Closed Bug 1743954 Opened 2 years ago Closed 2 years ago

Firefox No Longer Plays Netflix Videos On PC - Netflix Error F7121-3078 - Nothing Helps

Categories

(Core :: Audio/Video: Playback, defect, P1)

Product:
Core
Component:
Audio/Video: Playback
Version:
Firefox 94
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Project Flags:
Webcompat Priority P1
Tracking Flags:
Tracking Status
firefox-esr91 --- fixed
firefox95 + wontfix
firefox96 --- fixed
firefox97 --- fixed

People

(Reporter: cigarotaku, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Keywords: regression)

Attachments

(2 files)

Firefox Error Message.png
2.35 MB, image/png
Details
CheckForUpdates.png
75.98 KB, image/png
Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:90.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/90.0

Steps to reproduce:

Tried to play Netflix videos on my Windows 10 PC with Firefox version 90.0.2 and 95.0b12

Here are their user agent strings.

90.0.2 = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:90.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/90.0

95.0b12 = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:95.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/95.0

Actual results:

When I try to play Netflix videos with Firefox version 94.0.2 I am getting the error message “Netflix Error F7121-3078” it says that my browser is no longer supported and to upgrade to the latest version. I’ve already done that but the error messages continue. This all started on December 1st. I have tried the solutions related to Error F7121-3078, but they have not resolved the issue. I even downloaded Firefox version 95.0b12, but I still get the same browser not supported - please upgrade message. I also tried troubleshooting mode, but the error continued to pop up. I have tried two different versions of Firefox.

Expected results:

Videos should have played normally just as they did before December 1st. Netflix obviously changed something in their system. I hope that someone out there is actually aware of this problem and can help me fix this.

Thank You
Michael

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::Audio/Video: Playback' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please revert this change in case you think the bot is wrong.

Component: Untriaged → Audio/Video: Playback
Product: Firefox → Core

Another user on Windows 10 with Firefox 94.0.2 experience this issue since nov 30th. Here's what they mentioned on Mozilla Matrix:

"wolf
Hey, netflix suddenly stopped working yesterday on firefox specifically (getting a F7121-3078), went through all forum posts to no success, just did a fresh reinstall of the browser and still nothing, any suggestions as to what could fix it?"

"wolf
netflix was working until the night of the 30th then yesterday morning it just stopped"

:bryce do you think this could be related to bug 1732955?

Version: Firefox 90 → Firefox 94
Flags: needinfo?(bvandyk)

Reporter, could you navigate to about:support on the affected brower and use one of the buttons provided to copy the information and paste it onto this bug?

:bryce do you think this could be related to bug 1732955?

Could indeed be. The update should be rolling out to all clients, but if for whatever reason it's not getting through that could cause issues.

Flags: needinfo?(bvandyk) → needinfo?(cigarotaku)
Severity: -- → S3
Priority: -- → P1
See Also: → 1732955

Good News

Firefox version 95.0b12 is now able to play Netflix videos. However, version 90.0.2 is still being blocked though. I have one last request of the good people at Mozilla.

Please give us a viable way to make the ridiculously large space between the drop down menus and bookmarks look the way it did in version 90.0.2

There are literally thousands of people who have been complaining about this issue since Proton was first released. Most of them never make it to the Bugzilla forum to voice their opinions. How hard can it be to change the coding or whatever is required to give all of us what we have been pleading for ?

If someone out there has a solution that does not require a PHD in browser development, we would all love to hear it. I have tried half a dozen suggestions. So far, none have worked.

We want to continue to support the best browser in the world. Firefox !!!

Thank You So Much

Bugzilla isn't the place to give feedback. There's https://ideas.mozilla.org for that and there's already a thread for readding a compact mode. See https://mozilla.crowdicity.com/post/719764. It's even so popular that it's now under review by the product team (doesn't mean it'll be implemented but there's hope). If you don't mind using an unsupported feature like userChrome.css, you can also ask for help on our Mozilla Matrix at https://chat.mozilla.org and join #firefoxcss:mozilla.org room. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix if you need help to connect to the server.

While this wasn't working, has either of the instances of Firefox been long running (i.e. Firefox hasn't been restarted in awhile)?

I notice is looks like Widevine hasn't been updated based on the information you provided. This is the component we use to play DRM video. We're investigating issues with it not updating as quickly as we'd expect, and think one of the cases it could occur in is if Firefox hasn't been restarted in awhile. However, if you've restarted Firefox at least one in the last week, prior to this issue happening, that would be useful to know.

Another thing that can interfere with these updates is firewalling access to Mozilla's update servers, do you know if you have any firewall rules in place that may prevent such network requests?

Flags: needinfo?(cigarotaku)

(In reply to Bryce Seager van Dyk (:bryce) - away until 2021.12.08 from comment #8)

While this wasn't working, has either of the instances of Firefox been long running (i.e. Firefox hasn't been restarted in awhile)?

I notice is looks like Widevine hasn't been updated based on the information you provided. This is the component we use to play DRM video. We're investigating issues with it not updating as quickly as we'd expect, and think one of the cases it could occur in is if Firefox hasn't been restarted in awhile. However, if you've restarted Firefox at least one in the last week, prior to this issue happening, that would be useful to know.

Another thing that can interfere with these updates is firewalling access to Mozilla's update servers, do you know if you have any firewall rules in place that may prevent such network requests?

Hi Bryce

Firefox version 95.0b12 is now playing play Netflix videos without any trouble. However, version 90.0.2 is still unable to play them.

Both versions have been restarted on a daily basis. These problems all started on December 1st, so this was not a long-term issue.

I currently have version 90.0.2 updates blocked because if it does update, it will be to a version that has the bookmarks and dropdown menus spaced too far apart for my needs. I will try some of the suggestions that I have read here to try and fix that issue.

Is there any way to manually update Widevine in version 90.0.2 to fix the DRM issue without a full version update ? Probably not, but I just thought that I would ask.

Thank you so much for your help.

Flags: needinfo?(cigarotaku)

(In reply to Danny Colin [:sdk] from comment #7)

Bugzilla isn't the place to give feedback. There's https://ideas.mozilla.org for that and there's already a thread for readding a compact mode. See https://mozilla.crowdicity.com/post/719764. It's even so popular that it's now under review by the product team (doesn't mean it'll be implemented but there's hope). If you don't mind using an unsupported feature like userChrome.css, you can also ask for help on our Mozilla Matrix at https://chat.mozilla.org and join #firefoxcss:mozilla.org room. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix if you need help to connect to the server.

Hi Danny

Thank you for the information. I will try the userChrome.css suggestion and see if I can get it to work.

Best Regards
Michael

And maybe something related with Bug 1512522

See Also: → 1512522
See Also: → 1714723

(In reply to voice1955@gmail.com from comment #9)

<snip>

Thanks for your reply, that information is useful and it sounds like there's some follow up to be done on our end to investigate further.

Is there any way to manually update Widevine in version 90.0.2 to fix the DRM issue without a full version update ? Probably not, but I just thought that I would ask.

That's tricky. In the immediate term it may be possible, be long term maybe not (compatibility issues between old versions and new updates). If you wish to try work around this in the immediate term, you could try navigating to about:config and toggling the media.eme.enabled pref to false then back to true. The first toggle will uninstall the existing DRM files, and setting it back to true will re-enable it and may trigger a new download. However, depending on the mechanism you've used to disable updates, it may also interfere with re-downloading the DRM files.

I have been having the same issue for the last couple of days. Updated Widevine to version 4.10.2209.1. Didn't resolve it.

Now the same issue appeared today with Primevideo.

Error Message:
"Mozilla Firefox update required - A later version of Mozilla Firefox is required for Prime Video. To update, click the menu button (three horizontal stripes) on the web browser toolbar, click Help, About Firefox, and then click Restart to update Firefox."

Only, there is no later version as I have version 94.0.2 (64-bit) running.

The same issue has also been showing up on my Android with version 90.1.2.

If it now works in 95.0b12, when is this bugfix expected to be rolled out?

Setting this to Webcompat P1 given the websites it is affecting.

Webcompat Priority: --- → P1

I am on a mac and this issue started today for me. I can't play Netflix and Hulu.
I have version 94.0.2 (64-bit)

Error message for Netflix " Looks like your browser is no longer supported. Please install the latest version or try another browser. Error code F7121-3078"

My Hulu isnt even loading.

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]:
netflix is important

status-firefox95: --- → affected
status-firefox96: --- → unaffected
status-firefox97: --- → unaffected
tracking-firefox95: --- → ?

Tracking for 95 and raising the severity. I am marking all releases in flight as affected until we know more, but it seems that so far the people affected are on the 94 branch.

Severity: S3 → S2
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
status-firefox96: unaffected → affected
status-firefox97: unaffected → affected
tracking-firefox95: ? → +
Ever confirmed: true

We weren't able to reproduce the issue on the following systems (clean exe installs, zip, updates from older builds):

  1. Laptop with Windows 7 and Windows 10 - Firefox 90.0.2, 94.0.2 and 95.0b12
  2. Laptop with Windows 11 - Firefox 90.0.2, 94.0.2 and 95.0b12
  3. 2x different laptops with Windows 10 - 95.0b12 and 97.0a1
  4. 2x different macs (macOS 11.6.1) - 96.0b2 and 97.0a1
  5. Mac arm (macOS 11.6.1) - 94.0.2, 95.0 and 96.0b2
  6. PC with Windows 10 - 94.0.2, 95.0 and 97.0a1
  7. Arm laptop with Windows 10 - 95.0b12, 96.0b2 and 97.0a1

(In reply to voice1955@gmail.com from comment #6)

Firefox version 95.0b12 is now able to play Netflix videos. However, version 90.0.2 is still being blocked though.

Setting firefox-esr91=affected. If Firefox 90.0.2 is affected, then ESR 91 is presumably also affected.

status-firefox-esr91: --- → ?
Keywords: regression

Other steaming services are also impacted: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1359751

We're currently tracking this issue on the Support Forum: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/firefox?tagged=bug-1743954&show=all

Attached image CheckForUpdates.png —

A manual mitigation that can be used to ensure the component is updated is

  • Navigate to about:addons
  • Click the cog icon to the upper right -> click 'Check for Updates'

This should prompt Firefox to check for updates and update the component. I've attached a screenshot showing the above. The screenshot shows me in the 'Plugins' tab, but the cog and update option should show and work regardless of the tab you have selected in about:addons.

If you're having this issue and the above does not fix your problem, please needinfo me. I suspect the issue folks are seeing is due to updates failing, so if we can get a reliable reproduction of updates failing, it would help a lot to debug that.

Thanks for clarifying the suggested workaround, Bryce. We've been pointing users to https://mzl.la/3IAHsAY that contain similar steps too.

I just received the Firefox 95.0 update. Installation went through smoothly. Netflix and Primevideo both work again for me.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 2 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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