Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firefox

Firefox/Gmail Not Filling in Email (aka The Lazy Function!)

snap_dragon — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:05:45 -0800

At my gmail sign-on using Firefox, I could type the first initial in my email name and it would drop down where I could click on my email name and automatically insert it (then password). It stopped doing that and I have been messing with Firefox autofill and that seems mainly for filling out forms. Yes, I am sure this is an easy thing for someone (me) to fix but for some reason it is stumping me. My wife and I liked the utter simplicity on our home computer of this function. Can you help? Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all MeFi users

Help me fix my firefox, please!

jefficator — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:46:37 -0800

I've somehow managed to screw up my firefox and keep it from auto-logging in. I've tried all the things I found when searching. Can someone help? I've checked my settings, I've cleared my cookies, I've done everything that google has suggested, but I still have to type my name and password every time I log in to facebook, twitter, google, or MF. Any ideas about what I've done wrong?

Can I disable Firefox cache per-domain?

odinsdream — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:26:29 -0800

How can I set Firefox to not cache any pages from a certain domain? I have to use a crap ticketing system written in .NET which doesn't work properly in Firefox.

If I clear cache between page views everything works fine. Once the site is loaded, the URL at the top never changes no matter where you navigate or what actions you perform, so I'm guessing Firefox doesn't know the page needs to be reloaded.

Is there an extension to Firefox that will let me set one particular domain so that it does not create cache items at all?

Session-only cookies in Firefox

Solomon — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:43:18 -0800

Is there a Firefox addon that will mimic the behaviour of Cookie Monster, but give me extra functionality? I love Cookie Monster, but it's missing what is for me a vital feature - the ability to make certain site's cookies session only, even if they're set to expire at some point in the future. I love the way it handles cookies otherwise.

As an example, I want to make foo.com's cookies session only, even if they aren't by design, so that they're removed when the browser is closed. CM will allow me to accept or deny all cookies from foo.com by default, or only accept session cookies, but foo.com only has permanent cookies. I want the cookies from this specific site to be removed at the end of the session, while leaving other sites cookies alone.

Is there some way I can achieve this?

I don't want to have to rely on any user intervention. Running anything manually to remove those specific cookies every time I restart my browser isn't a realistic option.

Firefox opening all those startup tabs again and again

gijsvs — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:38:09 -0800

Firefox: Multiple-tab-homepage opens a bunch of new tabs every time I click "home", even if 4 out of 5 are still open -- how do I prevent this? On startup, I want Firefox to open my 5 default morning/all-day websites: google, calendar, newspaper, askmefi etc. That works fine. But when I navigate away from e.g. the google page, and I want it back, I hit home -- now here's my google page in the current tab, and 4 new tabs (even if those pages were already open) with my other startup pages. Result: 9 tabs, one google, and 4 doubles with calendar, newspaper etc.
I cannot find anyone complaining about this behavior, and although it looks like complete expected, I would like FF to check if one of the startup pages was loaded already, and then just reload it if it is... Any ideas/add-ons to accomplish this?

Fixing Firefox 3

Dreamcast — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:18:51 -0800

I hate Firefox 3. What can I do to make it more like Firefox 2? I've tried using Firefox 3 on several different occasions, but never could get used to it, so I've always just reverted back to Firefox 2.0.0.20. Unfortunately, Firefox 2 is showing its age, so I should probably upgrade at some point. Is there any way I can make Firefox 3 work more like 2? Specifically, I find the "AwesomeBar" insufferable, and the lack of a loading cursor (you know, the hourglass next to the arrow) disorienting.

I know there's an extension that's supposed to make the AwesomeBar work like Firefox 2's location bar, but I've read it's sort of broken in 3.5.5 (and it hasn't been updated in five months, so I don't know if the author has any intention of fixing it). I've not been able to find anything on how to make the loading cursor work again.

tl;dr: I want the loading cursor back and the location bar to function like Firefox 2's location bar. Can these things be done?

How to trim a Feedburner feed?

Solomon — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:41:50 -0800

Within the past couple of weeks, I've noticed that a lot of extra info is being displayed in the Firefox address bar when clicking through from my feed reader. How do I stop this from happening? I'm using Firefox 3.5.5 and Sage-Too 2.0.0. Up until a couple of weeks ago, when clicking through from Icanhascheezeburger's feed, it would show

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/12/05/funny-pictures-smarter-than-the-terrier/

in the address bar, but now it shows

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/12/05/funny-pictures-smarter-than-the-terrier/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ICanHasCheezburger+%28I+CAN+HAS+CHEEZBURGER%3F%29

I think I may have upgraded Firefox in the past couple of weeks, but Sage-Too has been installed since August. I'm also pretty sure that this is only happening on Feedburner feeds.

How do I get it to stop adding the extra bit on the end and make it display like it did previously? I don't want to change my feed reader if at all possible.

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 solve the mystery of the missing extension.

cirrostratus — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:10:07 -0800

After reformatting my old reliable xp machine I lost a very useful firefox extension. How can I track it down again? I've been unable to find the extension on either Google or Firefox's website, mostly because I can't remember what it was called.

Basically, all the extension did was let you draw a rectangle on a page and then every link within that rectangle would open in a new tab.

Firefox normally lets you highlight things and open them in new tabs but this extension was better because it let you draw a rectangle instead of highlighting.

Any ideas what this extension was called?

Firefox 3.5.5 + VLC 1.0.3 + Embedded .MOV + Windows 7= $#@%!!!

Alvy Ampersand — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:52:23 -0800

Firefox 3.5.5 + VLC 1.0.3 + Embedded .MOV + Windows 7= $#@%!!! A synopsis:

i) I get a new laptop which runs Windows 7. Yay!

ii) I install VLC on it - ideally, it will be my primary media player. I do not install the Mozilla plug-in.

iii) I install FF.

iv) I bookmark several .ASX files in Firefox. When I click a bookmark, FF's Download options box appears, asking if I want to save the .asx file, or open it. I opt to open it, using VLC, and it works exactly the way I want it to. Yay!

v) I mosey over to Apple Trailers, and am chagrined but unsurprised to find 'Please install QuickTime' messages, rather than embedded .mov files. When I try bookmarking and clicking the .MOV file (The same strategy as the .MOV files), Firefox automatically opens a new tab which is all black save for white text which reads 'Waiting for video', not even giving me the option to save the file or open it with the application of my choice.

vi) After some research, I realize that I declined VLC's Mozilla plug-in. So, I uninstall and reinstall VLC, including the plug-in this time.

vii) The QuickTime/MOV problem persists, and now clicking my bookmarked .ASX files automatically opens a black background 'Waiting for video' tab as well. Fiddling with file type/default application settings in both Win7 and FF has not changed anything

Ultimately, I want to be able to listen to streaming audio on VLC using the Firefox bookmark method I originally had, while being able to watch embedded QuickTime videos in my browser without having to install any other media players (WinAmp, MPC, and especially not QuickTime or iTunes). Can I achieve my dream?

I realize the Windows 7 angle is probably irrelevant (I had similar issues on my WinXP-running PC, but had a buttload of largely redundant media players that allowed me to get around the issue), but better to err on the side of thoroughness. Apologies for any lack of clarity.

Without Maru the cat, I am nothing.

chez shoes — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:09:41 -0800

How to display Japanese text in Win7? Just upgraded my netbook to Win7 Professional. Then discovered this version of Win7 does not support language packs anymore. I only need to display Japanese language in a browser, not for local pps.

Does anyone know of a workaround? I've tried monkeying with the character encoding in FF, with no luck.

Would be fine using a different browser if that would work - I'm not familiar enough with Chrome etc to know what my options are.

Download it with Firefox and it's borked. Download it with Safari, and it's fine. Huh?

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:19 -0800

Download a certain program with Firefox and a key feature is broken. Download it with Safari, and it runs fine. Howzzat? My school requires students to use Exam4, a sort of hobbleware text editor, for exams. It has different modes, which control just how hobbled your computer is. In all but one mode, the internet connection is disabled to prevent cheating. On Macs, starting an exam in these modes brings up a login box to authorize Exam4 to disable the computer's ethernet adapters at some low level.

For the longest time, when I would enter my credentials to do this, it would fail to disable my connection. (It would also fail to bring up the actual text editor, so I was never able to enhance my GPA with my 1337 h4X -- instead, I just managed to avoid any exam that forbade Internet access).

This time, tech support diagnosed my problem right off -- they told me to download the file again, but this time to use Safari. Sure enough, it worked straight away. My question is, how could the browser possibly affect a downloaded executable such that it would install and open just fine, but have one feature broken?

For what it's worth, the file is downloaded as a zipped archive with a single executable inside. The only possible thing I can come up with is deliberate interference -- the site could deliberately sniff out Firefox users and serve us a defective file. But that doesn't make any sense, and besides the files from each browser look identical (both are 1,002,699 bytes).

I can't stay logged in to any websites

peep — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:17:42 -0800

Suddenly today, I can't stay logged into anything - Google, Facebook, Metafilter, Twitter, Flickr, etc. I've run through a bunch of possibilities, but could the power cutting out last night have done something? I'm using Firefox, and I've already uninstalled and reinstalled it. Privacy settings allow cookies and I don't have it set to clear history when closing a window. And obviously I've tried many times to log into different sites, making sure I click "remember me." I've never had this problem before today. Last night the power went out for about 20 seconds and my computer shut down, but all was otherwise fine this morning. I've restarted and it's in regular (not safe) mode. Any ideas?

Restore deleted usernames and passwords to Firefox?

sockpup — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:11:03 -0800

I errantly deleted all of my saved usernames and passwords from Firefox. Is there any way to get them back? I wasn't paying attention and clicked "remove all" instead of "remove". Mac OS 10.5. Firefox 3.5.3.

Why Does Firefox Keep Crashing on Certain Pages

willnot — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:32:58 -0800

What is causing Firefox to crash when I scroll to a specific area of specific pages? I'm running:

Firefox 3.5.5
Mac OS 10.6.2
1Password 2.11.1
Adblock Plus 1.1.1Flashblock 1.5.11.2
FoxyProxy 2.14
Phoenity Modern 0.8.09.07.17

For Instance

Is there an existing greasemonkey script, firefox plugin, etc, that will help me enter data into forms?

RustyBrooks — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:02:48 -0800

Is there an existing greasemonkey script, firefox plugin, etc, that will help me enter data into forms? Basically I have a web application that our company uses for bug tracking. The field where you enter most of the data is a regular textbox, that accepts HTML. Our process is to fill out a "form" and put it in this box - we have a template that we paste in and then type the data in. This is a bit tedious to say the least, error prone, etc.

I'd like to have a script that lets me "add" a button above or below the textbox, which will pop up a window with a user-defined form (checkboxes, radios, text widgets, maybe calendar widget, etc) and let me enter data that way. When I'm done it pastes this into the form in html.

I'm having trouble even figuring out good search terms for this so I come up with tons of greasemonkey scripts but it's mostly little one offs for facebook or mafiawars or something like that.

Best firefox add-on for previewing tabs?

shivohum — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:23:14 -0800

What's the best firefox add-on for previewing/managing a bunch of tabs that are on the same site and look alike in thumbnails, but can be distinguished by their text? I have bunches of tabs open and the tab bar becomes utterly useless, so I need an add-on (not just thumbnail-based) that can do much better.

YouTube doesn't work, except when it does.

mikoroshi — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:20:16 -0800

Why isn't YouTube working? For the past few months YouTube just doesn't work on our desktop.

Latest version of Flash is installed on latest version of Firefox, java is so tuned on it's making obscene suggestions to other scripts. I've tried turning NoScript and AdBlock off, no dice.

The most bizarre thing is, every 12th or 15th time we boot up, YouTube works....until the computer gets turned off again.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm at a loss.

Firefox zooming for maximum text bigness

Post-it Goat — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:35:23 -0800

Is there a firefox add-on that auto-zooms pages to fit the browser window? Lots of sites these days have a fixed width with a bunch of blank space to the left and right. I want them to scale up to fit the window. So, I guess what I mean is for each page to zoom in to one level before it would have to make horizontal scroll bars. Currently I do it by manually zooming them, but it would be cool to have something that does it automatically. I looked through the Firefox add-ons page but nothing jumped out at me. Thanks!

Problems saving web pages to PDF in Firefox

game warden to the events rhino — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:51:21 -0800

When I try to print certain web pages to PDF in Firefox, chunks of text go missing. Why? I suspect this one will be speedily answered, but I've searched and searched to no avail. I've been trying to use Firefox's Save to PDF feature to preserve web content locally on my hard drive, but when I try this with certain blog posts, only part of the post makes it through to the PDF file, often with the layout completely screwed up. I don't need a perfect representation of the web page (though that'd be nice) but I do need all the text. Here's a random example of a blog post where the text of the post itself is missing when I save to PDF. Sorry if this is obvious. I assume frames or something like that may be to blame? Thanks for any suggestions.

What the hell is wrong with firefox and safari right now ?

carefulmonkey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:03:59 -0800

What is causing problems with my mac browser firefox/safari ? I don't exactly know when but my Firefox browser last night just started freaking out on me when I moved to different websites or had two tabs open. Example I went to Pitchfork.com and it loads about half the page then freezes up and shows the 'swirling rainbow loading thing' like its opening a really big and intricate thing when yesterday it was fine. This is also happening when I go on gawker based sites and the comments section is loading. What the hell is wrong today that was fine yesterday ?

PS. I switched over to Safari and it did the same thing.

Info:
PowerPC g5
512 MB DDR SDRAM

Firefox:
3.5.4

I realize that there are no shortcuts in life, but...

kjackelen05 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:52:37 -0800

When I use Grooveshark, I can no longer use Firefox's standard keyboard shortcuts. How can I fix this? Greasemonkey, maybe? I'm a habitual ctrl-tabber to switch tabs, ctrl-t to get a new tab, ctrl-shift-t to open a recently closed tab, etc. But when the active tab is Grooveshark, these commands don't work. This is especially frustrating when I'm trying to ctrl-tab my through a bunch of tabs, and I get stuck in Grooveshark.

I feel like this is something that might be solvable with Greasemonkey, but I don't know where to start. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Make FF 3.5 like 3.0

aerotive — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:24:06 -0800

With Firefox 3 you could drag a tab from one FF window to the another with the tab bar closed. Is there any way to get 3.5 to do that? So with a bit more detail: On my system (vista) if I have say two FF 3.5 windows open and drag a tab from one to the other (with the tab bar closed), instead of opening in the second window a third, new window opens.

I've looked around and found a way to disable tab tearing/dragging completely, but that's not what I'm looking for. And I know 3.5 will work the way I want with the tab bar visible, but I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.

I'll take any kind of fix, be it an extension, registry edit, about:config tweak, whatever.

Firefox and ASP.Net 1.1 and Ajax and Validators, oh my!

antifuse — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:20:32 -0800

How can I get Ajax and client side validators working with my ASP.Net 1.1 application in Firefox? Ok, long story short - I've got an ASP.Net 1.1 website, which uses Validator controls and Ajax (ajax.dll, v5.7.22.2)... All of these elements of the site were chosen/implemented before I got here, and before anybody asks, no, it's not within our budget (timewise) to upgrade even to ASP.Net 2.0, let alone the latest and greatest of everything.

The site works fine in IE (of course), but in Firefox (or Chrome... Haven't tried Opera or Safari) I've found that ASP renders the site without any javascript code for the validators, nor does it render the site with any javascript code for the ajax methods that I call.

I've checked, and our web.config is setup to treat Firefox as an "uplevel" browser... And it *does* seem to be using the correct HtmlWriter (ie my pages on FFox are rendered with spans and divs). I've tried creating a PageClient alias using an IE7 user agent in the web.config, and forcing the page to use that PageClient. NOTHING seems to let it generate the Ajax and validator javascript. My research on the net seems to be pointing towards validators simply not ever able to work with ASP.Net 1.1 and Firefox... And I presume that whatever the validators do, the Ajax library is doing as well... But I'm really really really hoping there's a workaround for this. It'll be extremely embarrassing to have to tell the client in this day and age "Sorry, we don't support non-IE browsers with this release".

Can I easily control the order in which things load on a page of mine?

fake — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:35:56 -0800

I need some help fixing a web page. Images load in the wrong order, and users are finding it confusing. I have a free album up here, and it's gotten about a zillion views, which I'm very happy about. But many users report that the images of the book pages don't show up.

As it turns out, in Firefox (by far the most popular browser that visits the site) they do show up, but they are displaced below the Flash player that plays the album until the entire page loads. Is it possible to force the pages to load right next to the player?

This must have to do with the way Firefox renders things, but the few hacks that I've tried on the code have not changed the order that things appear. Any advice would be much appreciated.