Add-ons disabled or fail to install on Firefox

Revision Information
  • Revision id: 181391
  • Created:
  • Creator: Joni
  • Comment: fix for v. 52-56
  • Reviewed: No
  • Ready for localization: No
Revision Source
Revision Content

On late Friday, May 3rd, 2019, we became aware of an issue with Firefox that prevented existing and new add-ons from running or being installed. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to people who use Firefox.

Fixes have been released starting with Firefox version 66.0.4. Updates will be rolled out automatically with the latest fixes. You can also manually update Firefox desktop or you can download and install the most recent version (currently 66.0.5):

Note: If you're unable to update to the latest Firefox release, we've released extensions to fix issues in older versions of Firefox. See this section (below) for links to the extensions.

Please see the Firefox 66.0.4 and Firefox 66.0.5 release notes, and also this Mozilla Blog post for more information.

Below are known issues and workarounds for things that may not be restored automatically.

Add-ons appearing as unsupported or disappeared from your about:addons page.

Under certain circumstances, users updating to Firefox 66.0.4+ may see some of their add-ons disappear (Bug 1549718). The data for those add-ons is not lost, however. Re-installing the affected add-ons should restore the previous state:

  1. Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/.
  2. Search for your add-ons and install them individually.

Master password

This is fixed with Firefox 66.0.5. This section applies only if you have 66.0.4. Find what version of Firefox you are using.

If you have a master password that has not been used for a while, the fix in 66.0.4 might not take effect. You can work around this by entering or resetting your master password.

If you know your master password:

  1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings.
  2. Select the Privacy & Security panel.
  3. Under Logins and Passwords section, click on Saved logins…. This will prompt for your master password.
  4. After you have entered your master password successfully, restart Firefox.

If you don’t know your master password:

  1. Follow the instructions at Reset your Primary Password if you've forgotten it.
  2. Once you have reset the master password, Firefox will restart.
Resetting your master password will remove all of your saved usernames and passwords.

Container add-ons

Containers add-ons may reset to their default state. If add-ons that use the Containers functionality, like Multi-Account Containers and Facebook Container, were disabled as part of this problem, any lost site data for containers, as well as deleted custom containers you may have configured, will not be recovered by this new release.

Data that may be lost for Container add-ons include configuration data, for which containers to enable or disable, and container names and icons. Locally-stored data for the container (cookies and permissions) are also affected (Bug 1549204).

See Multi-Account Containers to set them up again.

Themes will need to be re-enabled

Settings for themes will default back and will need to be re-enabled:

  1. Visit https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/themes/.
  2. Click on the theme you want to install.
  3. Click the Install theme button. Click Remove if you change your mind. Your changes will apply automatically.

See Use themes to change the look of Firefox or Built-in themes in Firefox - alternative to complete themes to learn more about themes.

Home page and search

If your home page or search settings are set by an add-on, they will be reset to their default settings (Bug 1549192). To change them back:

Home page

  1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings.
  2. Select the Home panel.
  3. Choose your desired settings for the Home page and new windows and New tabs by clicking the drop-down menu next to each one.
See How to set the home page for more information.
  1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings.
  2. Select the Search panel.
  3. Choose a default search engine and additional search engines.
See Change your default search settings in Firefox for more information.


For older versions of Firefox

The following add-ons are available if you are unable to update to the latest Fiefox release.

Firefox versions 52-56

This extension will fix the issue for Firefox versions 52 through 56. If you use Firefox 60 ESR, your fix will be automatically delivered when you update to ESR 60.6.3.

If you install this extension and then upgrade to a supported version of Firefox, please uninstall this extension as it may not be compatible with updated versions.

Add-on fix for versions 52-56

We are currently working on fixes for other versions of Firefox. If you are having problems with these add-ons, please file a bug at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Toolkit&compon...