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After clicking on a prompt to refresh Firefox, I lost my add-ons and many websites give me "This Connection is Untrusted" and won't load correctly.

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  • Last reply by digbythrust

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I foolishly responded to a prompt on my screen suggesting there was a problem with Firefox. I clicked Refresh Firefox and seemed to be on a genuine page. After that I had lost my add-ons, like Ghostery. All attempts to access it failed as I either got an 'Untrusted Connection' message or simply a list of words from the website (in blue). Even the page for add-ons from the Firefox menu does not work. Then I discovered that other pages like Yahoo, gmail, and Wunderground gave the same problem. Firefox has become unusable. I uninstalled it and renewed it, to no avail.

I foolishly responded to a prompt on my screen suggesting there was a problem with Firefox. I clicked Refresh Firefox and seemed to be on a genuine page. After that I had lost my add-ons, like Ghostery. All attempts to access it failed as I either got an 'Untrusted Connection' message or simply a list of words from the website (in blue). Even the page for add-ons from the Firefox menu does not work. Then I discovered that other pages like Yahoo, gmail, and Wunderground gave the same problem. Firefox has become unusable. I uninstalled it and renewed it, to no avail.

Chosen solution

have you tried the solution from http://support.eset.com/kb3126/ - it's a just a matter of toggling back and forth a preference while firefox is closed and commonly helps eset users in the same situation as you...

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Refresh Firefox {web link} is a LAST RESORT ! !

Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings

If you're having problems with Firefox, refreshing it can help. The refresh feature fixes many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information like bookmarks, passwords, and open tabs.


There is security software like Avast, Kaspersky, BitDefender and ESET that intercept secure connections and send their own certificate.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/secure-connection-failed-error-message

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/connection-untrusted-error-message

This Connection is Untrusted is sometimes caused because the computer system clock is wrong. Check the time / date / time zone settings.

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Pretty much tried all of that, and it seemed to be refreshing that sent it from a minor irritation to a major disaster. ESET runs all the time and I have scanned for malware with several programmes. At least gmail seems to have returned so far, but not much else. I am thinking of following a Last Resort option from the site you mentioned above, which is deleting a cert8.db file.

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Go ahead. The file will be re-created.

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Well, that didn't solve anything. Having uninstalled and reinstalled, it looks like the problem must be in the information that is saved and used again in the new Firefox. Is it possible to get rid of everything and start Firefox completely from scratch?

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Yeah, no joy with that. IE is also showing a tendency to the same problem (saying there are security issues with various pages, but not as bad as Firefox, which sometimes tells me it or Mozilla are security risks). I'm thinking of ditching it entirely and going to Chrome. An ESET programme loaded Chromium for a short while and this appeared to work fine.

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hi, please try to disable and re-enable SSL/TLS protocol filtering or generally disable the interception of secure connections as described in ESET’s support article: http://support.eset.com/kb3126/

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I've given up, to be honest. I've spent 2 days trying everything I can think of and the suggestions made here, and I've decided I'll just go over to Google Chrome, which doesn't seem to be giving me any problems. Thanks for your help.

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Chosen Solution

have you tried the solution from http://support.eset.com/kb3126/ - it's a just a matter of toggling back and forth a preference while firefox is closed and commonly helps eset users in the same situation as you...

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Thanks for that! So simple. I had been pursuing solutions through Mozilla, and they may even have been pointing me in the right direction but were too complicated or technical-looking for me. This was simple, and clearly explained.

One question: Having done this and altered my settings, has my risk exposure changed?

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you have not altered your settings by this procedure - switching it off and back on again just caused eset to place its certificate used for intercepting secure connections back into the firefox trust store.

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Roger that, and thank you both for your help. I am back using it again and happy as a pig in muck.