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Can't do more than one search on Metacritic; probably bad cookie

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Starting this week, I can do only one search for a movie title on Metacritic.com. I get a 403 error from any attempt to do a subsequent search. I can get one more successful search if I first delete my Metacritic cookies from Firefox. But the problem repeats after any successful search.

Repeated searches work fine if I access Metacritic via Chrome. In case it matters, I'm running both browsers under Windows 10 on a desktop.

Can I tell Firefox not to accept cookies from Metacritic? Other ideas?

Starting this week, I can do only one search for a movie title on Metacritic.com. I get a 403 error from any attempt to do a subsequent search. I can get one more successful search if I first delete my Metacritic cookies from Firefox. But the problem repeats after any successful search. Repeated searches work fine if I access Metacritic via Chrome. In case it matters, I'm running both browsers under Windows 10 on a desktop. Can I tell Firefox not to accept cookies from Metacritic? Other ideas?

All Replies (4)

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Please provide exactly what you searched for so we can try to replicate the issue.

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I search for Picard, Lisa, and Spokes with no issue. Do you have the same issue with Firefox in Safe Mode? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubleshoot-mode#w_how-to-start-firefox-in-4troubleshoot-modesf5safe-modesf

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Thanks for volunteering to help me diagnose my Firefox issue with the Metacritic website. But I'm afraid that it may not be easy for you to recreate my problem.

For me, it doesn't matter which movies I search for. "Titanic" and "Casablanca" are ones that I often try; but the name doesn't matter. The first search works fine. But any subsequent search returns a 403 error message, unless I first go into the Settings dialog and delete my Metacritic cookies. If I do that, I again get one search that works, and any subsequent search fails.

I tried going around this loop in "Safe Mode", apparently now called "Troubleshoot Mode", and the behavior is the same.

Lyle

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If you use extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) that can block content (Adblock Plus, NoScript, DuckDuckGo PE, Disconnect, Ghostery, Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin) always make sure such extensions do not block content.

If clearing cookies doesn't help, it is possible that the cookies.sqlite file in the Firefox profile folder that stores the cookies got corrupted.

  • rename/remove cookies.sqlite (cookies.sqlite.old) and when present delete cookies.sqlite-shm and cookies.sqlite-wal in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed in case cookies.sqlite got corrupted.

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).