Firefox Web Browser

Tips, tricks, tweaks, fixes and anything else related to the Firefox Web Browser can be found here. They are listed in no particular order, although it seems like the things that irritate me the most are getting added to the top of the list lately.

Unless otherwise noted, each of the following “fixes” requires going into the advanced configuration menu, which is accomplished by typing about:config into the Firefox address bar, hitting enter, and then acknowledging the “Accept the Risk and Continue” button.

• Paste browser.nova.enabled into the Search Preference Name bar
• Toggle the preference to false

Didn't ask for it, don't want it. And yet, they keep sending it.

This time it's the abhorrently stupid “Split Screen” feature, which they suddenly thrust upon me. No problem, right? Wrong. It became the 2nd option on the right click menu, just below the “Open in New Tab” option that I click on constantly. So yeah, shame on me - if my clicking accuracy were better and more consistent, perhaps I wouldn't accidentally click on it but it's not and so here we are.

• Paste browser.tabs.splitView.enabled into the Search Preference Name bar
• Toggle the preference to false
• Wait for the next dumb thing they throw at me

I am trying extremely hard not to turn this wiki into a profanity-laden rant, but this one really nearly pushed me over the edge.

I load a web page in the browser - check.
I hit CTRL-F to open the find dialog so I can search the page - check.
I start typing and, either I fat finger what I am looking for or what I'm looking for is not on the page. Either way, the browser issues an audible (and increasingly rant-inducing) beep. For the love of God, make it stop.

• Paste accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound into the Search Preference Name bar
• Toggle the preference to false
• Enjoy the silence. For now.

Issue: Firefox is ridiculous when it comes to caching web pages, to the point that when a particular page’s content changes, the browser doesn’t even notice. A “normal” refresh (clicking the refresh icon or pressing F5) is not enough to goose it; rather, you have to “force refresh” the page by typing CTRL-F5.

Some examples of scenarios where you might see this behavior are:

• Logging into a web site that has a dynamic menu, but the menu doesn’t update accordingly after logging in
• Sites with “bookmark” pages or other lists that you can add things to, but the lists don’t seem to update afterwards

This is my #1 complaint with Firefox since migrating to it from Chrome back in 2020 – their caching is off the rails. It took some serious digging to find a “fix” for this, but I finally did and here it is:

• Paste browser.cache.check_doc_frequency into the Search Preference Name bar
• Click the pencil button on the right side
• Change the value to 1 and click the checkbox

It should be noted that this won't fix the issue in 100% of the cases, but it goes an incredibly long way towards making it bearable.

Issue: Hitting the backspace key takes you to the previous web page. Whose drug-addled idea was this? Nothing is more annoying than having to hit backspace to correct some typing faux pas (some of us have to do it more often than others) and suddenly finding yourself on the previous web page. I have been browsing the internet for roughly 3 decades now and I have yet to find a reasonable use case for this feature. Here’s how to kill it:

• Paste browser.backspace_action into the into the Search Preference Name bar
• Click the pencil button on the right side
• Change the value to 2 and click the checkbox.

You’re welcome.

Issue: Initiating a download/save of a file from Firefox results in the download popup showing up, which one must close or otherwise be annoyed by.

• Paste browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel into the into the Search Preference Name bar
• Toggle the preference to false

Issue: Firefox restores (or at least tries to) open tabs after a controlled reboot or system crash. This is a huge personal annoyance of mine as, more often than not, the tab recovery doesn’t go well. I have never found an instance where I wished the browser restores an open tab, so I dug around to figure out how to disable it:

• Paste browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash into the Search Preference Name bar
• Toggle the preference to false

Issue: Google search results take FOREVER to load. This aggravated me so much that I finally fired up a packet capture to see what was going on. Lo and behold, I found that Firefox is now attempting to communicate w/ Google via QUIC, a supposedly faster option than communicating over TCP. I dug around and found that we can force the browser to go back to TCP via disabling http3 (allegedly the future of the internet but, from where I’m sitting, I’m not buying it). Mikey’s rule #1 – if it’s working, don’t try to fix it. So let’s “unfix” this issue…

• Paste network.http.http3.enable into the Search Preference Name bar
• Toggle the preference to false

Enjoy the speedy search results.

Issue: Highlighting information on a web page, followed by right-clicking, displays a menu with the ‘Copy’ option grayed out. Holy shit, Mozilla, are you really trying to get me to go back to Chrome? Because I’m almost there.

I thought I had this fixed but it no worky. The only workaround I have found that has consistently worked thus far is to ALT-TAB to another program, then back to Firefox. Copy should no longer be grayed out when you right-click. Careful though, it still seems iffy.

Issue: Firefox pops up preview balloons when you hover over a browser tab. You say picky, I say annoying.

• Paste browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled into the Search Preference Name bar
• Toggle the preference to false

08/22/2024 – Note: The above “fix” only seems to hold for the current browser session; if you close the browser, then the browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled option gets reset to true when the browser starts again. Still working on a fix for this, but it might involve dumping Firefox for a different browser. More to come.

• Paste browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone into the Search Preference Name bar
• Click the pencil icon
• Replace what ever is currently in the space with the word ignore and click the checkbox.

• Paste browser.disableResetPrompt into the Search Preference Name bar
• Set it to true
• Note: It may not pre-exist, in which case you can click the + symbol and then create a boolean which you would then set to true

Thanks, Firefox. Fuck you, Firefox.

Create a policies.json file with the following contents:

policies.json

  {
    "policies": {
      "DisableAppUpdate": true
    }
  }

Based on the operating system involved, save this file at the following location:

• Windows - C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\distribution\policies.json (admin rights required)
• MacOS - /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Resources/distribution/policies.json
• Linux - /usr/lib/firefox/distribution/policies.json (or /etc/firefox/policies/)

1. Within the browser, go to about:support
2. On the resulting screen, locate the Profile Folder and click the Open Folder button.
3. The profile folder will open within File Explorer. Make note of the directory name and then click back one level to the Profiles directory.
4. Find the folder noted in the previous step and copy it in its entirety to a USB stick or network drive share.
5. On the new machine, perform steps 1-3 above.
6. Make sure Firefox is closed, then rename the existing profile directory to something else.
7. Copy the saved Profile directory to this location, making sure to rename it to match the profile name the new machine is expecting.
8. Navigate to the profile directory in File Explorer and either delete or rename the following files: addons.json, compatibility.ini, and extensions.json.
9. Start the browser; it should reflect how it was set up in the previous location.