Firefox Community Forum

Mozillers,

I depend heavily in my environmental and other work on Firefox and am grateful for its ability to restore previous tabs when my laptop, not infrequently, stops working abruptly.

Now the much-used bookmarks have disappeared. A search site states promisingly:

"To restore Firefox bookmarks, use the built-in backup feature by going to Menu > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks > Import & Backup > Restore, then select a dated backup or a manual file (like a JSON backup) to bring back lost bookmarks..."

But my Firefox's Bookmarks drop-down menu has no Manage Bookmarks option. PLEASE, what must I do?

Elsewhere I managed to find this file which apparently contains recent bookmarks:

"C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\unk14jlv.default-release-1647366062305\bookmarkbackups\bookmarks-2025-12-26_95_4IdGtYxezJpwuH1UIiT1bRwe1K6bcGO8rv0mqa9rUWU=.jsonlz4"

But attempting to open it with Applications\firefox.exe (default) accomplishes nothing.

FOOL-proof instructions would be wonderful. Thank you.

This is both a settings issue, and a privacy and security issue. I want to disable the google lens context menu item to protect my security and privacy from constant AI monitoring. I've almost accidentally clicked the new option before and I don't want to send photos or images to google's AI unless I specifically intend to do so.

I feel like Mozilla is interfering with people's privacy more and more, taking away features from their users, adding features we don't want, butting in and telling us how our browsers should work. This is starting to become absurd. Now you've added AI into the browser that can control how your tabs are displayed and named even, a setting I found while trying to disable Google Lens.

There's a couple other settings I need to figure out how to disable too, such as the context menu of translate and the ChatGPT context menu items. I just removed ChatGPT and a new AI chat bot option appeared. Just wow. What the hell Mozilla. Is your intention to just turn your browser into one big spyware?

Give me the option to disable all of this stuff you keep adding. I have a policy thats supposed to disable your auto updates too but YOU disabled that as well allowing you to install all this malware/spyware into my machine without my authorization.

Please appreciate that alternative text is not always applicable.

I use the Add Image button to tick off things on a list (add image of a tick) - for my own personal use, not suitable for webviewing. Halfway through the task these Alt Text warnings just obliterate my view of the document; my attempts to not have to print it, or not have to use Adobe, are thwarted.

I'm looking at a page of grey blocks that contain a triangle which in turn contains an exclamation mark, and I can no longer see the actual document behind them.

Sorry if I've posted in the wrong place.

Hi, whoever may read this ...

I asked friendly & helpful volunteer @jscher2000 a couple of days ago about the Strange Case of the Disappearing Bookmarks that suddenly befell me in FF last week.

Last night, the Bookmarks came back - or came back in part, so to speak. ~ ~ There are outstanding problems. I hope these too resolve themselves or can be resolved in the near future, as it is a bit debilitating.

So, what are my current issues/problems with Bkmrks in FF?

1) Can't search my Bookmarks any more.

I enter a search term in the Bkmrks Search box (whether all Bookmarks or a defined subsection/folder I have made) - never a response but blank (though I know that term is among bookmarks somewhere) - and then, the content list of that sub-folder of my Bookmarks even goes blank when I search there. (That content list returns when I click on another folder and back to that one, but that's not much consolation.)

2) Problem adding any new Bookmarks.

Though the "Bookmarks Star" lights up when I try to add a new Bkmrk - suggesting it has been saved - the new saves are nowhere visible among "Bookmarks". Not under the folder I chose to save them to (or tried), nor anywhere else I can see under Bookmarks, such as in the general folder.

3) Can't even Export Bookmarks any more - as html or in any other format.

I go to Manage Bookmarks, etc., and click "Export as html" ,,, nothing happens. There is no trace of an exported html or other file at the location where I decided to save the file.

(To explain what may be obvious: the point of the (attempted) Exportation on this occasion is to (try to) investigate, access the saved Bookmarks, retrieve the sites, etc.)

Can anyone help - or maybe offer solace that FF might fix itself or be fixed in the near future? Like I said, it's a bit debilitating for work, research and entertainment alike.

I should perhaps add that I prefer to use a laptop (HP) where possible.

Best wishes

Peter Shaw London

i go to chrome have no problem getting and keeping Facebook i have closed and enable the extensions removed some and it either does not work or takes for ever in the version of Facebook. . I keep checking if Facebook is down there are limited problems but i do not see the problems in Chrome. if this keeps up i will be going to chrome which i really do not want to

Fx 124.0

Why am I getting these notifications? I have the latest version, but this prompt not only asks me to update, but there's no mention that it will install the beta 125.0 beta 1

Two days ago, I made my first post to these forums. Now I'm being spammed with "Congrats on your first forum reply!" emails from this website. I am getting a new one every hour and a half or so. There is no obvious thing to do in the email to stop this. How do I stop support.mozilla.org from spamming me?

When I try to play a video on Firefox desktop, it takes it a long time to load. Once it has loaded, whenever I pause it for more than a few seconds, or if I try to skip around the video (either by clicking around in the loaded section of the progress bar or using +/- seconds buttons), the video begins buffering again before the video resumes. This makes it extremely difficult and frustrating to watch anything that requires me to pause, rewind, or fast forward. I've noticed this issue affect multiple video viewing sites, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Netflix. My roommate also uses Firefox, but doesn't have this issue, so I know it's not a problem with my internet. I thought it might be a problem with my computer, but I tried to replicate the issue in Chrome and everything worked fine there. The issue has persisted almost a week. I have:

• Rebooted my computer several times
• Deleted my history/cache
• Disabled my extensions
• Turned off Java scripts in firefox (this disabled my ability to load sites like YouTube completely, so I turned it back on)
• Updated my computer
• Updated my graphics drivers
• Refreshed firefox
• Uninstalled and reinstalled firefox (and rebooted my computer)
• Uninstalled and reinstalled firefox AND deleted all the data it stored on my computer (and rebooted my computer)

I am currently using version 123.0.1 of Firefox. My OS is Windows 10 22H2.

Firefox updated to version 131.0 64 bit. Bill payment functions on my banking web site stopped working. I cleared cache and cookies and restarted PC but didn't fix it. I tried using Microsoft Edge and the banking web site worked as always. The bank IT person said it was a Firefox problem. Also, the site says not to block 3rd party cookies, enable cookie tracking and cross-site tracking. In Firefox, I made all changes to allow these things for this site but it still doesn't work. Looks like the latest Firefox update is causing a problem that always worked in the past, while trying to fix something else.

Since I upgraded from FF128-esr to FF140-esr I always get the "Firefox is being updated by another instance" This is really driving me crazy, as I checked / did / .... everything (and even more) I found on the internet related to that.

Nothing helps !

Creating and using a new default profile didn't help

Finally I ended up uninstalling FF completely (making sure no -zero- leftovers remained in ProgramFiles, AppData a.s.o.), and reinstalled FF140.7.0-esr freshly. After installation I started FF immediately with the created default profile (only existing one) --> SAME THING : "Firefox is being updated by another instance"

And this is really a FF140 thing, when I go back to FF128, on the same computer, same profiles, ...., the problem is gone.

I would like to know in detail what checks are really done by FF to decide to give that "Firefox is being updated by another instance"

I have been trying to get on the Malwarebytes website, but I keep getting;

Your connection is not secure

The owner of links.malwarebytes.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.

links.malwarebytes.com uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is only valid for the following names: *.fortinet.com, fortinet.com Error code: SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN

This happens with all of my web browsers. Is it safe to allow Fortinet ?

I have been told by my bank that firefox wants their customers who are having a problem with the website when using firefox to contact firefox directly. How do I do that? I have wasted way too much time trying to find that contact information. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Gmail is not working. I enter the link https://mail.google.com in the address bar and nothing opens (white screen). This has not worked for about 2 months (maybe even more).

Hi,

When I opened Firefox today, it asked me which profile I'd like to use. I named one Katy and then continued. Now, I can't see any of my bookmarks, none of my passwords are saved, none of my sites recognized. I've been using Firefox for years. Everything I have is saved there. I just want my old stuff back. I'm signed in on my account, but can't see another profile that I can choose. My phone still has all the passwords and bookmarks from before but I I can't see what profile I'm signed in under. Can anyone help?

Thank you!

Katy

Hi there!

I'm a long time user of Firefox, on and off since roughly 2004.

I just saw the Mozilla blog post about Anthony Enzor-Demeo taking over as Mozilla's CEO this morning and am writing here in an attempt to find a way to reach out to anyone within the Mozilla Foundation regarding the direction the Firefox application has been headed, and try to make myself and similar minds within the Firefox community heard about the changes that Mozilla has made to its policies and direction.

In February 27th of this year, Mozilla changed Firefox's ToS and Privacy Notices to incorporate legally binding policies for the application and strip it of its original privacy-first, open-source nature. This, while not a deterministic factor in how the application operates; illustrates a sudden, outward and hostile stance towards its existing user-base who is most commonly comprised of users dissatisfied with the lack of secure and private browser options available. Personally, I refuse to use Chromium-based web engines wherever possible and Firefox has been my one and only way to break from this "monopoly" of web engines.

Beginning to harvest user data for use by Mozilla and claiming ownership of any user content is immediately a massive breach of trust and contradicts what Mozilla as an organization has stood for since its inception. Going a step further to utilize this data to either be sold to advertisers as an asset, or to be used to train LLM's is exactly what I DON'T want to have happen with my data. I hate that this change happened and it massively reduced my trust in Mozilla and Firefox as a platform.

I never asked for this, Mozilla promised that it would never happen, and now I'm left betrayed by broken promises made with the express intent to turn a profit on my behalf as a user.

In Anthony's blog post, he mentions how AI has reshaped how people search, shop and make decisions in ways that were hard to see or understand. I outwardly disagree with this statement and feel as though AI has "infected" its way through society by brute force, being put in front of every user and shoved in every application. LLM's are not a catchall solution, do not help resolve issues in new and innovative ways, and are massively misused, causing excessive resource usage, gutting consumer markets, and decimating the tech industry by causing excessive amounts of data centers and global tech inventories to be purchased and built with no promise of delivery.

While I may want a fast, modern browser that is honest about what it does- I want that with no obscurity. I want a web engine that is open source, as lightweight and minimal in its design and coding as possible; and with no bureaucracy. I want to know how the engine works, to have the option to review its codebase front to back, to have my data stay as my data on my own local machine without providing it to a third party simply by using an application. Mozilla with its changes since February of this year have removed this as a possibility from their entire application suite.

I don't want AI in my browser- AT ALL. I have disabled it in every capacity that I can (frustratingly too, as these are all enabled by default and FORCE me to provide you my data without express consent.) and with every advancement Mozilla makes towards calling it "the future" and "the focal point", I lose trust. I don't want AI, I want the old privacy policy put back, and I really, well and truly and wholly, DO NOT WANT AI.

I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS, IT'S RUINING OUR LIVES, OUR SOCIETY, OUR PLANET, AND I WANT IT GONE.

Unless Mozilla stops this direction today, I will be seeking out new options, disallowing Firefox usage in any corporate environments within my jurisdiction, and actively informing friends, family and acquaintances of Mozilla and Firefox's fall from grace, and to utilize other user-centric options.

Thank you for your attention, have a great day, and I hope Mozilla can create action that will allow its users to trust it once again.

Hello,

In the DevToolbox, the “Copy all as HAR” and “Create file...” functions are not working. It seems that in both cases, only empty space is placed in the clipboard and in the file (this has been happening since the last update).

Thank you in advance.

Sometime ago I must have made a typo when entering my email address into a pop-up window in Firefox. Firefox continues to find and use this wrong address in pre-fills but I can't find anyway to correct it. I've worked through Settings/Privacy & Security with no luck. Can someone help please? (Windows 10 Firefox 145.02)

Firefox 129.0 (64bit) - Windows 10 (with current updates)

Sometimes (except when I'm demonstrating the problem of course) a Google search simply hangs. In the search field (next to the shield & lock) the website for the search appears, eg https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=how+secure+are+android+phones or https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=nsw+service+parking+meter+app there is no other response and no activity in bottom left corner of the window.

Simply clearing history (history, cookies, cached files, but not site settings) fixes the problem and the search can then be repeated and new searches done until the next time, when it's a case of rinse & repeat. No other action is required, which would seem to suggest that the problem isn't elsewhere.

This problem affects both my wife's and my PC (same configs), and has for several weeks, sorry can't be more precise as to when it started.

Thanks, Mike