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FF Mac Desktop Addon and links download errors after upgrade to 35.0.1

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by rkv.ff

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My problem started when FF was repeatedly trying to automatically upgrade to 35.0.1. It repeatedly failed the incremental upgrade and said I should download from Mozilla.org. However, after doing that and installing 35.0.1 both addons and application support for links were broken and did not work. I have tried various solutions including deleting mimeTypes.rdf, deleting FireFox and all associated settings using AppZapper. A clean install of FireFox still is having the problem.

When I try to add any addon, such as AdBlock, I see the message "There was an error downloading" as in the attached image.

https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2015-02-07-07-12-42-8eb8ad.png

Similarly if I click on any link which would download a file, it always fails as in the following image where I attempted to download FireFox.

https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2015-02-07-07-19-04-eb8857.png

However, if I click on the download retry widget next to the failed download it will succeed as in the attached image.

These issues first arose after FireFox could not upgrade itself and I did a manual download and install of 35.0.1. Initially, I could not cleanly quit FireFox. It always aborted when I selected Quit. However, since my AppZap delete and reinstall it does quit cleanly. Although, I can not seem to get Addons and link support to work. With out Adblock I really can not use FireFox.

I also use Chrome and Safari. Those are behaving normally. I also used Disk Utility to repair permissions. Nothing was listed in any directory associated with FireFox.

Any suggestions as to how to correct?

My problem started when FF was repeatedly trying to automatically upgrade to 35.0.1. It repeatedly failed the incremental upgrade and said I should download from Mozilla.org. However, after doing that and installing 35.0.1 both addons and application support for links were broken and did not work. I have tried various solutions including deleting mimeTypes.rdf, deleting FireFox and all associated settings using AppZapper. A clean install of FireFox still is having the problem. When I try to add any addon, such as AdBlock, I see the message "There was an error downloading" as in the attached image. https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2015-02-07-07-12-42-8eb8ad.png Similarly if I click on any link which would download a file, it always fails as in the following image where I attempted to download FireFox. https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2015-02-07-07-19-04-eb8857.png However, if I click on the download retry widget next to the failed download it will succeed as in the attached image. These issues first arose after FireFox could not upgrade itself and I did a manual download and install of 35.0.1. Initially, I could not cleanly quit FireFox. It always aborted when I selected Quit. However, since my AppZap delete and reinstall it does quit cleanly. Although, I can not seem to get Addons and link support to work. With out Adblock I really can not use FireFox. I also use Chrome and Safari. Those are behaving normally. I also used Disk Utility to repair permissions. Nothing was listed in any directory associated with FireFox. Any suggestions as to how to correct?
Attached screenshots

All Replies (3)

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Sounds like a permissions issue. If firefox can not save things to your hard drive, it won't be able to download things. Have you tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling firefox? That can fix issues caused by update problems.

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You can fix Adblock Plus by setting this in about:config:

  • dom.indexedDB.enabled -> true

You could try downloading Firefox from

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carbohydrates said

Sounds like a permissions issue. If firefox can not save things to your hard drive, it won't be able to download things. Have you tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling firefox? That can fix issues caused by update problems.

I have checked permissions, using both Mac OS X tools, and terminal to assure directory was one to which it could write. I have tried to install a fresh clean copy several times without any improvement.


finitarry said

You can fix Adblock Plus by setting this in about:config:
  • dom.indexedDB.enabled -> true
You could try downloading Firefox from

dom.indexedDB.enabled was already set to true. New installs do not clear the problem