1549266 - FF 66.0.3 (64-bit) Extensions still disabled Workaround and Cause Read before you change status!!!

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Invalid Bugs :: General, defect)

Description

[MeToo]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:66.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/66.0

Steps to reproduce:

ALL studies applied to 66.0.3 (64-bit) Windows 10 Pro

Actual results:

Nothing changed. All add-ons still set as Legacy Extensions.

Expected results:

Add-ons should work again.

Comment 1

[MeToo]

66.0.3 (64-bit) Quantum on Windows 10 Pro desktop. My Broken FF has run all the Studies.
I have run several tests to try to figure out why some users with this version and add-ons are OK and others are not.

I will not bore you will all the different tests I have run. But will tell you what I found and how to get there.

Disabled my internet connection because I did not want FF to run updates or Studies. Created a new folder in C:\Users~Username~\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox called Test#X.
Opened FF with my original broken profile.

Internet connection still disabled!
Went to about:profiles Created a new profile named Test#XX (Kept the original one as default, did NOT delete the old files) in the folder created above Test#X.
Opened the new profile in a separate widow. Turned off updates and Studies. Closed all open FF.

Turned on my internet.
Opened the default FF (Broken one) Went to about:profiles launched profile Test#XX in a new window.
As expected I could not add any add-ons. In the Test#XX profile I went to about:config and manually set dom.push.alwaysConnect to true. Also manually set app.update.lastUpdateTime.xpi-signature-verification to 1556945257.
Closed all open FF windows.

Browsed to my original default profile extensions folder C:\Users~Username~\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\random#.default\extensions
Copied the [e-mail] file.
Browsed to my new profile folder extensions folder Test#X C:\Users~Username~\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Test#X\extensions
Pasted the [e-mail] file into it.

Opened the default FF (Broken one) Went to about:profiles launched profile Test#XX in a new window.
Now, FF does not know the hotfix-update-xpi is there yet. So I could not add any add-ons yet. Then I went to about:debugging (did not check the box next to Enable add-on debugging) clicked the Load Temporary Add-on… Button. Browsed to my new profile folder extensions folder Test#X C:\Users~Username~\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Test#X\extensions and clicked on [e-mail].
Now the new profile knows it is there.
Add-ons down load and work fine.

Now for the crash.
I have found with the above all is OK. You can close and reopen the new profile without the need to manually add the hotfix-update-xpi-intermediate~ (as above) again. You can then export your Bookmarks and such from your old profile and import them to the new one with no issues.

However if you try to manually copy your saved logons and passwords by copying the key4.db and logins.json from any previous profile BOOM! The new profile is now broken, Add-ons no longer work and your logons and passwords are not there. This is repeatable in all tests I have run.

When I copied the logins.json file it did nothing to the new profile but the key4.db Kills it.

I could not repair the profile by pasting back in the original key4.db and logins.json from the newly created profile (which I saved in a separate folder). I have found no way to recover the profile once it is broken.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So there you have it. The key4.db import into a brand new profile, or using a previous profile with an imported key4.db into 66.0.3 (64-bit) Quantum will kill it. Not sure how this is linked to the Certificate expiration but now FF will have a starting point to look at.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What led me down this road was I just happened to get a new PC a few days before the “Crash”. So my FF install was still almost brand new.

Summery:
The key4.db import into a brand new profile, or using a previous profile with an imported key4.db into 66.0.3 (64-bit) Quantum will kill Add-ons.
Fix:
Create new profile (see above).
Once you have created your new profile, open your broken profile and manually copy each URL, Username, and Passwords from that profile (Yes they are still there). Save each entry into a file you can use to copy paste into the logs ons when you visit each page from the new profile. At that point, when prompted, you can save the passwords to the new profile and they stay there.

Comment 3

[MeToo]

No master password being used.