Firefox and Incompatible Add-ons

To make sure that your favorite third-party add-ons get updated for upcoming Firefox releases, you need the Add-on Compatibility Reporter on your Firefox browser. It simply puts your favorite add-ons on the Firefox priority list. If you didn't do this before upgrading Firefox, chances are that some of your add-ons are already grayed out—meaning you can't disable or uninstall them. There are two possible remedies to the problem.

Wait for compatible add-on versions

Too many add-ons slow down Firefox. Firefox is already a memory hog and a ton of add-ons doesn't help this. It makes sense to have only useful add-ons and nothing more. But you can wait it out until the greyed-out add-ons are compatible again. To regularly check for add-on updates, click on Tools -> Add-ons -> Plug-in -> "check to see that your plug-ins are up-to-date". That's for the plug-ins. Luckily, the add-ons and extensions will automatically notify you whenever there is an update. Also, most popular add-ons and extensions should be updated and fixed pretty promptly by the companies that created the add-on.

Force-Enable Add-ons

The second one is to force and enable the add-ons. We don't really recommend this method as it could make your browser unstable. However, it could be useful to know how to do this.

1. Open up Firefox and type in "about:config" without the quotation marks into the URL bar. If you are using about:config for the first time, you are going to get a warning saying, "This might void your warranty!". That is no big deal so click on "I'll be careful, I promise!".

2. Right-click on an empty space on the about:config page and hover around New and then click on Boolean. The New Boolean Value box will now pop up. Copy the text: "extensions.checkCompatibility" without the quotation marks, and then click ok.

3. The "Enter Boolean Value" box will pop up. Paste the text: "extensions.checkCompatibility", select False, and then click on OK.

4. Wait for Firefox to restart.

That's it! Your add-ons will now be enabled.

The downside of force-enabling your Firefox add-ons is that the browser may become unstable. This method should be the last thing you try. Also, keep in mind that if your Firefox is unstable, you can start it in Safe mode.

To start Firefox in safe mode, click on the Firefox button. Go to the help menu, select Restart with Add-ons Disabled. For computers running on Windows XP, simply go to the Help menu and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled. A simple method is to restart Firefox in safe mode by pressing and holding down the shift key while the browser is starting.

To exit safe mode, click the Firefox button and then click on Exit.

One last point, if you force enable add-ons and Firefox becomes really unstable, you can always uninstall and reinstall the browser to get it back up and working again.

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-By Dominic

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