hi, downgrading an existing profile (with your settings and customizations) isn't a supported path and may break stuff. what do you dislike in the new version - maybe we can help you work around that, get accustomed or tweak it to your liking...?

Firefox comes in two or more folders on all computers. They are;

Maintenance: (Programs Folder) <Windows Only> Firefox itself: (Programs Folder) And at least one folder in the profile of each user on the computer.

If you remove the Firefox folder, the user folders would not be affected.

Are you using Beta or the Developer Edition?

• Help -> About Firefox

Firefox 57 comes with a three dot (...) "Page actions" button on the location bar that opens a special menu. This "Page actions" menu also allows to add/remove some icons to/from the left end of the location bar via the right-click context menu like the bookmarks star. The three bar menu has changed to the previously used format and now has text labels and can't be customized (it is grayed in customize mode). There is an overflow area on the Navigation Toolbar where you can place icons that you do not want on the Navigation Toolbar. You can place icons on the Navigation Toolbar and in the overflow area and move them via the right-click context menu or use customization mode. The location bar is surrounded by flexible spaces that you can remove via customize.

These are changes that come with the new Photon design.

• https://www.ghacks.net/?s=photon

If you decide to downgrade anyway, please make a backup:

• Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles
• Install an older version of Firefox

philipp said

hi, downgrading an existing profile (with your settings and customizations) isn't a supported path and break stuff. what do you dislike in the new version - maybe we can help you work around that, get accustomed or tweak it to your liking...?

Hi Philipp Thanks for getting back to me. Because of the upgrade all of my addons arn't compatible anymore, and one of my reasons for switching to firefox was for the addons. I've tried to find replacement addon's but am not finding all of them and if I do, they are not as good as the original one I used. Thanks for your help though

cor-el said

Are you using Beta or the Developer Edition?

• Help -> About Firefox

---

Firefox 57 comes with a three dot (...) "Page actions" button on the location bar that opens a special menu. This "Page actions" menu also allows to add/remove some icons to/from the left end of the location bar via the right-click context menu like the bookmarks star. The three bar menu has changed to the previously used format and now has text labels and can't be customized (it is grayed in customize mode). There is an overflow area on the Navigation Toolbar where you can place icons that you do not want on the Navigation Toolbar. You can place icons on the Navigation Toolbar and in the overflow area and move them via the right-click context menu or use customization mode. The location bar is surrounded by flexible spaces that you can remove via customize.

These are changes that come with the new Photon design.

• https://www.ghacks.net/?s=photon

Hi Thanks for commenting It's not the appearance that's an issue, I'm all for doing revamps and trying new things, it's that I loose all the classic add on's. And one of my main reasons for switching to firefox back in the day was for the addon's. and now that they are not working and I can't find the same replacements, hence the downgrade Thanks so much for taking the time to respond

cor-el said

Are you using Beta or the Developer Edition?

• Help -> About Firefox

---

I'm using Beta

I have lost QuoteURLtext, DownloadStatusbar, FloatNotes, the old Google Shortcuts, Mozilla Archive Format, OneTab and SimpleMail.

These were all very useful to me. I would rather have Firefox 56 and use those add-ons than have Firefox 57 with none of them.

Hi RJGnyc, I don't know if there are good replacements for those add-ons. I'm pretty sure there is not one like DownloadStatusBar because as far as I know, in Firefox 57+ extensions cannot create their own toolbars or special controls on Firefox toolbar, just a button.

If those extensions are critical to your use of Firefox, you could consider switching to the Extended Support Release of Firefox 52. Often called ESR, this release will get security updates through next Spring, providing more time to research alternatives.

• ESR FAQ: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/faq/
• Please make a backup first, just in case: Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles

The addons I was using in v56 are what make Firefox so useful to me.

The main problem I'm having with Version 57.0 (Quantum) is the loss of my tab management add-on "Tab Mix Plus." I haven't been able to find a compatible alternative. Without this add-on, I haven't figured out how to create a separate window for each of my 8 or 9 tab categories and then have a way to select the desired category.

Maybe the solution is in the bookmark tagging routine - maybe not. I'm thinking about uninstalling V57 and downgrading to V56 ("If it wasn't broken, why fix it."). On the other hand, I've used Firefox for several years and would like to keep up with the latest version.

Anybody have any solutions or suggestions for this tab management issue?

Seesthewind dijo

The main problem I'm having with Version 57.0 (Quantum) is the loss of my tab management add-on "Tab Mix Plus." I haven't been able to find a compatible alternative. Without this add-on, I haven't figured out how to create a separate window for each of my 8 or 9 tab categories and then have a way to select the desired category. Maybe the solution is in the bookmark tagging routine - maybe not. I'm thinking about uninstalling V57 and downgrading to V56 ("If it wasn't broken, why fix it."). On the other hand, I've used Firefox for several years and would like to keep up with the latest version. Anybody have any solutions or suggestions for this tab management issue?

This Topic is already being defined (and hopelly resolved soon) in this bug

Bugzilla Bug 1384515

edited out direct Bugzilla link due to Bug spam. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

Many thanks for all responses.

On a positive note, I successfully downgraded easily: I simply made a backup copy of the profile, then installed Firefox 56.0.2 -- and discovered that everything survived the downgrade, completely intact. (Although I have a 64-bit PC running Win10 Pro, I installed the 32-bit version as there are fewer potential issues to run into with stuff like Java -- and with Firefox there was little benefit to 64- vs 32-bit.)

Going forward: It would be extremely useful if Firefox 57+ permitted a workaround enabling the use of older extensions, as many very useful older extensions are no longer maintained. In addition, the status bar was a great place to keep useful items like weather, etc.

The Google Shortcuts extension that is now available for v57 doesn't permit tailoring any additional shortcuts -- a shame, since earlier versions did (and it made the add-on especially useful).

Sadly, v52 (extended support release) won't work with the most recent versions of some of the extensions I was using in v56.

Last: I will never, NEVER use OneTab again! Every new release of Firefox has deleted/destroyed the long group of saved tabs. All beware the empty promises of OneTab!

Firefox should NEVER auto-upgrade to a version that disables add-ons that the user has installed. It is COMMON SENSE, people... I just got F*CKED by this, I restarted it and now with the new super-duper-wow version 57 I'm missing a CRITICAL add-on...

Firefox users deserve MUCH better, sorry to say....

I've been a Firefox user since... (I can't remember correctly), but around version 2 or 3... and a happy one, but since at least this year, I'm getting problems with some settings in Firefox, more and more sites not working at all, others are very, very slow, (yes, I tried these sites with a clean version of Firefox, so don't blame it on the addons like you always do) and for these sites, I just used any other browser, and after that... back to Firefox.

So, why did I always returned to Firefox if I had so much problems? ADDONS!!! For the very most part, my Firefox 56 does what I want it to do, when I want it to do it and looks how I want it to look, and thats' all because of the addons I use.

If I wanted a "vanilla" experience like Chrome or Edge and their philosophy "One size fits all", I would've quit Firefox a long time ago and I fear that's the road that Mozilla is taking now, forgetting it's roots and what made it great, different from all the others browser back then and what got them users in the first place. If this is the case... Mozilla... you walk alone!

For now, I'm staying with Firefox 56 with the hope that developers start porting their addons (if possible or feasible) or a change of heart by Mozilla (not going to happen) and at the same time, I'll start to try to customize to my liking, one of the competition browsers.

Sorry for the long post from a user who had a very frustrating user experience with Firefox 57 and sees himself forced in the near future, to leave a browser he liked so much. It's sad...

With v57 Firefox has made Chrome and Edge once again look like equivalent alternatives. I hate having the browser close when I close the last tab (Chrome has an extension to work around that) but there is no longer any support for the older Last Tab Close Button. Although NoScript will be updated, I'm sure, I use QuoteURLText all the time when researching. The older Google Shortcuts was superior to its own replacement. I suppose I can live without Simple Mail, but I have saved countless files to MHT. I used New Add-On Bar to hold my weather reports and my Download Statusbar. The new Firefox does away with all of these useful tools and there are no replacements for them. Still, Mozilla reminds us, this is better. We are stupid for clinging to our extensions. I feel like Microsoft Word just eliminated vowels and is trying to sell us on "the newer, faster, more efficient way of spelling!"

RJGnyc said

I hate having the browser close when I close the last tab (Chrome has an extension to work around that) but there is no longer any support for the older Last Tab Close Button.

You do not need an extension for that:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste tabs.c and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab preference to switch the value from true to false

Then when you close the last tab in a window, the new tab page will appear.

philipp said

hi, downgrading an existing profile (with your settings and customizations) isn't a supported path and may break stuff. what do you dislike in the new version - maybe we can help you work around that, get accustomed or tweak it to your liking...?

Hi, I'm also going to immediately downgrade. Not only are various addons broken, but the new Firefox also looks ugly as shit.

(...)"downgrading an existing profile (with your settings and customizations) isn't a supported path and may break stuff."(...) I thing this sentence can be read as: "Please don't downgrade. We want to force you to use our newest version and make you do things the way we want you to do."

I downgraded without any kind of problem with all of my old settings and addons back.

1-Make a backup of your profile, just to be safe. (In W10 you can find it here: %AppData%\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles and make a copy of the folder or folders in there) 2-Unistall Firefox 57 using its uninstaller 3-Download and install Firefox 56 4-Open Firefox, go to Tools->Options and in "General", DISABLE "automatically install updates" by choosing any thing else. 5-Close "Options" and restart Firefox. (It takes more time to write this stuff then doing it.)

I had to repeat steps 2 to 5 because Firefox ignored the "no auto update" the first time and installed Firefox 57 once again, but everything was ok in the second time!

I'm, for now, a happy Firefox 56 user!

jscher2000 said

RJGnyc said

I hate having the browser close when I close the last tab (Chrome has an extension to work around that) but there is no longer any support for the older Last Tab Close Button.

You do not need an extension for that:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste tabs.c and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab preference to switch the value from true to false

Then when you close the last tab in a window, the new tab page will appear.

Sorry but... WHY, WHY are these type of options (UI related) buried inside of "About:Config"?! WHY?! They should be inside "Options".