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Firefox will not pull up add-ons page and can never finish checking for updates.

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  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by donwrk

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Like others have had, I have had the same problem with checking compatibility of add-ons after the firefox update. It never progressed so I ended up following the steps others have answered in other questions by removing the compatibility files under the profile folder and other various files. None which have seemed to work. I ended up entirely removing firefox and reinstalling but that didn't help. I really need to install firebug but when I try to download it just hangs up and the download never even starts. Hope this is enough details. Thanks.

Like others have had, I have had the same problem with checking compatibility of add-ons after the firefox update. It never progressed so I ended up following the steps others have answered in other questions by removing the compatibility files under the profile folder and other various files. None which have seemed to work. I ended up entirely removing firefox and reinstalling but that didn't help. I really need to install firebug but when I try to download it just hangs up and the download never even starts. Hope this is enough details. Thanks.

Chosen solution

I believe this was more of a problem with Mavericks. I was waiting for the update to come and it finally did after I asked this question. Everything seems to be back to normal now.

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If there are problems with updating or with the permissions then best is to download the full version and trash the currently installed version to do a clean install of the new version.

Download a new copy of the Firefox application and save the disk image file to the desktop

Your personal data is stored elsewhere in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data when you uninstall and (re)install Firefox.


It is possible that there is a problem with the file(s) that store the extensions registry.

Delete the extensions.* files (e.g. extensions.json, extensions.sqlite, extensions.ini) and compatibility.ini in the Firefox profile folder to reset the extensions registry.

New files will be created when required.

See "Corrupt extension files":

If you see disabled or not compatible extensions in "Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" then click the Tools button at the left end of the Search Bar to check if there is a compatibility update available.

If this hasn't helped then also delete the addons.json and addons.sqlite files.

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Yes cor-el. I have read your answer on many other of questions and tried but to no avail. I have done these steps over and over. One thing I noticed is when I'm on the config page and search for the xpinstall.enabled nothing pulls ups for me to set to true or false.

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xpinstall.enabled is no longer found on the about:config page and defaults to true in that case.

You can try to delete a possible user.js file and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename (or delete) the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in the current Firefox release.

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Still not working. There is no user.js file and I have deleted the pref.js file and nothing seems to change.

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Any other possible fixes for this?

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Chosen Solution

I believe this was more of a problem with Mavericks. I was waiting for the update to come and it finally did after I asked this question. Everything seems to be back to normal now.