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Refresh Firefox - reset adds ons and settings. I need help and advice

  • 9 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by avwood

My Firefox is slow and I have this page that tells me to refresh Firefox. But I am old and need help. It says extensions and extension data are removed. I understand what an extension is and I have two of those. I can easily add them back on by clicking on your link to find add ons. But what is extension data? Also there are entries in both plug ins and themes. Will these automatically stay there when I refresh or do I have another problem? I don't want to refresh Firefox if I lose valuable data, ost of which I don't understand. I hope someone can help me and send me an email in case I cannot find my way in to the help page to see your answer. Please...please...please

 p.s. shockwave flash 30 says ask to activate.

The other plug ins you have not found in the box below are Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. and OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. and I have no idea what they mean.

My Firefox is slow and I have this page that tells me to refresh Firefox. But I am old and need help. It says extensions and extension data are removed. I understand what an extension is and I have two of those. I can easily add them back on by clicking on your link to find add ons. But what is extension data? Also there are entries in both plug ins and themes. Will these automatically stay there when I refresh or do I have another problem? I don't want to refresh Firefox if I lose valuable data, ost of which I don't understand. I hope someone can help me and send me an email in case I cannot find my way in to the help page to see your answer. Please...please...please p.s. shockwave flash 30 says ask to activate. The other plug ins you have not found in the box below are Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. and OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. and I have no idea what they mean.

Chosen solution

avwood said

The only extensions I have are the two web mail blockers and these are in the list of add ons online that I can reinstall.

That sounds easy.

You mention a profile of the old firefox will go on the desktop and I will need to reinstall this.

You only need to use the contents of the Old Firefox Data folder if you discover something important is missing after your Refresh that you can't reinstall from the source. Otherwise, I suggest keeping it for a few weeks, and then deleting it.

As I never watch Netflix, online or Amazon Prime or any TV or peer to peer video communications I have no idea how these ever got into my plugins, so can I just ignore this if I do a refresh?

Firefox will redownload them if needed.

As for themes, which I have never installed, the themes shown are Default, Dark (which is disabled) and Light (which is also disabled). Are these three items automatically part of Firefox?

Yes, those three are built into Firefox.

From what you say with your three replies above, if the themes are automatically there and if I don't need Widevine Content or Open H264, then all I need to do after refresh is to reinstall the two web mail blockers? Am I on the right track?

That sounds right.

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All Replies (9)

Most extensions store a tiny bit of preference data, for example, an extension to change where new bookmarks are saved needs to know your preferred folder.

Some extensions accumulate a LOT of data. For example, a note-taking extension will store notes in your profile folder and these notes may be very important to you.

After a Refresh, the whole profile folder is moved to your desktop inside a folder named Old Firefox Data. When you reinstall the extension, it won't be able to access the previously stored data up there. You will need to some how get the data back to the newly installed extension.

Whether this is a problem depends on what your extensions do and how much time/energy you've put into configuring their settings and saving data with them.

avwood said

The other plug ins you have not found in the box below are Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. and OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. and I have no idea what they mean.

When websites ask Firefox to list out your extensions, it generally only mentions Flash because sites cannot directly use the others.

"Widevine" is used for some media content sites like Netflix and Amazon Prime. See: Watch DRM content on Firefox.

"OpenH264" is used for peer-to-peer video communications, like Google Voice/Hangouts. Not sure if it has any other uses.

Oh, regarding themes, you probably will need to reinstall those. I wonder if there is a quick way to grab a list of them?

Dear jscher2000

Thank you for your replies above.

The only extensions I have are the two web mail blockers and these are in the list of add ons online that I can reinstall. You mention a profile of the old firefox will go on the desktop and I will need to reinstall this. How I do not know but if the only date is the two web mail blockers then just adding these will perhaps do the job, will it?

As I never watch Netflix, online or Amazon Prime or any TV or peer to peer video communications I have no idea how these ever got into my plugins, so can I just ignore this if I do a refresh?

As for themes, which I have never installed, the themes shown are Default, Dark (which is disabled) and Light (which is also disabled). Are these three items automatically part of Firefox?

Fortunately I saved the link to this page or I may never have got back to it.

I am so grateful for your help but now this old man is confused.

From what you say with your three replies above, if the themes are automatically there and if I don't need Widevine Content or Open H264, then all I need to do after refresh is to reinstall the two web mail blockers?

Am I on the right track?

Chosen Solution

avwood said

The only extensions I have are the two web mail blockers and these are in the list of add ons online that I can reinstall.

That sounds easy.

You mention a profile of the old firefox will go on the desktop and I will need to reinstall this.

You only need to use the contents of the Old Firefox Data folder if you discover something important is missing after your Refresh that you can't reinstall from the source. Otherwise, I suggest keeping it for a few weeks, and then deleting it.

As I never watch Netflix, online or Amazon Prime or any TV or peer to peer video communications I have no idea how these ever got into my plugins, so can I just ignore this if I do a refresh?

Firefox will redownload them if needed.

As for themes, which I have never installed, the themes shown are Default, Dark (which is disabled) and Light (which is also disabled). Are these three items automatically part of Firefox?

Yes, those three are built into Firefox.

From what you say with your three replies above, if the themes are automatically there and if I don't need Widevine Content or Open H264, then all I need to do after refresh is to reinstall the two web mail blockers? Am I on the right track?

That sounds right.

Dear jscher2000

Thank you for all your help. I am bout to do the refresh of Firefox and then reinstall the two webmail blockers.

Thanks,

Anthony

Dear jscher2000

I wanted to let you know. I have just hit the refresh button for Firefox at the link here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems.

All went well. It automatically restored everything: Adblock Plus and Webmail Ad blocker in extensions, the three items in themes: Default, dark (disabled) and light (disabled) and the three plugs ins , OpenH264, Widevine Content and Shockwave Flash (ask to activate) As Open H264 and Widevine Content are items I do not really need (see my earlier reply to you) should I change the "Always Activate" to "Never activate" or just leave it as it is. The only videos I ever watch are the short things people send to me as funnies in their emails.

Hope you don't mind me asking another question? Thank you so much, Anthony

avwood said

As Open H264 and Widevine Content are items I do not really need (see my earlier reply to you) should I change the "Always Activate" to "Never activate" or just leave it as it is.

I suggest leaving them "as is" just in case.

Have left it as you suggested.

Thanks