Dandelion said

I have Firefox ESR 52.7 installed. The whole purpose for having an extended release version of Firefox is to make sure extensions which no longer work with newer versions of Firefox will continue to work. Yeah, so I've read that extensions that do not have up-to-date certificates will be disabled. But for goodness sake, this should not impact ESR versions!! And I want those extensions back. Will this be fixed?? I cannot live without my AdBlocker! Not a happy camper.

Additional Info: From Mozilla Blog:

Updates – Last Updated: 19:28 EDT May 8 2019

We’ve released Firefox 66.0.5 for Desktop and Android, and Firefox ESR 60.6.3, which include the permanent fix for re-enabling add-ons that were disabled starting on May 3rd. The initial, temporary fix that was deployed May 4th through the Studies system is replaced by these updates, and we recommend updating as soon as possible. Users who enabled Studies to receive the temporary fix, and have updated to the permanent fix, can now disable Studies if they desire.

For users who cannot update to the latest version of Firefox or Firefox ESR, we plan to distribute an update that automatically applies the fix to versions 52 through 60. This fix will also be available as a user-installable extension. For anyone still experiencing issues in versions 61 through 65, we plan to distribute a fix through a user-installable extension. These extensions will not require users to enable Studies, and we’ll provide an update when they are available.

"Updates – Last Updated: 11:51 EDT May 8 2019

Firefox 66.0.5 has been released, and we recommend that people update to that version if they continue to experience problems with extensions being disabled. You’ll get an update notification within 24 hours, or you can initiate an update manually.
An update to ESR 60.6.3 is also available as of May 8th. We’re continuing to work on a fix for older versions of Firefox, and will update this post and on social media as we have more information."

~Pj

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1258165#answer-1218833 fixed the issue for my v54.

Dandelion said

I have Firefox ESR 52.7 installed. The whole purpose for having an extended release version of Firefox is to make sure extensions which no longer work with newer versions of Firefox will continue to work.

Nope. The Extended Support Release channel or ESR was made for Enterprise IT users in mind so they have a more stable version that is easier to go about Testing and deploying over a period and not be doing so frequently with new Major versions of Firefox. https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/

The only time a ESR version was target towards regulars users were those who were still using Windows XP and Vista and were served the 52 ESR as 53.0 and later required Windows 7 or later.

Btw the 52.9.0esr Released on June 26, 2018 was the last update and not the 52.7.0esr released earlier back on March 13, 2018.

Hi Dandelion, unfortunately it's the certificate inside (most) extensions that expired. Oddly, installing a new certificate into your Firefox will bypass the problem. So you just need to install the cert and re-verify your extensions to get back in business.

Mozilla is working on a legacy extension (with a valid certificate!) that can work in Firefox 52-56 (and 57-60 non-ESR if it's a "system add-on") but it hasn't been pushed out yet due to issues that arose while testing in the update system

If you want to try directly installing the current version of the extension -- possibly not final, but working enough -- you can find a link in this bug comment: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1549604#c51 (screenshots from my test in an old profile attached for reference)

James said

Dandelion said

I have Firefox ESR 52.7 installed. The whole purpose for having an extended release version of Firefox is to make sure extensions which no longer work with newer versions of Firefox will continue to work.

Nope. The Extended Support Release channel or ESR was made for Enterprise IT users in mind so they have a more stable version that is easier to go about Testing and deploying over a period and not be doing so frequently with new Major versions of Firefox. https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/

The only time a ESR version was target towards regulars users were those who were still using Windows XP and Vista and were served the 52 ESR as 53.0 and later required Windows 7 or later.

Btw the 52.9.0esr Released on June 26, 2018 was the last update and not the 52.7.0esr released earlier back on March 13, 2018.

Whatever the Mozilla Powers-That-Be had in mind when they created the extended versions of Firefox, the fact remains that in all liklihood 90% of the regular uses of Firefox chose to keep those ESR's primarily because they permitted them to continue to use favorite extensions that were no longer supported. So my statement stands.

The Mozilla Powers-That-Be should bear this in mind going forward. People get mad when their extensions stop working.

jscher2000 said

Hi Dandelion, unfortunately it's the certificate inside (most) extensions that expired. Oddly, installing a new certificate into your Firefox will bypass the problem. So you just need to install the cert and re-verify your extensions to get back in business. Mozilla is working on a legacy extension (with a valid certificate!) that can work in Firefox 52-56 (and 57-60 non-ESR if it's a "system add-on") but it hasn't been pushed out yet due to issues that arose while testing in the update system If you want to try directly installing the current version of the extension -- possibly not final, but working enough -- you can find a link in this bug comment: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1549604#c51 (screenshots from my test in an old profile attached for reference)

Thank you for your helpful reply jscher2000. That page you sent me to was way over my head, so I will wait patiently for those fixes to come through. Mostly I just want AdBlock Plus to go back to working.

Dandelion

Dandelion said

That page you sent me to was way over my head, so I will wait patiently for those fixes to come through.

Sorry, it should have scrolled down to "Comment 51" with the link. It's definitely hard to understand the discussion there.

The plan is to post the extension either on the Add-ons site or another site soon, after QA is completed. I just don't know how soon. The wait is frustrating for everyone.

jscher2000, you're my hero!

I've been coming back to the forum every few days to check up on the progress of the fixes being prepared. In the process I found a page where another user was discussing Adblock Plus (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1258165#answer-1218833) and through that was directed to your Firefox Extension Verification page, where in turn I found the link to the Disabled Add-on Fix for Firefox 47 - 56.

A hearty thankyou to you!!

Dandelion

P.S.: Of course after I'd finished that sequence of actions I belatedly noticed the banner at the top of the page that would have provided a more direct route to the same link, but all's well that ends well.