Firefox thinks I'm still in a country I left a week ago
I recently traveled to Australia for two weeks. While there, I used my mac laptop (with Firefox as my primary browser) on a mix of both wifi-without-VPN and hotel wifi with a VPN back to my home network activated.
I have been back home for more than a week. Other browsers on the same laptop as well as other devices (like my phone) that I took with me on the trip correctly reflect my location (east coast, USA). However, Firefox stubbornly insists that I am still in Australia. The net effect of this has been to break my access to YouTubeTV, which is not available in Australia.
I have tried: - Logging fully out of my google account on firefox and logging back in (at which point the 2FA prompt on my phone says I'm trying to log back in from Australia) - Deleting all cookies, cache and website data - Fully uninstalling Firefox, including deleting the Firefox folder in ApplicationSupport
None of these have had any effect.
Within YouTubeTV, I can force an update to my location, which will temporarily reflect correctly that I am in the US. But it still won't let me play anything if I'm using Firefox, and within Firefox, will soon revert to location unknown. Other browsers on this laptop, and other devices, work fine.
I am at my wit's end. Please advise.
All Replies (7)
You can check the connection settings.
- Settings -> General -> Network: Connection -> Settings
If you do not need to use a proxy to connect to internet, select "No Proxy" if "Use the system proxy settings" or one of the others do not work properly.
See "Firefox connection settings":
Clear the Cache and remove the Cookies for websites that cause problems via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button (Settings), click the padlock icon (Clear cookies and site data) for the domain in the selected tab.
"Remove the Cookies" for websites that cause problems:
- Settings -> Privacy & Security
Cookies and Site Data: "Manage Data"
"Clear the Cache":
- Settings -> Privacy & Security
Cookies and Site Data -> Clear Data -> [X] Cached Web Content -> Clear
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache
You can remove all data stored in Firefox for a specific domain via "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of an history entry ("History -> Show All History" or "View -> Sidebar -> History").
Using "Forget About This Site" will remove all data stored in Firefox for this domain like history and cookies and passwords and exceptions and cache, so be careful. If you have a password or other data for that domain that you do not want to lose, make sure to backup this data or make a note.
You can't recover from this 'forget' unless you have a backup of involved files.
If you revisit a 'forgotten' website, data for that website will be saved once again.
Thank you for your reply.
Network settings had no effect.
As I mentioned, I had already tried completely uninstalling Firefox, including removing all files associated with it in Application Support. This has the same effect as removing all cache, cookies, etc., and had no impact on the problem. (I had also tried removing all cache, cookies, site data before uninstalling and reinstalling the whole application.)
I have tried forgetting site data with no effect.
The problem persists.
You can use websites like these to check how your location is reported via a reverse DNS lookup of your IP:
If you use a bookmark to access a specific page, instead navigate to this page starting with the main page or with the sign in page in case there is a problem with this bookmark.
IP lookup correctly reflects my location.
As I mentioned, other browsers on the same laptop also correctly report my location and work with YTTV.
The problem is specific to Firefox.
Did you try "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of a history item like I posted above ?
Yes. "I have tried forgetting site data with no effect" from above (though I realize I did not use the exact terminology Firefox uses, that is the step I tried).
However, as I pointed out, I also completely uninstalled Firefox and deleted all files associated with it from Application Support, which accomplishes the same thing for all sites as far as I understand it (and then some). But yes, I still tried it.
Does it still happen in a new profile? An easy way to test a new profile is to install Developer Edition and see if it happens there or refresh your existing profile. Make sure you stay signed out of your sync account when testing.