Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mac and firefox

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.

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).

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

Firefox Crashing on Mac every 5min

lemonfridge — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:51:55 -0800

Firefox on my iBook keeps crashing :( Not sure what has triggered it, but every 5min I get the spinny beach ball of death in FireFox 3.5.1 on my iBook G4 (OSX 10.5.6).

I've tried disabling every extension but it still dies and requires a force quit and restart.

Any suggestions? Sorry for being so brief - but I have to.

Space for change

ChrisR — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:32:22 -0800

How can I reconcile Emacs, Firefox, and Cocoa controls' keyboard navigation, and still use Spaces' keyboard shortcuts? I'm trying to reconcile all of the assorted keyboard navigation shortcuts in a set of OSX applications in such a way as to permit me to use keyboard navigation in them consistenly, as well as supporting Spaces' keyboard shortcuts for navigating spaces. The three classes of apps I use, in order of frequency, are Emacs, Gecko (Firefox 3.5, Thunderbird 3.0 alphas), and cocoa controls. Here, right now, are the key mappings in place:

Emacs (Carbon Emacs, in particular):
shift-(left/right): move left/right a frame
shift-(up/down): move up/down a frame
ctrl-(left/right): move left/right a word
ctrl-(up/down): move up/down a paragraph
cmd-(left/right): move left/right a word
cmd-(up/down): move up/down a line, scrolling
opt-(left/right): Same as unmodified keys
opt-(up/down): Same as unmodified keys

Firefox/Thunderbird:
shift-(left/right): move left/right, extending selection
shift-(up/down): move up/down, excending selection
ctrl-(left/right): No effect
ctrl-(up/down): No effect
cmd-(left/right): move to the beginning/end of a line
cmd-(up/down): move to the beginning/end of a text widget's content
opt-(left/right): move left/right a word
opt-(up/down): No effect

TextEdit:
shift-(left/right): move left/right, extending selection
shift-(up/down): move up/down, excending selection
ctrl-(left/right): move to the beginning/end of a line
ctrl-(up/down): move to the beginning/end of a text widget's content
cmd-(left/right): move to the beginning/end of a line
cmd-(up/down): move to the beginning/end of a text widget's content
opt-(left/right): move left/right a word
opt-(up/down): move to the beginning/end of a line

Ideally, looking at the setup in emacs, I want to configure Spaces to use opt-(arrow-keys) to navigate, since that will have the least impact upon my regular workflow. To that end, I need to configure Firefox/Thunderbird/Cocoa controls to move left/right a word when ctrl-(left/right) is pressed; the paragraph support would be nice, but not necessary. Is this possible?

Getting buttons to work on Firefox

TheRaven — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:55:28 -0800

Javascript (and other protocols) do not always work on Firefox/Mac. I am running a Mac with Firefox 3.0.10. All too often I find that clicking on buttons on certain sites, where the button uses Javascript (but also asf and php), nothing happens. Usually I find a work-around but I am curious as to why it doesn't work. Here is a case in point - http://www.cityinn.com/london/reservations.htm. Clicking on the Check Availability button (after filling in the details) does nothing. Things I have tried:

1) Using other browsers (Safari, Camino). Sometimes this helps but not here.
2) Disabling and even uninstalling all my add-ons. Rarely helps.

So, is this some Mac setting, some dumb thing I am or I am not doing or just lousy design by various websites?

iCal Data Recognition for Firefox?

sjuhawk31 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:31:12 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension that makes it play with iCal like Mail does in Leopard? One of my absolute favorite things about OS X Leopard is the data recognition in Mail that allows you to hover over dates and make iCal events out of them. Is there an extension for the 'fox that lets you do the same thing?

Why is Firefox losing my bookmarks?

ThePinkSuperhero — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:37:26 -0800

Why is Firefox randomly reverting to old versions of my bookmarks lists? I'm using Firefox 3.0.6. on a MacBook (OS 10.5.5.) Recently, I've been having trouble with my bookmarks list. For example, if today I saved 3 new bookmarks, deleted 2 more, and moved 1 from a folder to a toolbar, I could come back tomorrow and find everything the way it was yesterday. Saved bookmarks gone, deleted bookmarks restored, everything in the old location. What is causing this? Firefox has not been shutting down unexpectedly. It's a serious pain in the rear- it happened again today and I lost all sorts of things I had saved in the last few days that I really did not want to lose.

How to get mp3s without "save link as" option (from THIS filesanywhere page)

omnigut — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:10:32 -0800

how do I download mp3s from fileshare? My friend plays for the orchestra these songs are there to practice for, but has no internet connection, and wants these files on cd. I want to help him. I'm using Mac OSX, 10.5.

I'm using Firefox 3.0.6.

I've tried "firebug" and "downloadthemall" firefox extensions, and unless I'm using them badly, I don't think they work.

The recording quality has to be good (it's for an orchestra violinist), so I don't think I can record the sound with an external mp3 recorder (which I do have), although that will be a last resort. Any other ideas before them? This is the link:

http://filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=896c6b87606376ab73a2

Thanks in advance, hice mind!!!

Facebook, delicious and flickr not loading!

carofowler — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:30:12 -0800

My facebook, delicious and flickr aren't working, but all other sites are fine. What's wrong and how do I fix it? I have been trying for over a week to use my facebook account unsuccessfully.

I use Firefox 3.0.5 on a MacBook although I have also tried on Safari 3.1.2.

Usually, I am able to sign in and arrive at the home page successfully. Then, when I try to go into any other page, the page won't load and I get a "failed to open page" error or "page load error - connection interrupted" or something of the sort.

Clicking on links in my email to posted pictures or messages also doesn't work and the page will not load. I have tried deleting all facebook cookies, all cookies, restarting Firefox, restarting the computer and nothing has worked.

My account is working fine on other computers, but since it doesn't happen with any other site, this must be an issue with Facebook AND my computer.

Also, my delicious account won't load either. I tired on Safari and the home page loaded but none of the other pages and I get "connection interrupted" as well.

When I try logging into flickr (through the Yahoo! sign in page, which is where flickr redirects you when you click to sign in) i get sent to a blank page: https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?

These sites work fine when I sign in through other computers and all other sites and the internet in general are working fine on my computer. I have also tried deleting cookies for these. For delicious it works and allows me to enter the home page, but then I still can't access any of the other pages.

Does anyone know what is going on and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

Firefox and Spotlight on the Mac

monkey85 — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:52:01 -0800

How can I set up my Mac to search Firefox history with Spotlight? I'm running Leopard, and Spotlight has a great ability to search through my browser history to find a web page...at least, through anything I've surfed using Safari. Is there any way to include Firefox's history in the searches?

I'd be willing to settle for creative ideas like transferring history files automatically on a schedule with a shell script.

Thanks!

Why can't I listen to conference calls on Yahoo Finance? (using Mac Safari/Firefox)

b_thinky — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:44:41 -0800

Why can't I listen to conference calls on Yahoo Finance? (using Mac Safari/Firefox) Here is a link of all the day's conference calls. When I click to listen to the audio, my browser goes to a new page and attempts to load the media. Media plays, but all I hear is some light static for a couple seconds, followed by a click - then it goes dead.

This happens in all the calls I try to listen to, whether using Safari or Firefox. Also I tried AOL finance and can't listen there either. I tried upgrading Windows Media player but still no luck. I cannot download the file - only streaming is available.

Can someone suggest a solution?

How can I get an email alert when a web page changes?

tamagosan — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:27:22 -0800

I need to automatically refresh a web page and be alerted via email (or run an applescript) when it changes. There are a few commercial apps that do this, but they're Windows based and I'm on a Mac. I'd also prefer something that's freeware. There's also a couple Firefox add-ons which will automatically check a page for changes, but none that I've found allow for an email alert (or to run an applescript).

Explain why headlines on some sites are outlined in Firefox 3

puffl — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:54:34 -0800

Why are headlines on a number of websites appearing only as outlines ever since I downloaded Firefox 3? The affected sites include jeffcroft.com (pic), problogger.net (pic) and copyblogger.com (pic).

Is there some setting I can change to fix this or is this poor coding on their behalf? Or is it intentional?

I'm surprised I haven't seen any discussion about this anywhere online because I've found it a very noticeable change on a number of websites.

(I'm on Mac OS X Leopard, by the way.)

Let's restrict the internet!

COBRA! — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:37:16 -0800

Help me lock down a Mac! I need to set up a web-connected (Leopard) Mac in a university art gallery; it'll be there to allow people to access a couple of web sites related to an exhibit that's going up. Since this is on campus, though, the odds are high that random students will be setting the browser to butts.com and walking away giggling.

So: how can I lock down the browser so that it can only access a couple of pre-approved sites (preferably, this'll be in Firefox, but Safari's possible, too).

(I've done some googling, but everything talks in terms of blacklisting a few sites, rather than whitelisting a couple and blocking everything else)

Will Firefox 3.0 finally allow inline viewing of pdf's on an intel mac?

ericbop — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:31:59 -0800

Yippee - Firefox 3.0 has landed. Will this solve the most glaring problem with Firefox 2.x - unlike native Mac app Safari, Firefox can't load pdf's inline. One separate question: The other feature I love about Safari is how well spotlight handles indexing and searching web pages saved using Safari. What's the best way to archive web pages using Firefox so that I can find them with spotlight? I love Scrapbook, but spotlight doesn't.

How can I make Firefox work like it did before Leopard.

4ster — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:21:24 -0800

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.14 on a second-generation Macbook on which I just installed Leopard. When I was using Tiger, I could simply go to a URL by typing "apple" or "metafilter" into the address bar. Now I have to enter the .com/.org/etc. at the end, or I get taken to Embarq's annoying search page. How can I fix this?

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?

Dam you firefox, why can't you be more like Safari?

doctor.dan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:09:51 -0800

I love Firefox. I love using the Fox. I love the warm and fuzzy feeling I get from using opensource software. But, I am drawn to Safari, and for only one feature. I love the way Safari handles PDFs. I like how it opens them in the blink of an eye, letting me view the PDF and then save it with the click of a button (overlay? whatever). What I'm wondering is, is there any way to get the same behaviour in Firefox. I'm relatively new to Macs (soon to be 1 year), so I'm not too familiar with all the ins and outs, but I assume it is somehow connected to Preview.app. There was an earlier attempt at doing something similar on ask.MeFi, but that didn't really lead anywhere. Google searching doesn't help either. In case you are wondering, I like this because I deal with a lot of PDF files (journal articles, woo). I'd consider switching to Safari as a main browser if it wasn't for the little differences (FF3's address bar, Command+1/2/3/4/etc, copious amount of extensions).

Firefox browser windows spawn too low

Admiral Haddock — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:24:00 -0800

Whenever I open a new browser window in Firefox (2.0.0.11) on my Macbook (OS 10.4.10), the window opens one title bar too low. How can I force all new browser windows to spawn in the upper-left corner? I've Googled and searched the Mozilla support forums, but I can't think of how to form a query that doesn't reference "window," and the result is a slew of posts and pages about Firefox for Windows. I am having this issue only with Firefox. As a result of the low spawn, the Status Bar is off the screen, so I can't preview where links will take me. Thanks in advance!

Better Browser for the Mac

jdroth — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:59:14 -0800

I need a better browser for my Mac. I use a MacBook Pro 17". For the past year, I've been using Safari as my default browser. I like it swell except that it crashes all the frickin' time. I've installed SAFT, which allows me to restore my browsing sessions, but still -- it's a pain. Last weekend, I moved over to Firefox in the hopes that things would be improved. That's not going to work. What's with the delays for nearly every action? Ugh. (No extensions installed.) I don't yet have Leopard, but am willing to upgrade if Safari 3 offers a marked improvement in performance. What can I do to improve my web browsing experience? (Session restore is a must. Undo closed tabs is nice.) As a tag-on, I would love to know if there's anyway to restore sessions in BBEdit. Though my MBP is fairly stable, it does freeze sometimes. Worse, it has a bizarre habit of restarting itself sometimes when the lid is closed. I typically have 20-30 BBEdit documents open at once, including some that have not been saved.

Macbook keyboard functionality problems

birdlady — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:04:39 -0800

Macbook keyboard issues: I clicked on a google search result and was sneakily redirected to one of those malware scan sites, now macbook keyboard is doing funny things. The arrows do not work and the apostrophe and forward slash keys bring up the "find" window at the bottom of the screen (firefox). How do cancel out whichever setting was changed and get my key functionality back? I love my mac, but I am not so mac savvy so I have no idea what happened. If it helps, it is a macbook running os x 10.4.10.

Help me not download .pdfs I don't want!

escabeche — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:28:34 -0800

How do I keep Firefox from saving every .pdf file I look at onto my desktop? I love everything about my new Mac except one thing. When I view a .pdf file in Firefox (using either Preview or Adobe Reader) the file is automatically saved to Desktop. Since I look at dozens of .pdfs every day, this means that there are tons and tons of random files cluttering up my desktop. What's more, since these .pdfs are often from the arXiv or Math Reviews, they have meaningless filenames, so I have to open each one in order to see whether it's something I want to trash.

What I would like: either a) to be able to view .pdfs in Firefox without downloading the file to my Mac at all; or b) to have the download automatically go to a folder "Temp Downloads," which I would trash every once in a while. What's more, for the files I _do_ actually want to keep, I would like it if it prompted me to choose a filename for the download -- as it is, I seem to have no choice except for the meaningless filename that the file comes with.

I've already tried changing the Preferences in Firefox to the Temp Downloads folder -- this works for ordinary downloads, but the .pdfs I view still go to the desktop. I installed the PDF Download plugin, which also didn't help.

Using OS/X 10.4.10, Intel processor, Firefox 2.0.0.3, if this matters. Any ideas, or am I fated to a life of tedious Desktop cleaning?

How do I keep my desktop clean?

rachelpapers — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:25:55 -0800

How can I make Firefox on OS X not clutter up my desktop? Every time I click on a file, I get that open or save dialog box. If I choose open, it saves a copy of the file to my desktop, then opens the desktop copy. I don't want Firefox to save anything to my desktop unless I choose the save option. I'm a Mac newcomer, and in Windows, this task is accomplished by saving files that you want to "open" rather than "save" to a temporary folder, then opening the copy from the temp folder. I like that method because I only have things on my desktop that are worthy of taking up screen real estate--that is, almost nothing.

I've tried digging through the preferences and I have even trolled through about:config to try to find anything useful. I have flipped the bits on browser.download.useDownloadDir without any change.

Thank you for your help. I love OS X so far but this is driving me crazy.

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).