411945 - KB article: Finding what extension is responsible for a problem (binary search)

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 404887

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

Description

[Steve England [:stevee]]

If a user is having a problem, and safemode/new-profile works, then then problem may be due to an extension. Disabling extensions one-by-one is a time-consuming process; a binary-search type approach is much faster.

I want to write an article on how to best do this. It's not going to be a high-traffic article, but it will be useful (many times on IRC I find myself wishing such an article existed)

Comment 1

[David Tenser [:djst]]

I'm not sure if I understand the binary-search approach, but if it's a faster way of finding a faulty extension, why not simply update http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Troubleshooting+add-ons ?

Comment 2

[Steve England [:stevee]]

That could work... it's mainly for users who have a lot of extensions.

Say someone has 12 extensions... Disabling them one-by-one could take up to 11 restarts to find the one causing the problem.

Binary search... You disable the top 6, restart firefox.
If the problem still exists, you disable 3 of the remaining 6 extensions.
If the problem still exists, you disable 1 of the remaining 3 extensions.
If the problem still exists, you disable 1 of the remaining 2 extensions.
If the problem still exists, then the sole extension that is still present is responsible.

From a max of 12 restarts, this reduces the process to a maximum of 5 restarts.

The more extensions a user has, the more efficient a binary-search type approach is.

If it's OK to edit the existing article, then that is what I shall do.

Comment 3

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Yes, edit the existing article.