What else happens to Firefox when you restart it "add-ons disabled" or "Safe Mode?" I ask 'cause ONLY then does dictionary.com have the functionality "restored"
What else happens to Firefox when you restart it "add-ons disabled" or "Safe Mode?" I ask 'cause ONLY then does dictionary.com have the functionality "restored" in particular, for me, hitting the "speaker" icon to get an audio pronunciation of the word.
Brief history: I've had up to three different Ad Blockers installed at a time before this problem ever came up. A month ago, all of a sudden (nothing new that I did, as far as I can tell), the "speaker icon" stopped working. So...I disabled the add-ons...got no change. Actually, even with the add-ons REMOVED, I got NO CHANGE: the site ads would not come back...which kinda does explain to me why I also continued to lose the "speaker icon" functionality...
To sum up: when I start in SAFE MODE, the ads DO return (as expected) and I DO get my audio functionality back on the dictionary.com site. Yet when I restart Firefox regularly EVEN WITH ALL MY ADD-ONS REMOVED (not just disabled!), I still have some kind of Ad Blocker-thing going on, at least on the ditcionary.com site. Anyone have any idea what I could try? Or maybe a guess as to what is happening? Thanks!
Chosen solution
Two thoughts:
(1) Do you normally use dictionary.com in a private window? Look out for Firefox's Tracking Protection feature. When content is being blocked, a shield icon will appear toward the left end of the address bar, where you can make an exception for trackers in the current site. More info in this article: What happened to Tracking Protection?.
(2) Do you have any Flash blockers? Some sites require the Flash plugin to play audio and if you have given the site permission and it still doesn't play, it could be due to an extension blocking Flash. More on plugin permissions in this article: Why do I have to click to activate plugins?
Firefox's Safe Mode also:
- Disables hardware acceleration of graphics (doesn't seem relevant to audio)
- Disables the userChrome.css and userContent.css customization files (unless you created one, this probably doesn't affect you)
- Disables the "just in time" JavaScript compilers (simple sites shouldn't have any difference)
- and... unless something has changed, those are the significant things (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode)
All Replies (3)
zoumster said
I've had up to three different Ad Blockers installed
You should only have one add-on to do a job. More can create issues.
Let's try this first,
Remove History For One Site
Open the History Manager <Control><Shift> H. In the search bar, enter the name of the site. Right-click on one of the listings and select Forget About This Site. This should remove all information, including any passwords / settings.
Chosen Solution
Two thoughts:
(1) Do you normally use dictionary.com in a private window? Look out for Firefox's Tracking Protection feature. When content is being blocked, a shield icon will appear toward the left end of the address bar, where you can make an exception for trackers in the current site. More info in this article: What happened to Tracking Protection?.
(2) Do you have any Flash blockers? Some sites require the Flash plugin to play audio and if you have given the site permission and it still doesn't play, it could be due to an extension blocking Flash. More on plugin permissions in this article: Why do I have to click to activate plugins?
Firefox's Safe Mode also:
- Disables hardware acceleration of graphics (doesn't seem relevant to audio)
- Disables the userChrome.css and userContent.css customization files (unless you created one, this probably doesn't affect you)
- Disables the "just in time" JavaScript compilers (simple sites shouldn't have any difference)
- and... unless something has changed, those are the significant things (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode)
Thank you Fred McD and Jscher2000 for both for having responded so intelligently to my query. The best help I've ever gotten on the internet! The solution to my particular problem seems to have been disabling the Firefox Tracking Protection feature, as mentioned by Jscher200.