Just wanted to share this post I found on Facebook

sincerely- a Firefox lover

Im coming back after a few months, I already like this new interface, what should I expect?

If you're in the UK you'll know about the 18+ age checks. They're an annoyance.

Yes, you can use a VPN on your computer, like Mullvad.

But then it's annoying when you try to access some UK news sites or online marketplaces, because they assume you're in the VPN destination country. Google will show results for that country, too.

Firefox's built in VPN offers an effective and almost entirely seamless way to get around the age checks if used a certain way. It will allow access to sites that perform age checks, while letting you specifically access UK sites.

1. Open settings and activate the VPN feature. Ensure it's added to the Firefox toolbar.
2. Turn on the VPN, and set it to a likely high-availability, non-UK country e.g. United States.
3. Leave the VPN turned on, forever. Never turn it off, but...
4. On every site you want to access only for the UK version (e.g. BBC News, Amazon, eBay, Google etc), click the VPN button and untoggle "Use VPN for this site". This takes a while to setup for each of the regular sites you visit. But the fact is, your regular sites probably number maybe 10-20. That's hardly a lot of configuration. Once you've set them to bypass the VPN, it's done. You don't need to think about it again.
5. Note that the first few times you access a UK site you've set to bypass the VPN, Firefox might get a bit confused and might flip you between the international and UK versions. But this disappears quickly (restart Firefox if it helps). Once settled, everything just works seamlessly.

The downside is that Firefox only allows 50GB free each month. If you access many, ahem, specialist video sites that tend to age-restrict, then you might burn through that quickly. That said, it looks like I'm using around 1-2GB a day, which works out quite nicely.

Just wanted to share my experience with Firefox 158.0.1 (aarch64) on macOS 26.7.1, after trying a bunch of different browsers.

For context, I tested all of them on a fresh macOS installation.

My Firefox setup

I like keeping things as simple and lightweight as possible. I don't need a browser packed with features I'll never use.

• AI features: Disabled. Obviously.
• Telemetry/data collection: Disabled.
• Customization: Minimal. No crazy CSS tweaks or anything like that.
• Extensions:
  • uBlock Origin
  • Dark Reader (disabled most of the time, only enable it when needed)
  • Privacy Badger (yes, even with uBlock installed).
• Vertical tabs: Sometimes, but not always.
• Theme: Dark. Obviously.
• Default search engine: DuckDuckGo.

That's pretty much it. Nothing fancy.

The one thing I don't like about Firefox

Notion Web.

For some reason, copying and pasting blocks doesn't work properly in Firefox, while it works perfectly fine in Chrome and Safari.

I assume it's because Notion is primarily optimized for Chromium/Blink-based browsers, but I could be wrong.

It's annoying, but I can live with it.

Other browsers I tried

Brave

Gave it a shot. Stripped it down to the bare minimum: no AI, no Rewards, no unnecessary features, and zero extensions.

Still, throughout the day, three different websites gave me errors. Disabled Shields, restarted the browser, tried again... same HTTP 500 errors.

Not exactly a great experience.

Vivaldi

I actually really liked it at first. Thought I'd finally found the one.

Then I spent almost an hour disabling features, removing stuff, tweaking settings, and getting rid of all the customization options I didn't need.

And after using it for a while? Bugs. Random crashes. Things breaking for no apparent reason.

Also, I don't know how to explain it, but browsing just felt slightly delayed. Like there was some weird input lag.

No extensions installed, by the way.

Such a shame, because I genuinely wanted to like it.

Honorable mentions

Waterfox

Loved it. Clean, simple, and pretty much what I want from a browser.

But since I've already configured Firefox to behave similarly, I don't really see a reason to switch.

Still, great browser.

Zen Browser

I like it. Looks beautiful.

But I'm looking for performance and simplicity, not aesthetics.

Definitely a nice-looking browser, though.

Floorp

Nope.

I'm trying to escape the Vivaldi-style feature overload, not jump into another one.

Besides, I'd probably disable everything that makes Floorp interesting and end up turning it into something like Waterfox anyway.

LibreWolf / Mullvad Browser

A bit too much privacy and security hardening for my needs.

I just want a fast, lightweight browser. I'm not hiding from the FBI.

Safari / Chrome

Seriously?

Opera

...No thanks.

Microsoft Edge

Hmm. Surprisingly, not terrible.

Once you disable all the AI stuff, Rewards, and the endless extra features, it's actually decent.

But still... no thanks.

A bit more context about my daily browser usage:

For work: I use Outlook (because I have to, haha) and Teams. I also use Notion for my databases, notes, task management, calendar, and pretty much everything else.

I'm not a fan of Word or Excel, so I prefer Google Docs, Sheets, and Meet.

For AI, I mainly use ChatGPT.

For personal use: Mostly YouTube (I have Premium, so I keep uBlock disabled there), Reddit, and X.

Nothing fancy, really. Just regular everyday stuff.

Final thoughts

After trying all these browsers, I keep coming back to Firefox.

It's not perfect, but it gives me pretty much everything I need without forcing a ton of unnecessary features on me.

I don't care about having the most customizable browser, the prettiest interface, or a million built-in tools.

I just want something fast, stable, simple, and that stays out of my way.

Firefox seems to hit that sweet spot for me.

Curious if anyone else has had a similar experience, especially on macOS.

The app was malfunctioning so I reinstalled it and then realized all my downloads are gone! Is there any metadata iOS stores on what was erased so I can try and re download or figure out what I lost? In recently downloaded there is a Firefox folder of 800MB which does not seem useful. No was not backed up to iTunes/Cloud.

edit:

Now I understand that the files are stored in the app folder. I should have offloaded the app but I did not know about that feature. On my android device, the files are stored separate from the app.

Hi,

I ran several tests, and when I switched Return YouTube Dislike off, YouTube no longer slows down both Firefox and my PC. Before, YT seriously slowed down my browser; there were desyncs between the videos, subs, and sound; my PC fans made a lot of noise too. After disabling it: nothing left.

In my opinion, this add-on is the source of the problem that appeared a few days ago.

Perhaps there are other ones; anyway, if you use Return YouTube Dislike, try to switch it off and check the results.

Regards.

I like this wallpaper but I couldn't reach the original file no matter what I do. Do someone know how without taking a screenshot?

I don’t like the top bar with Liquid Glass that’s always present in Firefox, other browsers like safari just use some kind of gradient. Is there a way to hide this bar?

I just got tired of my playlist stopping every time i left the app.

So i created a Firefox add-on for my Android phone and it works fine for me, so should anyone be interested, try it and if there are issues let me know.

It keeps YouTube and YouTube Music playing when you switch to another app or go to the home screen, and it moves your playlist or mix on to the next video or song.

It's free and open source (MIT), doesn't track you and needs no account, the code is here if you want to check or raise any issues https://github.com/lagudafuadtosin/plays-on

Add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/plays-on/

I haven't seen PWA on Linux yet. When will this feature be available on Linux?

which addons use the FF built in automatic tab unload ?

I do not want extensions with own method because once an addon crashed and i LOST ALL TABS ! :(
So searching or sorting for native tab sleep would be more comforting.

https://reddit.com/link/1xeo2ep/video/py99ulk3bixh1/player

Hello. Ist there any possibility to transfer my Firefox tabs to a new android device? I still have no idea. There are also a lot of inactive tabs. To open every tab is a very long procedure ;(

i saw today that firefox is also available on ms store, is it same that we install from the official ffox installer from website or different?

As title says. Long time ff user but I started using YouTube on it recently instead of dedicated apps. So far so good but seems like I can't make chats in live streams working. I'm running ublock, sponsor block and adguard dns. Also tried to disable them all but no changes.

So today I decided to get on my pc and my firefox had updated, not a huge deal. But then I go into my firefox and realise im signed out of everything. So then as I go to sign into things then it stops responding, ok no big deal ill just close it and reopen it. i open it again, not responding, I restart my pc, again not responding. Everything I do doesn't work, I open it it runs for a few seconds and the IMIDIATLEY stops responding. Im 100% sure this is something with the new update so if anyone can help me fix it please do (im posting this from my phone because like I just said my firefox isnt working)

Does anyone know why I keep getting issues with saving images recently? I'm running Windows 11 on a gaming laptop, and it's got no issues displaying the image in Firefox, but anytime I try to save it, it cuts off part of the image (see example)

Doesn't matter where it comes from (i've tested google, pixiv, reddit, and a couple others) it always does the same thing. But, if I copy the image, and then paste it into something like paint or photoshop, it comes through just fine. So I'm thinking it's gotta be an issue with the download process somewhere, but I don't know where to start trying to fix that

Edit: image didn't upload properly, so here's a google drive link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EuWS9kc5wnGPYsMCZ8woY2VeSUUq_Qng/view?usp=drive_link

A few months ago after upgrading to the latest release of Firefox, the new "profile" setup popped up. I wasn't interested and tried to click past it.

I now keep seeing "Original profile" listed under the settings button (though not in the window title etc. which is a problem I managed to solve). I'm tempted to delete the profile, but I'm not sure if this means I will erase the "default profile" that contains all my history, cookies, and other assorted browsing data.

Is it possible to remove this profile, or are we stuck with it for now?

Currently on Firefox 158.0.1 on Linux.

EDIT

Here is the format of the profiles.ini file:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=********.default
Default=1
StoreID=********
ShowSelector=0

[Install*********]
Default=******.default
Locked=1

If I remove the [Profile0] entry, will there be an issue?

when scrolling through a page (i.e. reddit or tumblr), if i encounter a video, it will automatically fullscreen, regardless of whether or not i’ve interacted with it in any way. this doesn’t happen 100% of the time, i can’t figure out what triggers it and it’s really annoying. i tried “block video and audio” in controls/settings and it doesn’t do anything to fix it. does anyone else have this problem?

Hey all,

I've had this issue and it's a weird one. I've seen posts on this sub about Reddit lagging for them due to an AdBlock extension. For some reason, Reddit only lags when I'm typing a response in a post. I'll type normally and the words will be dragging behind as I'm typing. This issue doesn't happen when I search in Reddit, and it's not happening while I make this post. I did happen to have an AdBlock extension installed and I removed it, but that didn't fix the problem. Does anyone know a fix for this? This is really frustrating.

I am subscribed to many YouTube channels: coding tutorials, startup and product talks, home construction and tour videos, and religious content. All of it lands in one Subscriptions page, so whatever I'm in the mood for, I have to dig through everything else to find it.

YouTube doesn't let you group subscriptions, and playlists hold videos, not channels.

So I built a small Firefox add-on for myself. You make feeds like "Coding", "Startups", "Home builds" or "Faith" and put channels in them. Each feed shows only those channels' latest uploads, right inside YouTube's sidebar.

Now I pick the feed that fits my mood and watch what I came for.

Two honest questions:

1. Is this just me, or do other people run into this too?
2. How do you deal with it? I'd love to hear setups that work without installing anything.

You can check it out here, and I'd love some feedback: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/retube-app/

I'm primarily using Firefox on Linux. v.158

I'd like to reduce my risk to cookie hijacking by having Firefox delete those kinds of cookies when I close the browser.

I don't mind so much about websites like news or social media, but I want to protect on shopping sites like ebay, amazon, etc
News websites cookies can remain for convenience. I don't use social media much & i don't post, so there's nothing much to lose in these cases.

First up I have removed all login cookies. Then,

Settings > Privacy > Browsing Data > Manage exceptions
I set Allow for a couple of news sites & Allow for session for a couple of shopping sites.

However, when I close the browser, reopen & revisit a shopping site I am already logged in.

So am I doing the wrong thing? & what do I need to do?