Adblock Plus freezes Firefox - force quit necessary - help please

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Level 2

231 points

Adblock Plus freezes Firefox - force quit necessary - help please

Always looking for further security and a way to avoid annoying ads, I installed the Adblock Plus add-on to my Firefox 8.0.1 and had an immediate issue.

I couldn't quit Firefox.

The only way to get out of Ff was to force quit. I tried this several time, same result. I uninstalled Adblock Plus, problem gone.

This is a new iMac and (believe it or not) I have yet install any software except for Firefox.

I'm using Ff 8.0.1, still running SL 10.6.6. Flash plugin disabled, Javascript disabled via NoScript. (btw Flashblock add-on won't work for me since it says it has to have Javascript enabled).

Any ideas on the issue? just not using Adblock Plus seems too easy an answer.

I did notice on my trial run that it took an enormous amount of time to bypass the opening advert on NYTimes before getting to the homepage. Once Adblock Plus was uninstalled, it actually was faster to just hit the skip ad button (but that doesn't solve the inherent problem of having to see the ad in the first place)

Thanks,

Mrs H

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Dec 17, 2011 8:50 AM

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Answer 1

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

Dec 17, 2011 11:54 AM in response to Mrs H

Does this FF "hang" everywhere or just specific pages? Some sites can be pretty obnoxious about their insistence of having their ads displayed. In those case you can either choose not to visit them again or tell ABP to enable ads on those pages vie the toolbar icon or status bar icon (just click on the icon).

FWIW, I use FF3.6.24 and have used ABP for years with no problems other than the occasional spinning cursors on pages like the ones I just described.

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Answer 2

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 17, 2011 2:16 PM in response to X423424X

X423424X wrote:

Does this FF "hang" everywhere or just specific pages?

The spinning beachball occurs when I tried to shut down - I just couldn't quit Ff with Adblock Plus installed without force quitting.

The "hang"/delay was on the NYTimes which had a full page ad prior to the front page. Here, if I waited, the ad blank page finally disappeared and I could get on with reading the front page.

I could live with the delays due to large full page ads, I can't live with the other problem - force quitting to get out of Ff.

I quit by force quitting, I restarted, I repaired permissions, I restarted and had to force quit again. At that point I was at my limit (admittedly I got there pretty quickly - and I gave up and uninstalled (first I tried disabling ABP to no avail)

Off topic and totally different question for you here - what are you going to do when Ff stops giving updates to v3.6x? I too am running 3.6.24 on our Tiger MBP - I'm thinking I'm going to have to go to TenFourFox even though my MBP is Intel and hope Rosetta works for me here as I've been told it will.

Thanks for your input - any further ideas would be welcome,

Mrs H

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Answer 3

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

Dec 17, 2011 6:39 PM in response to Mrs H

The "hang"/delay was on the NYTimes which had a full page ad prior to the front page. Here, if I waited, the ad blank page finally disappeared and I could get on with reading the front page.

Hmm, I just tried www.nytimes.com and all ABP suppresses was a small animation on the front page.

I quit by force quitting, I restarted, I repaired permissions, I restarted and had to force quit again. At that point I was at my limit (admittedly I got there pretty quickly - and I gave up and uninstalled (first I tried disabling ABP to no avail)

Repairing permissions is not going to help you for this and in most cases anywhere else. Repair permissions does not look at user files.

About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature

Off topic and totally different question for you here - what are you going to do when Ff stops giving updates to v3.6x? I too am running 3.6.24 on our Tiger MBP - I'm thinking I'm going to have to go to TenFourFox even though my MBP is Intel and hope Rosetta works for me here as I've been told it will.

No one says I have to change browsers. I used to keep up with FF releases but then mozilla got this "bug" under them to release new FF versions every time someone sneezed! Some of the useful (to me) addons just couldn't keep up and were broken by these fast releases. So I am sticking with what works until my particular problematic addons catch up or something else "forces" me to change.

Back to the original prioblem, while I thinking about addon problems, could it be you are using some other addon that is confliting with ABP. You might try disabling all addons except ABP and see what happens.

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Answer 4

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Dec 17, 2011 6:57 PM in response to Mrs H

I've been using it for years problem free. Running it now on 8.0.1. Maybe you can get some help here. Guest posting allowed. Make sure they know it's Mac.

https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=1

Or bring it up on the Firefox forums.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=38

X4 wrote:Some of the useful (to me) addons just couldn't keep up and were broken by these fast releases. So I am sticking with what works until my particular problematic addons catch up or something else "forces" me to change.

Have you tried using Add-on Compatibility Reporter to disable compatibility checking? It will usually work. I've used it a few times when a developer couldn't catch up quite fast enough.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/

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Answer 5

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 17, 2011 7:11 PM in response to X423424X

X423424X wrote:

#1. Hmm, I just tried www.nytimes.com and all ABP suppresses was a small animation on the front page....

#2. Back to the original prioblem, while I thinking about addon problems, could it be you are using some other addon that is confliting with ABP. You might try disabling all addons except ABP and see what happens.

#1. The first page ad that slowed things down at NYT was/is full page add something like "Save 30% by subscribing now..." it goes away eventually and ABP never let me see it, but it took awhile to bring up the front page after the blank page that was the blocked ad.

#2 I have very few adons:

The problem occured when I added ABP and went away when I disabled it. These others are - I think - more important to me than blocking ads so although I might find out what conflicts if I disable the others, I think I'd prefer to stick with these 3.

Thanks for your suggestions though - it's kind of what I suspected - too bad though.

Mrs H

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Answer 6

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 17, 2011 7:16 PM in response to WZZZ

WZZZ wrote:

I've been using it for years problem free. Running it now on 8.0.1. Maybe you can get some help here. Guest posting allowed. Make sure they know it's Mac.

https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=1

Or bring it up on the Firefox forums.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=38

I earlier posted the question on the adblock plus forum, but no one replied yet; though I did see another post with a similar - and even worse - set of issues.

I hadn't thought to bring it up on Mozilla forum itself.

Are you running Ff or TenFourFox?

Thanks for suggesting the Mozilla forum, if I learn anything in either place I'll be sure to post the info here.

Mrs H

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Answer 7

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

Dec 17, 2011 7:30 PM in response to WZZZ

WZZZ wrote:

Have you tried using Add-on Compatibility Reporter to disable compatibility checking? It will usually work. I've used it a few times when a developer couldn't catch up quite fast enough.

I know about that and I also know how to change the min/max versions in an xpi's version fields. But it's simply a case where the add on hasn't fully caught up with FF changes. One I consider a "must have" is Mr Tech Toolkit. It has had problems keeping up with the releases due to the (neat) stuff it can do to change and add to FF in many desirable (again to me) ways. I do monitor the Mr Tech Toolkit developer's forum for this but admittedly not closely these days so I don't know what FF version they are compatible with (even betas) or what was disabled so that it would work in the later FF's.

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Answer 8

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Dec 18, 2011 4:04 AM in response to X423424X

I've used Compatibility Reporter in a few situations where the Add-on hasn't yet been "officially" approved by Mozilla for the latest Fx version, but isn't really incompatible or problematic.

Didn't know about Mr. Tech Toolkit. Looks interesting, but I'm seeing it's not yet available for 8.0.1. I will try it out when it catches up, if ever.

Mrs. H: try disabling the status-4 thing. I don't think NoScript or WOT, which I use along with ABP, are causing a conflict, if there is one.

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Answer 9

Dec 18, 2011 4:25 AM in response to WZZZ

Mrs H., have you enabled the "empty cache on exit" functionality in Firefox? You usually have to do it manually, either in Firefox's preferences, or via the all-too-known "about:config" typed in the address bar.

If you have, it could explain why Firefox takes some time quitting: I have enabled the same functionality in Opera, and it takes several long seconds to quit, and Opera is usually quicker than Firefox in almost all respects. Worth investigating.

FWIW, I've been using ABP in Firefox for ages too, and never encountered a problem like yours. ABP is so good at what it does that it has been ported to other browsers, including Safari, Chrome and Opera (under a different form, though). If I were you, I'd uninstall ABP completely, including by deleting all files related to it in /Users/Your_Account/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/sumthin_or_other.default/adblockplus

Your best option: delete the whole adblockplus folder in there, and reinstall from scratch. While you're at it, and right down the list, there's another folder called "extensions"; go in there and delete everything related to AdBlock Plus.

Of course, you must do all that when Firefox is not running...

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Answer 10

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Dec 18, 2011 7:07 AM in response to Mrs H

In ABP>Options, try unchecking "Show tabs on Flash and Java." Might be a conflict with NoScript >Options>Embeddings>"Forbid Java," "Forbid Flash," "Apply these restrictions to whitelisted sites too."

Don't bother. That's not it.

Message was edited by: WZZZ

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Answer 11

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 18, 2011 8:13 AM in response to FrenchToast

🙂 Thanks folks!

It works now - I can quit Ff without having to force quit!

Tried combining 2 quoted replies together and it got a bit unweildly here - comments for both WZZZ and FT below:

Thanks WZZZ for the suggestion - btw no replies neither from AdBlock Plus nor Mozilla forums

WZZZ wrote:

Mrs. H: try disabling the status-4 thing. I don't think NoScript or WOT, which I use along with ABP, are causing a conflict, if there is one.

I did this, though I like the "status-4-thing" which gives a status bar like the old Ff with a blue status bar at the bottom of the page. I may try to re-enable it if I miss the status bar and can't be satisfied with the whirling load circle near the addy bar.

In addition I did the following:

FrenchToast wrote:

#1... have you enabled the "empty cache on exit" functionality in Firefox? You usually have to do it manually, either in Firefox's preferences...

#2... I'd uninstall ABP completely, including by deleting all files related to it in /Users/Your_Account/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/sumthin_or_other.default/adblockplus

#3A...Your best option: delete the whole adblockplus folder in there, and reinstall from scratch.

#3B...While you're at it, and right down the list, there's another folder called "extensions"; go in there and delete everything related to AdBlock Plus.

#1. I don't have that enabled - I couldn't even find the option in the prefs - unless I enabled it while not paying heed to what I was doing and didn't make note of it, I don't think I've done it.

#2. Done

#3A Done see above.

#3B There was nothing in the extensions folder related to AdBlock Plus.

Now I know why I like French Toast so much,

Thank you FT so far so good.

Mrs H

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Answer 12

Dec 18, 2011 10:55 AM in response to Mrs H

😁 French toast and cookies (your avatar)? Some diet! But hey, that's sweet of you to say that. I just hope you got rid of your problem for good.

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Answer 13

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 18, 2011 1:12 PM in response to FrenchToast

FrenchToast wrote:

😁 French toast and cookies (your avatar)? Some diet! But hey, that's sweet of you to say that. I just hope you got rid of your problem for good.

French toast really is one of my favourites as are chocolate chip cookies. Sounds like a great diet to me!

btw - Ff is still OK!

I started by choosing the EasyList filter and all is still functioning and I can still quit Ff.

I notice in the status info something like, (invented numbers here): Blocked items on this page: 6 out of 49. And I see this on a page where I see no more ads - so what are the other 43 items not blocked???

Thanks again,

Mrs H

PS FT - check out the posts near the bottom on page 2 of https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3563153?start=15&tstart=0

re your diet!

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Answer 14

Dec 18, 2011 2:18 PM in response to Mrs H

Items/elements are in fact pictures. You can choose to block them all too, by copying their address, and feeding them to AdBlock Plus, the more so when they point at other domains.

You must know something about AdBlock Plus: it actually helps web pages load faster, because URLs hiding behind blocked items aren't fetched the way unblocked links are. Whenever a web page is loaded in Firefox, all the active links in the page are pre-loaded, in case you'd like to visit them.

Enabling pipelining in "about:config" should help load pages faster too. I set it at 24 every time I install a new copy of Firefox: this means that for every link you click on, Firefox will attempt up to 24 different connections, and display the one that's quicker to show up.

This said, you could also try Opera... My favorite Web browser, faster than Firefox, and utterly customizable without the need for extensions. My (virtual) 2 cents...

Edit: just checked the post you mentioned, and I concur that's some great diet! Alas, I have a tendency to put on weight, so I must really be careful what I wish for...

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Answer 15

Mrs H Author

Level 2

231 points

Dec 19, 2011 1:11 PM in response to FrenchToast

FrenchToast wrote:

Items/elements are in fact pictures. You can choose to block them all too, by copying their address, and feeding them to AdBlock Plus, the more so when they point at other domains.

Enabling pipelining in "about:config" should help load pages faster too. I set it at 24 every time I install a new copy of Firefox: this means that for every link you click on, Firefox will attempt up to 24 different connections, and display the one that's quicker to show up.

...you could also try Opera...

FT,

Thanks for the further info.

I have the one filter set for EasyList. Do you recommend that - or Fanboy's List - which seems to show up as wanting to be chosen over EasyList (the FAQ page says not to choose both of these together)

I haven't done the pipelining hack - do you find it really makes a difference. Trying to learn more about pipelining, I found this - http://egonitron.com/2007/05/25/the-truth-about-the-firefox-pipelining-trick/ which if it is correct has some interesting insight on numbers beyond 8 - but this may be old info on the site.

Opera - I've thought about it as a second browser. I hate Safari and never open it, used to use Camino.

Bigger problem is my Tiger MBP which will eventually (year's end) no longer get updates for Firefox 3.6. I may have to go to TenFourFox even though they say not recommended for Intel Macs - and trust that Rosetta will do the trick. Rosetta is such a elegant thing, isn't it?

Mrs H

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