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How can I disable the advertisement bar for Firefox iOS & Android?

  • 10 replies
  • 46 have this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by 3624PPC

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Recently I have started seeing an advertisement pop up for Firefox iOS and Android when I use Firefox on Windows 7. It takes the form of a notification bar just under the URL bar reading "Bring your bookmarks & passwords with you. Firefox is now on iOS and Android", with a "Get it now" button and an 'x' to close at the right (see screenshot attached). I've closed it more than once with the 'x' and it keeps popping up (perhaps only once per session, I'm not sure).

I'd like to get rid of this annoying little ad. I've looked through about:config and the regular settings, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to suppress it. Adblock Plus doesn't help, of course, because the ad seems to be built into the browser itself. Does anyone know how to stop this thing from nagging me every time I open up my browser?

Recently I have started seeing an advertisement pop up for Firefox iOS and Android when I use Firefox on Windows 7. It takes the form of a notification bar just under the URL bar reading "Bring your bookmarks & passwords with you. Firefox is now on iOS and Android", with a "Get it now" button and an 'x' to close at the right (see screenshot attached). I've closed it more than once with the 'x' and it keeps popping up (perhaps only once per session, I'm not sure). I'd like to get rid of this annoying little ad. I've looked through about:config and the regular settings, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to suppress it. Adblock Plus doesn't help, of course, because the ad seems to be built into the browser itself. Does anyone know how to stop this thing from nagging me every time I open up my browser?
Attached screenshots

Modified by whatever188165

Chosen solution

Sorry, this is a message from the Heartbeat feature. It's experiencing a bug right now. Best to disable it so you can get some immediate relief.

To disable Heartbeat: Open about:config in a tab then search for browser.selfsupport.url and double-click it & set it to a blank value.

You may need to restart Firefox for the change to take effect.

Read this answer in context 👍 6

All Replies (10)

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Mozilla shows rotating snippets on the about:home page to run different campaigns and these changes regularly. You can consider to set another page as the home page for now or you can wait until this campaign ends.

If you prefer not to see snippets on the about:home page or if there are problems with a snippet then you can set this pref to an empty string value on the about:config page by deleting the current value via the right-click context menu (Modify) or a double-click.

  • browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl (delete current value)

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

Delete the storage\persistent\moz-safe-about+home folder in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed ("3-bar" Firefox menu button > Exit/Quit) to remove snippets stored in IndexedDB and make Firefox use a default snippet set.

You can reset the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref via the right-click context menu to the default value to re-enable the snippets and make Firefox recreate the moz-safe-about+home folder.

Close and restart Firefox after changing the value of the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref.

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

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Hi, I don't think this is an issue with the about:home page, and I don't think this is an about:home snippet, as the bar will remain even if I navigate to another page, or switch to another tab, and does not only appear when the about:home page is loaded in the focused tab. In fact, it just popped up on this page while I was typing this response (see screenshot).

Nevertheless, I will carry out your advice and see if it helps.

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Yep, it still appears, even after setting browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl to an empty string, setting the homepage to about:blank, deleting the storage\persistent\moz-safe-about+home directory, and restarting firefox. Just popped up again on this page.

Modified by whatever188165

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This is the most ridiculous experience I have ever had with firefox.

So this "free and open-source" thing just becomes totally rogue???

Modified by bonedriven

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Help please I have this issue also and it's really annoying, how can you shut it off does anyone know please??? I can't shut it off with ABP or the about:config offering does not work as the user above has stated, which I also tried.

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Chosen Solution

Sorry, this is a message from the Heartbeat feature. It's experiencing a bug right now. Best to disable it so you can get some immediate relief.

To disable Heartbeat: Open about:config in a tab then search for browser.selfsupport.url and double-click it & set it to a blank value.

You may need to restart Firefox for the change to take effect.

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Perfect, seems to work; thanks.

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@ Noah_SUMO,

Thank you very much sanity is restored. Have a good one cheers.

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Hey folks. The bug has been fixed in Heartbeat and you should not see the prompt anymore. While I can understand that it was annoying, I would not suggest disabling the browser.selfsupport.url feature permanently.

Heartbeat is the main conduit we have for communicating with our users. Based on the responses we get to our ongoing Heartbeat research programs we are changing the future of Firefox. We are committed to building products for our USERS. The only way for us to do this is to communicate with our awesome user base on a regular basis.

So please consider turning Heartbeat back on now that the issue has been fixed. If you see a Heartbeat prompt asking you for feedback, please considering replying. We want to hear from you!

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Tyler Downer said

So please consider turning Heartbeat back on now that the issue has been fixed. If you see a Heartbeat prompt asking you for feedback, please considering replying. We want to hear from you!

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

No, I don't want things popping up several times a day with the same message. No, no, no, no no! Even several times a week is too much.

You know it would have been a BRILLIANT idea if the first Heartbeat message I received was one telling me about Heartbeat. With a link to the page at Mozilla where I could read about Heartbeat. Don't you think that would have been a really good idea?

Another really good idea would be to provide a GUI control (button in old parlance) to allow the user to turn Heartbeat messages off permanently and on again to check if there is any important news. That would turn Heartbeat into something I might use.

Until this happens then I will leave Heartbeat disabled. You know why I am going to do that? Well some bright spark at Mozilla is bound to come up with the idea, at some point in the near future, of using "Heartbeat" for "sponsored" messages. It is just bound to happen.

It is a moot point for me. When Mozilla get round to ripping out theme support which stops Classic Theme Restorer doing its thing then that's when I stop using Firefox.

As it is there are just too many hoops to jump through to reclaim FIrefox for myself. Install CTR, move toolbar elements around and disable a whole load of irrelevant junk, disable geo-location in about:config, install an extension to get about:blank as my new tab page, a css file to hide that darned Pocket icon, turn off all telemetry and now another change in about:config to stop annoying messages for "free" products that require me to buy a new mobile phone.

Thanks for reading this far. Have a nice day and enjoy your weekend.

Modified by 3624PPC