Recently flash and java updates were available and installed then yesterday things brgan to go wrong when working in youTube until finally I got this error and javascript and flash seemed to stop working on main channel pages.

"Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player. " i could watch videos off of the main pages. Javascript on the main page (for example switching between uploads/favourites and so on is impossible).

I played around with plugins and add-ons and nothing working I reinstalled Flash player 10,1,85,3 , I reinstalled Firefox 3.6.12 and even tried a system restore. YouTube worked fine in IE but not Firefox.

My only extension is addblock plus.

I do not allow cookies by default but this never caused problems before. I experimented with allowing a session cookie from YouTube and javascript worked. I don't have to be logged in I just have to have a cookie to make javascript work.

Interestingly enough I had this problem and spent the last 3 hrs tracking it down with the help of several VMs and about:support... but stranger yet is that I searched for Dom.storage.enabled (the key to the solution) and ended up here via google, even though that string is nowhere on this page... how odd (old cached copy?? if so, why was that comment/reply [re]moved??).

Anyways, I wanted to say that I fixed this by searching my variables in about:support as it filters out only the core browser vars that have been changed from defaults, as there are way too many to sort through if you have to root through about:config looking at every extension vars. (Note to devs: it would be handyto have multi-word inline search as well as the option to filter out non-built-in variables in about:config --> would make for some speedier problem resolutions)

The solution? Dom.storage.enabled was improperly set to FALSE. No clue what changed it, but it was definitely something in the last couple of days. I could view youtube videos individually, but would get the "Hello... javascript is disabled or you have an old version of flash" msg on any channel's main page. Also, I couldn't click on any of the java?-based controls on youtube, such as the like/dislike et. al. below videos, the menu that dropped down when clicking on your profile name in the upper-right, and many other issues as well. I also couldn't click on any "javascript:" links (nothing would happen) on, for ex., Asus' support site, among countless other oddities that have all been fixed with the solution below. I'm sure this would all make perfect sense if I knew a little more about the DOM storage but for now a rough practical description will have to do.

For those who skipped the above paragraph, here's the quick fix: Go to about:config and set dom.storage.enabled to TRUE and, unless you have other problems as well, you should be in good stead.

Registered just to share this one as we all need to give back to the help forums once in a while, eh?

~BC

I should also mention that I had tried all of the normal things to fix that common error message, un/reinstalling java, flash, killing adblock etc (eventually did a safe mode start with all options checked and it didn't fix it, leading me to the few things a full safe start doesn't change --> browser vars)... None-the-less, if you're having other issues besides this, you may have whatever issue was solved by the reinstallations I just mentioned. try those as well.

Actually your fix: "Go to about:config and set dom.storage.enabled to TRUE " solved it all.

Like in your case I had it set to False, nobody knows why.

Anyways, thank ya very much for this.

One other note: I had tried several methods of testing java and flash installations to ensure they were working properly, including the official test sites, and all signs were that they were working fine, so throw that on top of the pile too.

Lastly, if anyone knows more about the DOM storage and/or knows what happened to either toggle this variable OR suddenly activate its use by firefox/flash/java etc. please comment. I have a feeling it was toggled rather than activated but would be curious to know if anyone has a clue as to what [could have] caused this. I have two environments, with JRE22/21 and flash 10.1.85.3 that were both affected at the same time and hadn't been updated recently (other than java on the JRE22 machine), so I'm at a loss for explanation so far as a smoking gun is concerned.

~BC

Np... glad I could help... I'm getting an odd feeling like this is going to be a bigger issue than just this thread... like I'm going to wake up and get many calls from clients suddenly asking me what's wrong with their FF... ;-)

I'll cross my fingers that I'm wrong.

DOOOOMED! :P

Well, but yeah, it was kinda weird, never happened before, and there was no special reason (that I could notice ofcourse), besides updating that flash plug-in.

I don't know, I'm kinda noobie in here, everything works perfectly fine now, will see about the future. Thanks again though.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Dom.storage.enabled

Last update... it looks like this is related to an HTML5 spec called Web Applications 1.0 that specifies the requirement(?) for this persistent cookie repository. Youtube is aggressively using HTML5 on many parts of their site so it's possible they just made a change to it that now requires this to be enabled and perhaps it wasn't the default on older builds of FF. No time to test but if someone wants to follow up I'd suggest grabbing 3.6 vanilla, 3.5 vanilla etc. as this was apparently checked in in 2006, meaning it could have been implemented but disabled long ago, eventually being grandfathered in through update after update until now it's causing problems in 3.6+ when it has now been changed to default=TRUE. Just a hypothesis as I tweak/extend the hell out of my browser but have never done anything that could conceivably touch that var.

~BC

yes! thank you. Setting the DOM.STORAGE.ENABLE = TRUE did the trick. And for those that don't know .. you put "about:config" in the location bar in firefox.. (ie. the url)

much thanks for the help, all fixed now and working again. i would like to find out how it changed thou, no new add-ons or updates installed and it still messed up? i only noticed this problem on youtube, all other sites seem to be okay or unaffected by this.

This will sort the problem if you have not already fixed it .. you put "about:config" in the location bar in firefox.. (ie. the url) then locate the "dom.storage.enabled" from the list and then double click it so it changes the value from "false" to "true"

Many thanks, that's been really annoying me for a few hours now! Your solution worked like a charm.

But what was the cause? Didn't have the problem on my XP box, just on newly updated W7 machine. Didn't have the problem on IE on my W7 machine. Very strange. Is it Flash that's doing it? Or is it Steve Jobs spreading a virus that makes it look like it's a Flash problem......  :-)

See also https://developer.mozilla.org/en/dom/storage (Storage location and clearing the data)

other fixes?

not warking again ..youtube...i have dom storage enabled set to true by default so is there another fix for this weird problems?thanks

back again...if i check box accept cookies from sites youtube works normal ...if uncheck box i don't have preview windows and i can't click on search or description or like button so...check that box ..it will fix

Yeh back again. Now turning Cookies on solves the problem. Weird problem, as I have cookies blocked by default. Also, Gtalk in Gmail works again.

I guess there`s no other solution than turning cookies on, right? :(

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH bcbigb i wish i could shake your hand right now i seached google, yahoo, yahoo answers, youtube videos themselves for the past hour i coulden't find the answer so i thought i'd go to last resort and ask mozilla live help when i happened to find this thread

and the feeling that someone else had the same problem and had also spent so much time figuring it out just makes me glad i use firefox all i had to do was set it to true and presto those million functions that no longer worked just worked again

not yahoo, yahoo answers, or google saved me, and you ( you awesome person) did thank you from the bottom of my heart

D

YES! The fix worked. Enable dom storage = true. I wonder what made it false. The only thing i did was update adobe flash player. Could that have done it?

BC, after looking all over the Internet for a solution, I ran into articles telling me to uninstall Flash and then reinstall, etc..., but your solution was the only one that fixed the problem for me! I know very little about the insides of a computer, but the last paragraph of your instructions was very simple and it really worked. Thanks so much for sharing!