Last update made Firefox worse

[Honorsoft]

I'm disappointed that this is where I ended up after clicking on numerous links on the Firefox site promising "Bug Reporting", trying to send me to places instead like "Learn about the Firefox Community".

Anyways, I won't bother with any other important bugs because of Mozilla's shoddy customer support, but I will mention that ever since the most recent update, now when ever anything is downloaded it pops up the downloads tab and covers the screen (the more download history, the bigger it gets). It's annoying and time consuming to keep having to constantly close it.

-Why is it that updates usually make things worse, not better? Why waste everyone's time, and yours for coming up the update.

[pzelchenko]

All right, @jscher2000 -- is this what you called a more active place? This loyal user writes something and five days later there's crickets? Is it a popularity contest, with how sweetly you ask for the next great feature giving the upvote, and how concerned you are that your work environment is being detrimentally transformed getting totally ignored?

Are we 120 million users in the Twilight Zone or something? I see a monster out the window and I think it's Selena Deckelmann -- but whenever I show the flight attendant, the monster disappears.

[jscher2000]

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@pzelchenko wrote:

All right, @jscher2000 -- is this what you called a more active place?

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It seems very active to me. There are numerous threads under both Discussions and Ideas on whether Mozilla should revert the changes to the Download workflow, or at least some aspects of it (temp folder vs. downloads, auto-save vs. always ask). Moderators here can combine threads and there are some huge ones on the topic.

As for why this thread didn't get a reply, I have no idea. I think if you want a response, it helps to use a subject line specific to the problem area. I might not have clicked this one if you hadn't summoned me here.

Go ahead and post a new Idea and see how it goes. The last input site (Crowdicity) didn't seem to lead to a lot of changes, but the process is not very transparent, so who really knows.

[jscher2000]

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@Honorsoft wrote:

Anyways, I won't bother with any other important bugs because of Mozilla's shoddy customer support, but I will mention that ever since the most recent update, now when ever anything is downloaded it pops up the downloads tab and covers the screen (the more download history, the bigger it gets). It's annoying and time consuming to keep having to constantly close it.

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This is Firefox's new equivalent to Chromium-based browsing showing little boxes along the bottom of the page. Obviously not to everyone's taste, and I have to dismiss it (I use the Esc key) about 80% of the time.

Hopefully a checkbox will be added for this in the future, but for now, you need to use a hidden setting to turn it off:

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

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to switch the value from true to false

[pzelchenko]

Right, here's exactly what I'm talking about:

Going into about:config is not -- I repeat, NOT EVER -- a proper solution to a regular user's concerns, and it should never, ever be considered one. It is a band-aid. It is a shoddy, cheap, hacky, Bill Gatesy, config.sys kind of workaround to what is clearly a usability issue that I am sure a large number of people would consider important to them if they knew where to turn. And I wouldn't want to have to have them all create g-ddamn Github account only so as to log into Discourse only so as to find Discourse is defunct only so as to have to write a reasoned plea in Connect.

Who takes the initiative to propose a simple change? Nobody. Two people -- the OP and @jscher2000  -- apparently are justifiably interested in what should be a fairly simple change. But there's nobody willing, and no semi-automatic facility here, to move the complaint into a proposal. And Mr. Scher, who spends a lot of (noble) volunteer time monitoring these forums, seems ill-equipped to understand the value and methods of escalation. And there's no easy way here to help him move things up the ladder. So they die.

There's a clear disconnect in the way Mozilla handles user concerns.

[Hondo]

I agree that the latest version is a downgrade. I'm also having issues with ads at the bottom of the page that open and I have to close them or they hide the content. There is no simple way to get support.

[jscher2000]

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@Hondo wrote:

I'm also having issues with ads at the bottom of the page that open and I have to close them or they hide the content.

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Do these seem to be ads that are part of the website, or ads that are getting injected into the website?

For ads that are part of a website, you could consider using an add-on to remove them. For example: uBlock Origin.

For ads that are NOT part of a website, it's possible that one of your add-ons is injecting them (malware-like behavior), or that external software is modifying pages on their way back to Firefox. Here's what you can try for that:

Extension Clean-up: Please refer to my suggested steps in reply to this support forum post: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1372843 

Malware Clean-up: Please refer to this support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware 

[Hondo]

I have tried the suggestions without any luck. In have notified the admin of the website and he is looking into the matter as he has had complaints from several other people. Why does Firefox/Mozilla make it so difficult to get help?

[jscher2000]

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@Hondo wrote:

Why does Firefox/Mozilla make it so difficult to get help?

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I'm not sure what you mean. Did you have difficulties finding or using the support site (menu button > Help > Get help)?

Mozilla doesn't have enough budget to offer telephone support.

[Hondo]

Go to support and try finding what you want. You get directed to the forums. That is not support. Or, you get asked to open the vpn which I don't have. There should be an option that says "support" that connects you with somebody who can help. Many people are having issues since the latest update with no apparent help available. I've used Firefox for a long time and never had an issue before.

[jscher2000]

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@Hondo wrote:

Go to support and try finding what you want. You get directed to the forums. That is not support. Or, you get asked to open the vpn which I don't have. There should be an option that says "support" that connects you with somebody who can help.

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The advantage of using a forum as an open ticketing system is the ease of getting different perspectives and usually quicker assistance. But I understand that many people will find it unfamiliar and maybe uncomfortable posting a question.

It sounds like you would rather see something like those popup "Live Help" things that other websites use. Because support is staffed by volunteers with unpredictable schedules, I don't know whether that is feasible, but if someone is available, perhaps they could take those questions.

[yvescarrier]

Last update ...Never seen that ... a version where my emails are not functional ... all the tabs crash ... unheard of!! WORST EVER

[mikefen]

The same thing happens to me. I just quit user firefox. It gets worse with every update.