404887 - KB article: Troubleshooting extensions

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Articles, task)

Description

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

In the many cases where a user's problem is the result of an extension, we need to explain how to find out which extension it is. This article should describe how to do that.

Comment 1

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

Like the stuff at http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Gray+bar+below+the+status+bar ?

Comment 2

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Yup

Comment 3

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Pretty much, yes, minus the talk about a gray bar. 

The tricky part is making sure people end up on this page. For example, someone using NoScript, trying to access gmail.com and finding out it doesn't work because the compose mail text area is not visible. How do we get people with problems like that end up on this page? And to make it even worse, how do we make sure they _know_ they're on the right page, so they actually follow the instructions?

The solution, I think, is finding out the most common extension problems and create separate "diagnose" articles for them, and then link to this general "how to disable and/or uninstall a faulty extension" article.

For the gray bar case, we would simply take out the last part of the article and link to this new article. Thoughts?

Comment 4

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

Yes, I think that's the case we'll use this in most often, otherwise it's pretty much the "safe mode" section of the standard diagnostic.  Although I think it's better to have this article as a standalone, I think people will have more faith that it'll help them with a definitive title like this, rather than as part of a list of things that may or may not help.

Comment 5

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

Ready for review.

Comment 6

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Looks good! I made some slight changes in wordings and made it public. 

One thing that seems to be missing is what the user should do if starting Firefox in safe mode did NOT solve the problem. 

"If the problem persists in Safe Mode, your problem isn't being caused by an extension. "

What should the next step be then, reinstalling Firefox or creating a new profile?

Comment 7

[David Tenser [:djst]]

One more thing: I think this article should be renamed to "Troubleshooting Add-ons" because it applies to both extensions and themes. There is good content in the http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting article that should be incorporated into this article.

The article is public, but this should be fixed anyway so I'm reopening the bug to reflect that.

Comment 8

[David Tenser [:djst]]

As for the next step if starting Firefox in safe mode did NOT solve the problem, linking to the Basic+Troubleshooting article seems appropriate.

Comment 9

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

(In reply to comment #6)
 
> 
> "If the problem persists in Safe Mode, your problem isn't being caused by an
> extension. "

This isn't true actually.  Many extensions flip existing prefs, or for some other reason don't disable properly in safe mode, all related to the prefs.js

> 
> What should the next step be then, reinstalling Firefox or creating a new
> profile?
> 

New profile or resetting the prefs via the safe mode dialog (by hand is neater and saves the prefs that weren't the problem, easy enough to talk someone through fixing the specific prefs by hand, but not so easy to do this via a set article)

Comment 10

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> One more thing: I think this article should be renamed to "Troubleshooting
> Add-ons" because it applies to both extensions and themes.

From what I can tell, it only applies to extensions.

Comment 11

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

P.S. Holding off reviewing this, until the name is definite.

Comment 12

[David Tenser [:djst]]

(In reply to comment #10)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > One more thing: I think this article should be renamed to "Troubleshooting
> > Add-ons" because it applies to both extensions and themes.
> 
> From what I can tell, it only applies to extensions.
> 

Then what is the themes troubleshooting information doing in http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting ?

Comment 13

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

That info isn't in the troubleshooting add-ons/extensions page. Do want it added?

Comment 14

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Under Extension issues, you have a sub-heading "Testing themes". That's why I'm thinking theme and extension issues are really the same. I've seen some themes that not only changes the appearance, but also adds (or at least moves) toolbar buttons. For example, there's an IE7 theme that places a New Tab button in the tab bar. I'm sure a theme like that could break Firefox just as easily as a regular extension.

This is why I would propose that we incorporate the themes troubleshooting into this document and rename it per comment 7. Thoughts?

Comment 15

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Okay, I thought you just wanted it renamed.

Was this moved to the KB category by accident?

Comment 16

[David Tenser [:djst]]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Okay, I thought you just wanted it renamed.
> 
> Was this moved to the KB category by accident?
> 

See comment 6. Not an accident. But to reiterate, we need to incorporate the info about themes that is already available in the other article, and then we need to rename it (but you just did that, right?)

Comment 17

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

The rename is done.

Comment 18

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

All the info applies to themes as well, it's just written to say "Extensions" where it should say "add-ons"

Comment 19

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

Well, this is public, so I'm going to mark this as fixed. Any further changes can go through the normal process.