Hmm, that's odd. Perhaps the text is determined in the browser based on your language instead of sent from the server??

If a site is generally known to work in Firefox, these are standard suggestions to try when it stops working normally:

Double-check content blockers: Firefox's Content Blocking feature and extensions that counter ads and tracking may break websites that embed third party content (meaning, from a secondary server).

(A) Do you see a shield icon toward the left end of the address bar, near the lock icon? More info on managing the Tracking Protection feature in this article: Content Blocking.

(B) Extensions such as Adblock Plus, Blur, Disconnect, Ghostery, NoScript, Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin or uMatrix should provide toolbar buttons to manage blocked content in a page. There may or may not be a number on the icon indicating the number of blocked items; you may need to click the button to see what's going on and test whether you need to make an exception for this site.

Cache and Cookies: When you have a problem with one particular site, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.

(1) Clear Firefox's Cache

See: How to clear the Firefox cache

If you have a large hard drive, this might take a few minutes.

(2) Remove the site's cookies (save any pending work first). While viewing a page on the site, try either:

• right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank area of the page and choose View Page Info > Security > "Clear Cookies and Site Data"
• (menu bar) Tools > Page Info > Security > "Clear Cookies and Site Data"
• click the padlock or "i" icon in the address bar, then the ">" button, then More Information, and finally the "Clear Cookies and Site Data" button

In the dialog that opens, you will see one or more matches to the current address so you can remove the site's cookies individually without affecting other sites.

Then try reloading the page. Does that help?

Testing in Firefox's Safe Mode: In its Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the option/alt key when starting Firefox. (On Windows, hold down the Shift key instead of the option/alt key.)

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• (menu bar) Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

I just saw similar reports for Santander (unsolved): https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1264370

If you haven't already, could you report this to the bank?

Thanks for your prompt and detailed suggestions. I just spoke with a local Santander representative who said they had received an internal communication about website problems. He said their techs are working on it, with a view to correcting the problem "within hours." The problem is worse now (on my Mac), yet, oddly, I can still log on with FF on my PC. The website is very slow, however.

Hi Mike, if the website is undergoing changes, it's probably not a good time to do any transactions. ;-)

Hello Jefferson, Thanks for the link to the problems others were having with FF and the Santander (U.K.) website. I'm on the U.S. website, but my problems are similar. So far as I can tell, the latest version of FF for Mac (68.0) appears to be the problem. Tried everything, and really spent much more time on this than I wanted to. So here we are, a day later, and FF still doesn't work on the Santander website. Using Chrome, however, or Safari is no problem. So I'm stumped. What would be the next step? I like and support Firefox, but absent any action from FF on this issue, it looks like I'll have to start using something else. That would be a real shame after so many years.

Hi Mike, this isn't an easy problem to investigate. The bank's corporate login page exhibits the same kind of problem; I found it reported over here: https://webcompat.com/issues/35386

As noted in my comment there, the site handles Firefox differently than other browsers; if I set Firefox to impersonate Chrome or make another small change to its identification, the missing labels fill in. Please do NOT do that on your Firefox, or only use it for testing, because it could cause functional issues inside the site and we're talking about your money here.

My guess is that the site depends on an old Firefox behavior that is no longer available in Firefox 68, and they will need to update their very complex scripts. It probably won't happen right away. Until then, you can do your banking in a different browser.

Hi Jefferson,

Thanks again for your responses. I appreciate your expertise.

Interesting how you were able to "fix" the issue by changing the FF identification. That sort of adjustment is a bit beyond my skill set. :-)

You'd think Santander would be on top of this sort of thing. I can't be the only person using FF on a Mac to bank online with them.

Anyway, it will be a bit of a bother to use another browser just for banking, but until Santander updates their scripts, I suppose that's what I'll have to do.

I am having a problem with Santander Bank. When I go to my accounts I see Undefind in the checking and savings account. There tech people told me it was a problem with FF and might want to use GC. I clean the cookies and cache and refreshed FF; no luck. What to do???

Hi josephpicchione, there is going to be a patch for one or more Santander Bank sites that will change how Firefox identifies itself to the site. That will trigger some of their newer script code that works better in modern browsers.

At the time the problem occurs, what is the host name of the site you're on? If it is rolb.santanderbank.com then it is already on the list to get the override patch, probably within the next 2 weeks (I don't know the exact timing).

If it's some other host, could you let me know?

For the time being:

It's a bit involved to set up your own override, so you might use a different browser for now. If you did want to try it:

(1) Select and copy the following text

general.useragent.override.rolb.santanderbank.com---Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) like Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0

(2) In a new tab, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(3) In the search box above the list, type or paste usera and pause while the list is filtered

(4) Right-click a blank area of the page, click New, then click String. This should open a small dialog where you can paste the above string. Then remove everything after the --- and the --- itself so it says

general.useragent.override.rolb.santanderbank.com

and click OK

(5) Paste the above string and remove everything before the --- and then the --- itself so it says

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) like Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0

and click OK

Then try the site again.

Hi Mike, thank you for the quick response. After I log in to the Santander Site here is what it shows.https://rolb.santanderbank.com/IRSVPTN_ENS/BtoChannelDriver.ssobto?dse_operationName=OP_IRSV_Overview. Hope this is what you are referring to; the robl.santanderbank.com. If so then I will wait. Again thank you Mike.

Hello Joseph, In fact, the detailed response to your question was provided not by me, but by a FF expert (jscher2000). I had the same problem as you did with Santander and FF. Until things get sorted out, I'm using a different browser for online banking.

Thank you for letting me know. A Big Thank you to jscher2000 for your expertise.

Hi josephpicchione, version 68.0.1 is available now with a fix for "rolb.santanderbank.com". Unfortunately, the fix for the U.K. site didn't make it into this update, so for that one, a similar "override" would be needed for a while.

You can use a override to modify the user agent for a specific domain with a regexp replace like shown in the bug. You can create a new String pref on the about:config page.

• general.useragent.override.santander.co.uk = Gecko#like Gecko

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox