As of today, why can't I log onto NY Times with Firefox, but can do it with Internet Explorer?
I called the NY Times and they said they've had several people with the same complaint. I haven't had this problem before today. Normally, I'm recognized when I go to the site and don't have to log in at all. Today, I was not recognized, and when I tried to log in, it said there was an unspecified error and would not let me log in.
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This can be caused by corrupted cookies or cookies that aren't send or otherwise blocked.
Clear the cache and the cookies from sites that cause problems.
"Clear the Cache":
- Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"
"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:
- Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"
I tried this, but it did not work. When I try to log in, I still get the same message: unspecified error with the provided credentials. The same "credentials" work on Internet Explorer.
I have nearly the same problem. And the New York Times is just telling me to use Google Chrome. I can log in on Firefox to the NY Times for its main page and news articles. But my tabs for Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog and Paul Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal blog won't let me log in and the NY Times is putting up "you have used up your ten free articles this month" message and blocking the blogs. Note: I have a paid subscription that covers access to all of the NY Times except the cross word puzzles. When I try clicking to log in and enter my name and password and then go back to the blog page, the top of the NYTimes webpage just has the same "log in" heading instead of noting my user name. So attempting to log in has done nothing to change things and I continue to get the same "you have used up your ten free articles" message. Internet Explorer 9, by contrast, has no problems logging me in and keeping me logged in (and I do not get any message that I have used up my allotment of free articles because IE 9 shows me as logged in). Firefox never gave me this problem until about three weeks ago when it upgraded to version 16. Since I have no problems logging in with IE 9 (and, presumably would have no problems if I were to use Google Chrome), it appears to be a problem specific to Firefox 16. Suggestions? Why is version 16 giving me this problem and, more importantly, how can it be fixed? Thanks.
Do you have any (block) cookie exceptions that may cause such issues?
- Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: Exceptions
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
- Do not click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
I sent an E-mail reply, which I'll cheerfully paste a copy of here. Yes, the solution offered was helpful.
I had no "block cookie" exceptions to delete. I unchecked the hardware acceleration box but the problem continued. When I disabled all of the extensions the problem did go away. I checked with various extensions disabled and enabled. From what I can tell, the HTTPS Everywhere extension seems to be the one causing the problem. Seems odd to me because, prior to the Firefox 16 upgrade about three weeks ago, that extension never created a problem before. But for whatever reason, when Firefox 16 started up on my computer, the problem with the NYTimes started. Now that HTTPS Everywhere is disabled, the NYTimes website is behaving itself, so I guess I'll be leaving the HTTPS Everywhere extension disabled. Pity. I like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and thought that their program was a good one to have on my computer. (As I had noted, the NYTimes site worked fine in IE 9. Perhaps that's because I didn't have HTTPS Everywhere as an extension on IE 9. But then I don't tweak IE 9 with add-ons or extensions because I don't like that browser and never use it.) Anyway, I want to thank you for your suggestions and your help. Hopefully this problem will not recur. And perhaps the EFF will be able to release an improved version sometime down the road that won't create a problem at the NYTimes. Again, many thanks for your help!
Update: EFF did provide a work-around,. Thought I'd mention it. Thanks again.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere/faq Q. What if HTTPS Everywhere breaks some site that I use?
A. This is occasionally possible because of inconsistent support for HTTPS on sites (e.g., when a site seems to support HTTPS access but makes a few, unpredictable, parts of the site unavailable in HTTPS). If you report the problem to us, we can try to fix it. In the meantime, you can disable the rule affecting that particular site in your own copy of HTTPS Everywhere by clicking on the HTTPS Everywhere toolbar button () and unchecking the rule for that site.
Modified by hoffmany
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It seemed like nothing was working, but when I shut down the computer and started it up again, the problem went away. Thank you.