I've read around the blogs and twitterverse that people are seeing some of their add-ons disabled by the just-released Firefox 3.0.1 security and stability update.
There's good news and bad news here.
First the bad news. Yes, several add-ons seem to be disabled with the update to Firefox 3.0.1. This should not have happened and is most likely the result of a mistake in the add-on's Firefox compatibility string. Where the author should have used "3.0.*" they instead used just "3.0" (note the missing "*")
The good news is that it's only a few add-ons and Mozilla folks are reaching out to those authors to help them fix their version compatibility. I think we'll see pretty quick updates from those vendors.
Firefox security and stability updates should not break anything. The Web should continue working just fine and so should extensions, themes, and plug-ins. Mozilla works very hard to make sure that the security updates are as painless as possible, including keeping a close eye on all of the add-ons hosted at http://addons.mozilla.org. But there are all kinds of add-ons that live outside of AMO and that makes things a bit more difficult to track and help out when needed.
So, if you see or hear of add-ons that are disabled by a security update, please let me or Basil or someone else from add-ons land know about it. Thanks.
Oh, and you can read more about this from Basil and you can digg it to help get the word out to the wider world.
Posted by: T Man | July 17, 2008 6:02 PM
Tab Mix Plus
Unhide Passwords
Posted by: Ken Saunders | July 17, 2008 7:22 PM
@Ken Saunders: Tab Mix doesn't have this problem. It hasn't been updated in quite a while and never has been compatible with Firefox 3 at all...
Posted by: tylerstyle | July 17, 2008 11:29 PM
As always with extension compatibility, I wish that the Addons compatibility data was definitive and always used (try installing New Tab Homepage 0.3 in Firefox 2 - it doesn't work, even though it should).
If the compatibility data on the Addons site did always work, I'd suggest that the notion of relying *entirely* on developers setting compatibility data seems silly. We have a gigantic community of users who could "vote" for compatibility, with the result being set automatically once the number of votes passes a threshold based on the number of active users for that extension.
Posted by: Ben Basson | July 17, 2008 11:43 PM
AVG Security Toolbar that comes with AVG Free 8.0.
Posted by: kwerboom | July 19, 2008 5:20 PM
Voting is a good idea (Ben Basson). But there's sometimes more than that and changes need to be made to the extension (from Fx2 to Fx3 for example). It should be easier for other volunteers to provide the necessary changes (or a temporary fork of an extension), now we are often dependent on a single person.
Posted by: Otto de Voogd | July 19, 2008 5:24 PM
Tengo el Firefox 3 portable con el pack en español. Al actualizarlo 3.0.1 no me reconoce el pack
Posted by: Rafael | July 21, 2008 3:12 AM
In the age of Firefox 2, add-on writers are told the compatibility string should be 2.0.0.* and the version number is bumped at the fourth digit.
Now comes Firefox 3 and out of the blue the version number is bumped at the third digit again. No wonder some add-ons are broken by this update. Previously I bumped compatibility string of the Right Encoding extension to make it work on Firefox 3 (The official version on addons.mozilla.org is marked to support 2.0.0.*, and I changed the string of the extension on my computer to 3.0.0.*) When 3.0.1 came out, Ouch, compatibility string "3.0.0.*" doesn't work. I need to fix it again...
Posted by: billyswong | July 21, 2008 5:18 AM
Since the security maintaining updates are meant to not break compatibility, I can't get it why the add-on authors are forced to trail the maxVersion with the asterisk. I believe it's Firefox's fault.
Posted by: funTomas | July 22, 2008 8:15 AM
No Tab Mix Plus is a real killer, popular extension used by loads of people and their site has an even older version then at AMO when I last looked.
Also eBayBuddy, Realplayer Browser Record Plugin, Ask Power Tools, Tweak Network.
Posted by: Kris | July 22, 2008 1:29 PM
No he actualizado todavía a la versió 3.0.1, pero con la versión 3.0 no puedo habrir el curso interacivo Discovery de la empresa Cisco. Realizaré la actualización y verificaré si con ésto se soluciona. Saludos.
Posted by: jonathan | July 22, 2008 4:59 PM
several german add-ons are disabled...
Posted by: Manuel Tarife | August 1, 2008 1:34 PM
When I upgraded to 3.0.1, none of my add ons worked, including STUMBLEUPON, which is my favorite....
Posted by: Kelly | September 2, 2008 7:18 PM
plugins i have seen disabled in 3.0.1:
* Deutsche Wörterbuch (alter Rechtschreibung) für die Rechtschreibprüfung in Mozilla-Produkten 0.1b
* DNA 1.0.0.1 Delivery Network Acceleration by BitTorrentTM
* RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin 1.0 Detects all recordable content on the browser
* Wortliste von http://tkltrans.sf.net (alte und neue deutsche Rechtschreibung) 20060716
No updates in sight for this or better say auto update does not resolve them.
Posted by: alex | September 13, 2008 5:57 AM
i need add-on for real player
Posted by: pramod kr. singh | September 21, 2008 1:23 PM
when are they going to fix the DNA 1.0.0.1 add on
Posted by: neongenesis | December 12, 2008 10:07 AM
Some add-ons are disabled, but the important plugins work great!
Posted by: Festplattenextern | December 19, 2008 8:42 AM
Adbuction! has this problem.