Sites only working in Chrome.

Hi rowant1, could you add the url of the bank you're trying to log in to?

Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer. My bank here in New Zealand is Kiwibank - https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/personal-banking/

I have even installed an add-on 'Chrome Mask' to try to fool the system but that doesn't work. For this site firefox just jams up and won't respond to any commands. I have attached a screenshot of what I get when I do login.

Oof, that's bad. Thanks for the information. I'm adding it to a previous report:

• https://github.com/webcompat/web-bugs/issues/203727

Please do use the Report Broken Site functionality in the browser menu How do I report a broken site in Firefox desktop? as it may capture some debugging information.

Also when you mention "this site firefox just jams up and won't respond to any commands" does it mean that it eventually perhaps even crashes or lets the tab crash? In that case there would be crash reports submitted, that would help figuring out what they're doing that's having such an impact.

Regarding the previous report it seems that I am not the first to have this problem.

By 'jams up' I mean that NO tabs respond. I might have multiple tabs open, on one window, for totally unrelated sites (motorcycle forum, car forum, ebay) and then NONE of them respond. I can't go back and look at other tabs - the whole firefox window just freezes. I will need multiple taps on an open tab to revert to a different tab. Usually I get so frustrated that I just TRY to close the whole window and start from scratch. Even closing the whole window requires multiple taps on the 'X' (top right corner) to succeed.

Firefox worked perfectly up until early this year when their site was updated.

If it ever gets into a state that the tab crashes, or the whole browser crashes, there would be extra reports submitted (Firefox crashes - asking for support) so if that happens please share the report IDs here for additional visibility.

The most helpful would be https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/performance/reporting_a_performance_problem.html if you'd get to a point it's meaningfully captured and saved. Not that it would change the bank's position of not supporting the engine, but might help understanding what limits they're running into, possibly leading to the decision of restricting the set of browsers allowed in.

There are only 2 crash reports - here are the details. bp-9ec1cddb-c046-48f9-a064-1d70d0260408 bp-5851cb7c-9fdf-432e-be69-bd5bf0260601

I hope that this is helpful

Can you actually attach a screen shot of the error you were getting — before trying Chrome Mask? (Or there's no error, and it's the same no matter the spoofing — you are able to log in, then get the spinning squares on account page and then it freezes up, Chrome Mask or not?)

According to https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/help/online-banking/set-up-internet-banking/ they claim: "Supported browsers: For the best and most secure experience, use the latest version of a supported browser: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge (JavaScript and cookies must be enabled to use our internet banking. If JavaScript isn't activated, you’ll see a message when you try to log in.)"

so I'm wondering if that information is outdated, or if you can elaborate more on the note "I was told that it now only works on Chrome and NOTHING else - not Firefox, Edge or anything else." you originally posted — if that came from their representative?

Just wanted to rule out the possibility the site actually works in general, and you're either running into a corner case, or a more general profile issue. (i.e. Websites look wrong or appear differently than they should steps more in general, like Troubleshoot and diagnose Firefox problems the hardware acceleration steps, restarting into Use Troubleshoot Mode in Firefox, trying a separate, clean profile — or even, downloading a separate nightly.mozilla.org that comes with its own isolated clean profile to just compare the results…)

Actually, could you please try downloading the separate Firefox Nightly and see if there's any difference for you?

I get the same frozen result regardless of whether I use Chrome Mask or not.

 The information regarding compatible browsers came from a staff member at Kiwibank. I visited a branch to enquire/complain and as soon as I mentioned my problem she told me that I must use Chrome. Initially I never mentioned the browser I was using  -  I just told her that I couldn't use internet banking since the site upgrade. She told me that I couldn't use Firefox, Edge or Safari etc - I now MUST use Chrome. I remember that she seemed to have a good knowledge or browsers by the way she spoke.

 Firefox Nightly is not yet available as a standard package for Mint Linux via the software installer but I will keep it in mind. I have read that it might cause problems with 'standard' firefox.

I did a little trouble shooting ( https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems ) and took a couple of screenshots - before and after logging in to Kiwibank. Does this help ?

That might indeed need filing a bug and capturing a profile for the engineer working on it.

I'd however need to exhaust the other options above first — i.e. if you can't simply install a separate Nightly, if you can confirm the issues exhibit the same 1.) if you restart into the "Troubleshooting Mode" (fka "Safe Mode") described in the links above — and 2.) if you're familiar with the Profiles functionality whether creating a separate clean testing profile and logging in from this clean slate yields the same results.

Last but not least, you mention getting Firefox from the repo distribution — for any compatibility issues it would be beneficial to also test the official build. Not necessarily switching the repository as a whole, but e.g. for a separate user install of a separate Nightly from a tarball the steps are: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_local-firefox-installation-in-users-account

I think that I have found the problem. 😃

 I went back and started checking the links above again - the first one was " Websites look wrong or appear differently than they should". I did more thorough checking and eventually found that one of my extensions is the problem. I disabled all three and then re-enabled them one at a time until Kiwibank failed again. The photo shows the culprit. I can only assume that this is installed and activated automatically when a person chooses DuckDuckGo as their preferred search engine.

With my systems settings operating as in the photo Kiwibank is working perfectly again. Maybe the Kiwibank site needs trackers to be installed to load properly and this extension was not allowing this to happen - hence it was freezing and locking up.

Thank you to everybody for all their help in resolving my problem.

PS: It would appear that the woman in the Kiwibank branch who told me that I could only use Chrome now and nothing else was incorrect.

Don't worry. Most compatibility reports are not actual browser compatibility issues. It's just the browser setup people tend to use the most is also the most a) clogged with older site data and previous sessions b) customized over time so any interactions with web content are unique to that user, irreproducible for anyone else trying;) — and appears to magically not exhibit when switching browsers. But usually switching just to a separate profile of the same browser has exactly the same effect, for the reasons above.

That's why the troubleshooting steps are offered in many cases, as they have proven useful over the time, capturing previous experiences and lessons learned — and helping eliminate the kinds of issues that at some step while unique to each user, can get temporarily worked around with some config or profile capability, to have a before/after comparison. Great that you figured out how to track down the actual culprit, good job! 💪

In October last year I update my 17yo desktop to a modern system and installed Mint linux in dual boot with the standard Windows 11. I have used DuckDuckGo as my preferred search engine because of their advertised feature of suppressing 3rd party and cross-site info sharing. Now that I look more closely it seems that their privacy features are very similar to Firefox's and so this add-on "search & tracker protection" may be unnecessary. I don't recall ever specifically installing this add-on - but maybe I am getting forgetful. Is there any real advantage in having this add-on when Firefox seems to do all the same things automatically? And is there any major difference between Standard and Custom in the browser privacy section?