Disappearing extensions so reinstalled but now everything looks like jumbo lego
Hi,
I've been struggling for days with FF. My FF28--which had been perfect--suddenly started to lose add ons. Despite scanning with everything I could find, I could find no faults with the pc. No sooner would I put the extension back, than it was gone again. I lost three custom buttons altogether.
As the version was old, I bit the bullet and uninstalled, cleaned the reg, and downloaded the latest version.
I've tried it several times: spent all night reformatting it, but then my extensions were gone again today, and it was back to standard. I read that some people are having trouble with Avast, but I have not updated mine lately. Just to be on the safe side I've turned off the browser parts of the version I do have. But somehow I don't think it's fixed.
I've put as many addons as I can remember back, but FF33 just looks plain wrong. It looks like it is made up of much bigger and rather childish components than before. (I have a version of FF31 in the sandbox, and this still looks correct, but I don't know if I can just copy the profile from that?)
For a start, the window contents of the tabs are too big to fit in the window, and I have to zoom down to 80% to remove the scroll bars. Even then the text and symbols in the add ons window are still big and crude.
The customization panel has gone such a dark blue that you can barely see the icons on the toolbars, and it has a graph paper grid that wasn't there before. It is too big to fit in the window.
Despite having the toolbar and buttons set as small as Classic themes will allow they are still big and blurry compared with what I am used to. It look like a child's version.
I did have Hide caption titlebar plus, that allowed the window buttons to be moved into several positions vertically before, but they only have one position now (right on the top edge). I found previously that having these buttons in a middle position, kept the other buttons small, but I can't do that now.
This is all very frustrating, when I have a working copy in the sandbox but can't get it out. I'll attach snips of the good and bad toolbar areas so that you can see the crude layout that is the best that I can achieve, now. It's almost as if we are looking at FF though a magnifying glass!
Huh? There is no option to add a snip here. :/
All Replies (10)
Below are snips of my good version of FF31 from the sandbox, which has nice sharp, small button with small surrounds.
And the crude imitation that is FF33, with big, and poorly focussed buttons. It looks like it's designed for a different screen resolution, or a throwback to Windows 3.1!
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
It's difficult to do much in safe mode without a zoom button, because the pages--like this one--can't be reduced down to 80% to fit the window.
The too big, blurry buttons, are the same size in safe mode as in my custom layout.
The only thing that improved was the customise window, which went back to it's normal grey, so at least I know that one add on is not quite right.
I installed FEBE to try and save my settings, in case I lose my add ons again when I shut down, but it just seems to sit there doing nothing when I try to back up.
Also tried adding FEBE to the FF31 I have in the sandbox; hoping to export those settings into my 33; but, unfortunately my FF31 is now freezing when I try to open the add on page. :( Stuck!
Phew! Finally solved it (Button size at least.)
Theme Font and Size Changer comes with the zoom apparently set to '1.0', so it doesn't look as if you need to touch it; but, in fact, it isn't set at all, so FF doesn't know what to do, and everything is the wrong size.
If you click it to another size, and then click it back to '1.0' it sets everything to the right size. It ought to come with a warning. Cos it took me two days to find out!
Let's hope the vanishing add ons problem is solved with the FF update and turn off of some of the Avast settings. I'll find out tomorrow.
Snip below, of my preferred layout.
Further tinkering, finds that the FEBE backup addon's 'status' button, hides the bootm half of the tabs, if you put it on the tab bar.
The ordinary FEBE backup button doesn't hide half the tabs.
Weird!
My add ons were still all here today, but the customisation screen has gone back to being dark blue...
The dark blue customise background turned out to be due to the 'lightweight' theme of Theme Font & Size Changer.
Couldn't find any way to modify the theme, so deleted it.
In the meantime, I found that the 'get add ons' of add ons manager was making the whole program freeze.
After many false leads, I found there is a 'get addons cache' in about:config, that has to be reset.
This had been happening to my other version of FF32 too.
So your original problem with losing extensions is solved?
Avast software has been reported to cause this problem with extensions disappearing.
- Avast suddenly doesn't like several Firefox add ons:
**https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=160289.0
**Lukor: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=160289.msg1152011#msg1152011 - Latest Avast reportedly deleting Firefox add-ons - gHacks Tech News:
**http://www.ghacks.net/2014/11/16/latest-avast-reportedly-deleting-firefox-add-ons/
Thanks Ed and Cor-el, for sticking with this! (y)
I had already found out about the Avast glitch--but not until after I'd deleted FF28. :(
You may have seen from some earlier posts of mine that I've been putting off moving up from FF28 for some time: Well, thanks, it seems, to Avast, I was plunged into the deep end, and am still doing loads of adjustments between FF, its add-ons, and the actual theme of the pc, to get the appearance back to nearly the way I had it with FF28.
I also had a separate Catalyst Converter, glitch while I was doing this, and had to reinstall all the AMD files to get it working again. I got FF33, nearly right, but the drop down when making a bookmark was clear white, and I couldn't change it without changing the Windows7 system theme along with the FF one. These are both a real pain, because so many adjustable settings have been taken away since everyone went 'theme' mad! But, I think I've greatly improved the whole pc as a result of all this, so it hasn't been so bad after all: And I'm now opening FF with the profile manager all the time, and doing plenty of backups!
All the Avast threads seem to be talking about the deletion of add-ons problem starting with a FF33 update, but mine started on FF28. I have no idea how anybody found out that it was the Avast definitions update that caused the problem, because I had already tried numerous scans, and a system restore, and then, sadly, deleting FF altogether, before the feedback about Avast started showing up! How did they find out it was Avast?
Anyhow. I haven't--as far as I've noticed--lost any more buttons or add-ons today, but I am still finding things aren't there, that I didn't realise had gone, until I needed them. I knew my right click menu looked rather short, but didn't know what was missing. I just found out that two of the missing items were Google Translate, and Tin Eye, but, I suspect I will be discovering more as I go along!
On the other hand, I'm pretty impressed with my new layout and overall colour scheme at the moment; and it rather feels as if I may have speeded up FF quite a lot in the process. The proof of the pudding may come with Facebook, which has always turned FF into a slug up until now. I've not had time to use it while I've been doing all these adjustments and tests, so I'll have to post back, with another progress report. Fingers crossed, because it's all looking great at the mo. I'll add a snip.
It would really be great if someone could come up with a graphical FF personalisation utility, like we used to have for the desktop in XP Pro: Click on a screen element and then simply open it's properties sheet to adjust all the colours and borders and typefaces etc individually (Rather like they used to have in Access.). These style sheets are just gobbledegook to me: Give me proper properties menus, and colour pickers! About:config, could, possibly, be restyled as a graphical pick and mix, and made into a wonderful FF customising tool.
Many thanks.
Athraithe ag Spamlet ar
Incidentally: I cannot sing the praises of FEBE highly enough. It is an absolute gem of a life saver!
Below are snips of all the many add-ons I'm finding so useful, for getting FF just right to fit my notebook screen, my poor vision, and have all my most useful tools close to hand.
I could still save some toolbar space because I've had to use a separate button for unsorted bookmarks. In the silly standard bookmarks drop down, 'unsorted' is right off the screen at the bottom, and can't be moved. In FF28 and earlier, there was a simple add-on that copied the 'unsorted' link to the top of the list. That handy little tweak isn't available now, so I've had to have an extra button. :/
I only (I hope) need to find a way of remaking my custom buttons. The last time I looked, the web site that helped make them, just by pasting in a URL, wasn't working.
Athraithe ag Spamlet ar