Not all animations appearing on Instagram via Firefox on older hardware.
Hi. I have two main Mac computers that I browse the web with, a 2020 iMac 27 with 6-core Intel i5 and Radeon Pro 5300 GPU. My secondary computer is an older mid-2012 MacBook Pro with dual core Intel i5 and HD Graphics 4000.
I am aware this Macbook is over a decade old now, and I plan on getting a much newer model within the next couple months. For now, I'll have to make do with this when my iMac is busy with other tasks (mostly rendering video). I have installed all the latest Mac OS updates the Macbook can support, which is Catalina, and Firefox is also the most current version 124.0.1 64-bit.
I tend to use Instagram via Firefox for the most part, and on the iMac, there are these little animations when doing things like double-clicking posts to like them, which causes a small flying heart to appear on the post for about a second. Flipping through multi-image posts is also animated when clicking the left and right buttons, resulting in a slide animation between photos. Small text pop ups also have animation as well.
However, using Firefox on my Macbook, those animations don't appear. I've enabled hardware acceleration, and the animations still don't appear. I've also whitelisted Instagram in uBlock Origin, and the result is the same.
I tested other websites that I can compare with the iMac, like Google Maps and the official Nintendo Animal Crossing website. Both sites run smoothly on my Macbook, with all animations functioning like they should, and Google Street view also being smooth with no visual glitches or other reduced functionality.
I will note the screen resolution on the Macbook is 1366 x 768 compared to the large iMac. My question is this... is Instagram disabling these UI animations on my Macbook due to it's age and/or screen size, is Firefox doing that, or is this a bug in regards to Mac OS Catalina?
These are very simple animations, so it's strange that they don't appear on my Macbook, despite it still being capable of showing web page animations with other sites. The Like animation in particular is helpful as it provides visual feedback to my preferred way of liking posts there.
All Replies (5)
You have not provided steps to replicate, screenshots, nor links for us to try and reproduce the issue.
You may have disabled animations on your system:
MacOS System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Reduce motion.
In Firefox, you can override this by creating ui.prefersReducedMotion (Number) with value 0 in about:config.
Start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration or if userChrome.css/userContent.css is causing the problem.
- switch to the Default System theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes
- do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Troubleshoot Mode start window
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubleshoot-mode
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-extensions-themes-to-fix-problems
See also:
jonzn4SUSE said
You have not provided steps to replicate, screenshots, nor links for us to try and reproduce the issue.
I'm not sure if I could provide steps to replicate since this could be a hardware specific issue, or some script with Instagram that is limiting functionality. It's simply logging in to Instagram, browsing the main feed and interacting with posts such as giving them "Likes" and using the arrow buttons to slide through multi-image posts. When using these functions on my 2020 iMac, these little animations appear as I described in my opening post, and provide visual feedback to show the Like function has worked, or a more smoother way of navigating multi-image posts there. I'm just at a loss as to why these animations are not appearing on my 2012 Macbook when it's more than capable of showing animated websites that are more complex than Instagram.
Another issue is how Instagram limits those who don't have accounts there. Without one, you can't access the main feed, or engage in liking posts.
Screenshots would be hard since the animations only appear for about a second or two. The best way would be for me to do screen captures on both of my Macs and then upload it to YouTube or some other place that can host the video.
Here's what I'll do. I'll do screen recordings of these tonight, and I'll either provide a link to the recording late tonight or tomorrow morning.
Hello again. It's a bit late, I know, but I got screen recordings of Instagram in Firefox, both on my iMac and 2012 MacBook Pro. I noted the animations that should appear on the site, and how they do not appear on the older MacBook.
Here is the video I posted to my YouTube page.