning use the trackpad on OS X goes back one page in the cache. 2. I want to change the keybinding to so that control-click on a link opens in a new background tab, instead of in a new foreground tab. Scrolling using the trackpad is made available in the latest Powerbooks and iBooks, but I also had the problem when using uControl on previous generation iBooks and and now using iScroll, which enables the feature on iBooks in which the feature is crippled by Apple. By holding two fingers on the trackpad instead of one, I can scroll up and down or back and forth on a page, same as if I had a scroll wheel. Instead, in Firefox, it takes this is a backward and forward command, same as hitting the back and forward buttons on the browser. This has been an issue for over a year and is the number one reason I rarely use Firefox. There are at least four other people who have mentioned this problem elsewhere on the Internet, but none have posted a solution. I have installed every applicable extension there is in an attempt to disable--and later, when that didn't work, delete--all mouse gestures, rocker gestures, scrollwheel navigation, and middle button scrolling, to no avail. I have fiddled with settings in about:config, especiall those that include "mouse," "gest," or "scroll," to no avail, but that was mostly guesswork.

The second problem is much less a deal-breaker but still an annoyance. Firefox uses shift-command-click to open a link in a background tab; I want it to behave like Safari and use command-click to open a link in a background tab. Right-click (or control-click) and then choosing "open in new tab" is an annoyance when you've got years invested of reinforced behavior doing it a quicker way.

Firefox as Default Browswer in Thunderbird?

absalom — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:34:52 -0800

How do I get Firefox to be the browser of choice for Thunderbird in OS X? I'm running OS X on my iBook, with Firefox 1.0 and Thunderbird 1.0. I've set Firefox to be the default browser in OS X for .html and .htm files. However, links in Thunderbird messages and RSS feeds open up in Opera anyway. I've asked some more Mac-savvy friends than I, and they're also stumped. This is *really* annoying - doubly so since I just set up RSS feeds - and I'd be real apprecative if someone could rid me of this bother.

Windows Media Player Problems

scazza — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:31:44 -0800

Windows Media Player will no longer load in Firefox or Safari. I have reinstalled twice, I remember seeing similar problems with WMP and OS X on AskMe or MeFi (I can no longer find where I saw it) without an answer, help!

WebDesign: CSS and FireFox

donkeymon — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 21:19:41 -0800

So I have this home page. It looks pretty good (which is to say, it looks like I intended) in Safari, and passable in Internet Explorer. But in FireFox the CSS completely dissapears for some reason, so everything just comes up in a big unstyled pile. So in trying to find out why this is, which I have not done, I came to wonder: Is there a place on the web that has information about the differnces between browsers and how they render various bits of HTML, CSS and so on?